Some Recent Anniversaries

Olaseni Lewis

Recently, we have reached some crucial and tragic anniversaries:  

100 Years Since the Destruction of Black Wall Street.  

66 Years Since the Murder of Emmett Till.  July would have marked his 80th birthday.  

Meanwhile, this horrific roll call continues:  

 

Deaths of Olaseni Lewis and Sean Rigg.  Olaseni died in the UK in 2010, the same way as George Floyd, begging police officers to let him breathe.  Sean Rigg also died in London, in 2008.  

Go here for my show in which we asked:  Do Black Lives Really Matter? 

28 years since the death of Joy Gardner in London, UK.  

And these deaths keeps rolling on, on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Cressida Dick, Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police, states that "no one is above the law".  Really?  Really, Cressida? 

According to Wikipedia, Cressida Dick held senior roles in the force's diversity directorate, in anti-gang and anti-gun crime operations, and in counterterrorism operations before becoming Commissioner.  She was a Met Police officer at the time of the death of Joy Gardner.  The documentary-maker Ken Fero called for her resignation with regard to the death of Joy Gardner. 

We live in a world in which MP Dawn Butler was racially profiled and stopped by the police because they thought her car was registered outside London (which has yet to be made a criminal offence).   

We live in a world in which a Black mother states that it is "not hunting season" on Black people (again - really?).  

Last year (2020), a Metropolitan Police Officer was the subject of a criminal investigation after kneeling on Marcus Coutain's neck during a stop-and-search operation.  The officer will not face charges, nor will he face disciplinary action.  

Yet, as reported in the Guardian,  Cressida Dick has said that the Met has transformed and is no longer institutionally racist.  (Say it with me:  really, Cressida?  Really????)

We need to realise and understand that this is not just a problem in the U.S.  This is not just an American problem.  Black deaths in police custody are happening all over the world.  Black men, women and children are dying in police custody and those responsible are not facing justice.  

We MUST find solutions.  Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is one such solution.  

I have blogged about this issue many times, and I shall continue to do so.  Our communities need to be armed with the skills of NVC, which can help to PREVENT these types of crimes.  

Go her for more Black history blogs.  

Go here for Zhana's conversation with Ken Fero, the director of Injustice. 

Go here for Nonviolence and NVC Resources.  

What do you think is a possible solution?  Please comment below and please share.  Thanks.  

Go here for my show in which we asked:  Do Black Lives Really Matter?  

 

Let's Talk with Iyanla Vanzant

Iyanla Vanzant is talking today about the recent killing of George Floyd and the demonstrations and unrest resulting from the killing.

We are going to be discussing this on my Blogtalk radio show this Saturday:  Success Strategies with Zhana:  How Can We Create a Peaceful World?

Iyanla does not mention the recent killing of Breonna Taylor, a young woman in Louisville, KY who was also killed by the police.  We need to bear Breonna Taylor in mind as well. 

Iyanla is saying there is a lot of male energy around at the moment, and Black men need to get in touch with their feelings.  And this is absolutely true.  It can be hard sometimes for us as Black women to get in touch with our feelings, and its even harder for Black men to do so.  If you are feeling angry, if you are feeling sad, if you are feeling despair, whatever we are feeling, it's important to stay in touch with our feelings and emotions.  

And, of course, NVC is based on empathy, i.e. connecting with our feelings and needs.  Empathy is at the heart of NVC. 

We will be discussing this on my Success Strategies radio show this Saturday, so please tune in.  We look forward to seeing you there.  

Go here for more wisdom from Iyanla Vanzant.  

And go here to download Treasures of the Geniuses of Transformation, which contains even more wisdom from Iyanla Vanzant.  

Please share this with your networks and please comment below.  Thanks. 

Black Lives Matter: Death of Kevin Clarke

Did you know – it was reported Monday that Kevin Clarke, a young Black man, died in police custody in Catford, Southeast London after being detained by NINE police officers. 

Clarke had mental health problems.

One more reason Why I Am Committed to Nonviolence.

See also: Rashan Charles's Death.

Please leave your comments below, and please share this with your networks.  Thanks. 

Rashan Charles's Death

Another Black man, Rashan Charles, has died in suspicious circumstances involving the police  I wish I could say I am even a little surprised.  I really do.  

There was a mostly peaceful protest in Hackney, East London, last night, near where Rashan's death occurred.  But the local community are understandably angry. 

We MUST change this narrative.  And we can.  

What will you share with the Blogging Carnival for Nonviolence 2017? 

See also:  How Violence Affects the Black Community.  

See also:  590 Deaths in Police Custody.  
 

War on the Black Community?

Militarised Police - Does This Reassure You? 

Listen below to this blog post.  Please also check out the links below.

I believe the Black community, and Black communities around the world, are under attack and have been for many years. That is my opinion. And I want to know what you think. So please add your comments below after you have listened to this post. 

When our Black communities are thriving and prospering, every community will thrive and prosper.  Everyone will benefit.  Listen below for more.  Please leave your comments below and please share this with your networks. 

We need to use PRACTICAL solutions to bring about positive change and transformation.  

Check Out Books Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Zhana21 on BlogTalkRadio

Success Strategies for Black People 

What They Don't Want Us to Know 

More about What They Don't Want Us to Know

Why We Need to Heal 

590 Black Deaths in Police Custody 

Cancer Journals  

The Blogging Carnival for Nonviolence  

Anonymous Says Sandra Bland Was Murdered. 

 

590 Black Deaths in Police Custody

Marcia Rigg Protest about the Death of Sean Rigg, London

Check out my previous blog posts:  Protecting Our Communities

We Need Solutions That Work. 

According to this article, 590 Black people in the UK have died in police custody.

This article fails to mention that some of the 500 people killed by the police, with impunity, were women. Some were disabled. Some were probably both. 

Call their names:  Cynthia Jarrett, Joy Gardner.   

Also, Cherry Groce was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life after being shot by the police in London.

This post appears to be pitting disadvantaged groups against each other. We need to stand together. I am Black, a woman and disabled. I have a problem with the way this site has posed the question, “If it was 590 women or 590 wheelchair users, would there be a national outcry?”.

All deaths in police custody need to be highlighted, awareness needs to be raised, but racism is something that affects Black people in every area of our lives, whether or not we are women or disabled. We need to keep highlighting this. 

These are just some of the many reasons why I am hosting the Blogging Carnival for Nonviolence 2015.   

Plus check out this blog from Naturally Moi:  The Woman Who Filmed the Eric Garner Killing Is Suing the NYPD.   

Please leave your comments below.  And please share this with your networks.  Thanks. 

Arrests in Eric Garner Protest, London

76 people were arrested yesterday in a "die-in" protest outside Westfield Shopping Centre in London.  They were protesting about the outcome of the Eric Garner enquiry.  Yes, a police officer has killed a Black person and got away with it - yet again. Click here to read more. 

Check out my blog post:  We Need Solutions that Work. 

People in London are aware that this impacts on us - this issue affects Black communities on both sides of the Atlantic.

Black Success: We Need Solutions that Work

Trayvon's funeral

Listen below for my audio, "We Need Solutions That Work".  

I am tired of having my heart broken. 

I am tired of hearing about our Black men, boys, women and girls being killed by the authorities.  I'm sure you are, too. This stuff is happening on both sides of the Atlantic.

I watched the films I talked about in my recent blog on Deaths in Police Custody and I despaired.  

Listen here for more. Then check out Success Strategies for Black People.

Click here for more Black Success audios.

Please share this with your networks, and please comment below. 

 

Check Out Books Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Zhana21 on BlogTalkRadio

Filmmaker Ken Fero on Deaths in Police Custody

Joy Gardner

There's a reason why everyone in my neighbourhood in South London knows who Trayvon Martin was.

A few months ago, a local public meeting was held. The posters all featured a photo of Trayvon. No caption, no explanation. But everyone in this area knows that similar things happen here.

I know Trayvon was not killed by the police, but his killing was sanctioned by the courts.

BFI London South Bank recently held a day on deaths in police custody, as part of the African Odysseys ongoing film series.

Filmmaker Ken Fero, director of numerous documentaries including the multi-award-winning Injustice, spoke in the morning and screened clips from his films. In the afternoon, two of those films were screened.

Injustice chronicles the fight for justice of seven families whose members died in police custody. None of the police officers involved in these killings have been prosecuted or disciplined. Six of the families are Black (African Caribbean), the seventh is Irish. An Irishman was gunned down as he walked through Brixton carrying a wooden table leg. The police stated they thought he was armed with a gun.

All of these families are still continuing to fight for justice.

Injustice has never been shown on UK television. When it was first released in 2001, every time it was due to be shown in cinemas, the police would phone the cinema about 15 minutes before the screening was due to start, threatening legal action. They claimed the film “might be libellous”.

Ken Fero, filmmaker

However, as Fero explained at the BFI, the audience inevitably contained someone who owned a business or ran a community centre or another venue. So the audience would decamp down the street, and the film would be screened.

Like a lot of people, I was very keen to see the film, and I saw it in a barbershop in South London. All I can say is, if you haven't seen Injustice, you need to see it.

Fero has made many other films about human rights abuses committed in Britain and other European countries, notably Germany and France. It was, frankly, disturbing to hear him say how many times he has filmed some of the same families. For example, the family of Joy Gardner, a Jamaican citizen who died in police custody in 1993.

Joy Gardner suffocated whilst in police restraints. The press labelled her an illegal immigrant and, as Fero pointed out, ignored the fact that other labels could equally be applied to her. Like “student” and “mother”.

He also said that, between 2001 and 2011, another 1,000 people died in police custody. This is an escalation, as more than 1,000 deaths in police custody had occurred in the previous 30 years.

Fero said he makes these films in order to inspire people and educate them about how to take action. He told me that he doesn't want to continue to make these films but, as I am sure he would agree, it is vital that he does.

And while we are collectively mourning Michael Brown, Eric Garner and all the others, we are aware that these things also happen here.

Please join us for the International Summit on Nonviolence today.

See also: Deaths in Police Custody.

President Obama on the Ferguson Situation

"Hands Up Don't Shoot" Protest at Howard University

President Obama's statement last night on the situation in Ferguson was largely a recap - albeit with more brevity - of what the Attorney General Eric Holder had already said in his press conference earlier.

The local FBI in Ferguson are conducting an independent investigation into the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.  The Justice Department are also conducting an investigation, in which they are co-operating with the FBI.

Over 200 witness statements have already been taken, and more are continuing to be taken.  (Does this mean Michael Brown was shot in front of more than 200 witnesses?  Maybe this is not what they mean by "witness statements".)  

Crucially, the President mentioned that "too many Black men are being left behind" and spoke about the importance of addressing and including cities and communities that have been left behind.  

The President also explained that he would not, himself, be going to Ferguson, because the investigations have to be seen to be independent.  However, the Attorney General will visit Ferguson tomorrow.   

Meanwhile, violence, shooting and rioting continue in Ferguson and in St. Louis, Mo.  The National Guard has been called out.  Now they are using teargas.  It's as if everyone is going crazy.

Inflict enough racist violence on people and they WILL go crazy.

The thing is, we always react to these things AFTER THE FACT.  These conditions have existed for many years. 

There have been peaceful protests in NYC, LA and San Francisco.  Check out my blog: "Hands Up Don't Shoot Protest in NYC". 

There was a protest in London as well, in front of the U.S Embassy, but, like many people, I did not find out about it until after the fact.

One result of people and communities being left behind is that our people are being killed.  Black people are being killed by the police and nobody is being held accountable.  When are they going to stop killing our young people?

Check it out:  Deaths in Police Custody.

Check out this very interesting article by Paul B. Raushenbush at the Huffington Post:  What White People Can Do about the Killing of Black Men in America.  But they're not just men and it's not just in America. 

Click here for the Blogging Carnival for Nonviolence.  We MUST end the violence.

Death of Smiley Culture

Those of us who are old enough can recall the death of Colin Roach. In 1983, a Black man felt suicidal, so he went to his local police station in East London, stuck a shotgun in his mouth and blew his brains out.

Of course, if one should feel inclined take one's own life, one would automatically head to the local police station to do so. It's natural, isn't it?

According to Wikipedia, the gun with which Roach was killed could not fit into his bag, and the position of his body was inconsistent with suicide.

Those of us who are old enough can recall the death of Steve Biko, a freedom fighter and founder of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa. He died in a prison cell in 1977. The coroner ruled that he had committed suicide by banging his head repeatedly against the wall of the cell. Of course, that is the preferred, highy popular and effetive method of committing suicide.

No one was ever prosecuted for Biko's death because, although it was proved that he had been subjected to beatings and torture which caused severe head injuries, there were no witnesses to his treatment - at least, none who would testify.

Smiley Culture is one of the latest and highest-profile suspicious deaths of a Black person in police custody. Click here to watch a recent press conference about Smiley Culture's death.

Lest we think this problem affects the brothas alone, let us recall the name of Joy Gardner. Joy Gardner was a sista from Jamaica who died in London in 1993. Surrounded by police officers in her flat, it was claimed that she removed her t-shirt in order to confuse the officers (because that is what you do, right?).

Charged with overstaying her visa, Gardner was put in restraint, whence she died.

Let us recall the name of Cynthia Jarrett, an African Caribbean sista who died when police entered and searched her home in Tottenham, North London following the arrest of her son, allegedly for having an out-of-date tax disc. Her death later sparked a riot on the Broadwater Farm Estate in Tottenham.

See also: Black People 26 Times More Likely to Be Stopped by The Police.

Even Matthew Wright has stated that when a white person is killed by the police, it is front page news, but when it's a Black person, we don't hear about it again.

(When a white journalist says this, you know it must be obvious.)

It is time to put an end to this killing of Black men and women. Let us recall them and let us call their names. Let their names be remembered.

But most importantly, we must put an end to this roll call of death. It is time for Black lives to be treated as just as valuable and precious as anyone else's life. Justice must prevail.

Ending the Violence through a Creative Response

This is a continuation of my previous blogs,

Ending the Violence
No to Pre-Trial Electrocutions
Police Officers Accused of 60 Other Assaults

I was in Brixton town centre a couple of days ago when I noticed that, outside Brixton police station, a tree has been dedicated as a memorial to a young African Caribbean man, Sean Riggs, who died in police custody.

With all the recent media feeding frenzy around the allegations of assaults by police officers at the G20 demonstrations, there has been no mention of this young man's death. I have seen no connections made between the G20 incidents and the ongoing assaults on African people by the police.

According to information posted on the tree memorial, there were two cameras present when Riggs died, but neither was working. That is the official line. Judge for yourself how believable that is.

Our young people need to carry cameras all the time as a way of protecting themselves from police violence. This is one important lesson to be learned from the incidents that took place at the G20 demos. But once in police custody, use of cameras will often not be possible.

Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is one of the most effective methods of countering violence. For more about this, see

Ending the Violence
Improving Relationships/Improving Communication
Nonviolent Communication

NVC is used to transform situations, including cases of extreme violence. It is not the same as passive resistance, it is a creative response.

I hope you will join my course in London in October and find out how you can use NVC in your own life.

We really can transform this situation and create a better future.

Below is an excerpt from "A Duty Of Remembrance", by Toyin Agbetu, taken from Nyansapo: The African Drum.

What I like most about this piece is that Toyin is bringing in the spiritual dimension, talking about revering the ancestors.

We need to have an awareness of the problem. But it is far more vital to focus on solutions.

A Duty Of Remembrance

Greetings, I was recently reading trough a book that was sent to me called Again We’ll Rise by BJ Gilwards. Inside it were a collection of inspiring quotations and statements from African people spanning millennia. It made me think hard about many of the wisdom's we have forgotten, the legacies from our history, the good and the bad, the gains and also the losses.

During January 1999, a gang of eight officers from the British Police Force brutally restrained a young man named Roger Sylvester. In describing their actions the police lied claiming Roger was violent. However contrary to their statements Roger was seen being dragged limp, naked and handcuffed into a police van by several witnesses. Roger, a council worker stopped breathing and fell into a coma at the emergency psychiatric unit at St Anne's Hospital, Haringey. Six police officers had pinned him down on the floor for about 20 minutes.

Ben Bersabel, a nurse on duty at the time of the assault said he had noticed Roger was being held down on his front and calling out for a doctor. The police ignored Rogers’s pleas for help and as a direct result of their actions he suffered heart and kidney failure, severe brain damage and bruising to his body. Roger, 30 was a mental health service user. He died six days later at the Whittington Hospital.

Roger’s family made several complaints about the abusive actions of the officers. This led to an investigation carried out by Essex Police under the supervision of the racist Police Complaints Authority (PCA) but to no avail. When the discredited PCA was abandoned it was replaced with the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) which now has overall responsibility for the police complaints system. It is important to note that the British tactic of rebranding old as new is common and even the Metropolitan Police Force has formally changed its name to the Police ‘Service’ in an attempt to soften its brutish image.

Now for many years Roger’s family were denied justice, the British media in an attempt to exonerate the police deliberately mislead the public by reporting state fabrications. A typical story was that published by the BBC with the headline ‘Detained man's drug delirium’.

… But then after several years of campaigning the family achieved a breakthrough. On 3 October 2003, an inquest jury returned a unanimous verdict and ruled that Roger had been unlawfully killed. In a just ‘civilised’ society the six police officers should have faced murder or at the very least, manslaughter charges for their ‘unlawful killing’ but instead in 2004, a high court judge formally quashed the verdict allowing the police force to once again escape justice after killing innocent Africans.

… So what is the solution? How do we as a community achieve justice, reparation and ultimately Maat for atrocities committed against our Ancestors? Well the first thing we must do is respect the ritual of remembrance and hold a memorial or commemoration for them every year without fail. For this act to be progressive it must not only be carried out for the victims of Maafa but also the survivors and heroes.

… You see we need African Remembrance at the very least, once a year. Our own right to dignity demands we collectively remember their names especially in circumstances where the loss has been both tragic and traumatic instead of worshipping those ‘celebrities’ and role muddles the government and its media promotes as ‘black’ British or American idols.

So to those who have passed and whose names we rarely call, please know that not all your children have forgotten your sacrifice. And in remembrance to those of you who are also still with us, I want to thank you, from brother Colin, Aiah Menjor and Milton Hanson to sista Ama Sumani and Elder Rosie Purves, there are so many of you out there who I want to thank for doing the work, and those of you who silently support them, you know who you are. In the meantime I have written to the IPCC making an Freedom of Information (FOI) request for the details of all the cases involving African people who have died in custody that Freddy Patel has been involved in and may have covered up. If we don’t do think this work important, then who will?

Taken from Nyansapo - The Pan African Drum
Toyin Agbetu is a writer, film director, poet, and founder of Ligali, the pan African human rights based organisation.
To subscribe to this free newsletter, Nyansapo the Pan African Drum, contact Ligali http://www.ligali.org/index.php

No to Pre-Trial Electrocutions

Congratulations to my fellow AfroSpear members for organising another Day of Blogging for Justice to raise awareness about the use of tasers against Black men, women and children.

Click here to read my post on the previous Day of Blogging for Justice against tasing.

It is a travesty that another such event is needed. Tasing is also being referred to as "pre-trial electrocution" and rightly so.

Here are some more of today's blogs:

TNT Truth Not Tasers

AfroSpear Blog

Here in London, attacks by the police are much in the news at the moment, following the demonstrations around the G20 a couple of weeks ago. Three people have been named as victims of police attacks, one of whom, Ian Tomlinson, is now dead. Films of the incident suggest that Tomlinson was minding his own business, watching the demo from the sidelines, when attacked from behind by a police officer. He collapsed, and died shortly thereafter.

It has been decided that a third inquest into Tomlinson's death will be carried out, as the findings of the first two contradicted each other.

The day after Tomlinson's death, a woman protester was struck by a police officer.

I note that (1) both of these protesters were white, (2) both incidents were filmed. In the case of the attack on Tomlinson, several different cameras in different positions recorded the incident.

And (3) none of the alleged attacks involved the use of tasers. In other words, London's Metropolitan Police are capable of doing plenty of damage without deploying tasers. Tasers are rarely used in the UK at present, but once their use becomes widespread, the situation will only worsen.

Given the current state of the economy, with an increase in employment being forecast, many are predicting an increase in civil unrest. So lots more opportunities for the police to use heavy-handed tactics.

I will be blogging more about this soon, but I wanted to post this today in support of the Day of Justice.

Black people have been saying for many years that the policing of our communities is often brutal and violent. When Black people die in police custody, no one is ever prosecuted or deemed to have acted unlawfully or inappropriately.

As I said recently in Police Officers Accused of 60 Other Assaults, African young people and adults need to be carrying cameras and/or camera phones at all times in order to record these incidents. However, I add that, once a brotha or sista is inside a police cell, he or she has no opportunity to use a camera, and no guarantee that the cameras in place are in working order or contain film. Again, I will blog more about this soon.

Again, all credit to the sistas and brothas of the AfroSpear for keeping the issue of tasing in the forefront of our minds.