source: Ken Fero: Migrant Media
published: 9 September 2023
Image Credit Simon Howden at www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The British media went into overdrive last year to mourn the death of Queen Elizabeth II. We were subjected to 24/7 reporting led by the BBC lamenting this ‘loss’ and urging the people of the UK, the Commonwealth and even the world to mourn the death of someone who, to some of us, was a symbol of white supremacy and is the head of a police force that kills with impunity.
Just two days before the death of this nonagenarian a young black man, Chris Kaba, was executed by officers of the Metropolitan Police force. On the 5th September 24 year old Mr Kaba, a musician who was expecting his first child, was shot dead by armed police officers in South London. A family went into mourning. A child will never know their father.
The British media did not afford Mr Kaba, or his family, the same respect or the same resources that it would unleash for their departed Queen, who died a lot more peacefully, three days later. Instead sections of the media went into the usual overdrive, questioning Mr Kaba’s past as they do in every case of this nature. What we saw was the tactic of ‘blaming the victim’, a deflective technique used by media that Edward Said outlined so brilliantly when writing about how Palestinians are blamed for their own death at the hands of the Israeli armed forces to justify their own violence.
How fast was Mr Kaba driving? Did he have a gun or not? (He didn’t.) How violent were the lyrics of his music? These highly speculative questions were designed to do one thing alone in our minds, deflect the violence away from the officer that pulled the trigger and try to justify the actions of the state.
The family of Mr Kaba continue to undertake a long and tortuous journey within the British judicial system as they seek answers and justice. They may get the first but the second is more elusive. Out of more than two thousand deaths at the hands/in the care of the police since the first recorded policing death of David Oluwale there have only been three successful prosecutions of police officers for these killings, those of Henry Foley, Dalian Atkinson and Sarah Everard. This means that the family of Chris Kaba only have a 0.15% chance of success, but of course they will not give up as the many hundreds of families whose loved ones have died in police hands have shown through endless individual and joint campaigns over the last 40 years.
Ken Fero said; “On Saturday 28 October I will be marching with the United Families & Friends Campaign (UFFC) for their annual procession from Trafalgar Square to Downing Street to hand in their demands to the Prime Minster. This is the 25th year that we have marched and it has become clear that demanding justice from the state is ineffectual. Of course it must continue as the struggle of the suffragette movement continued, as the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa continued, but there also needs to be new strategies. This is why a group of organisations that includes UFFC, Migrant Media, Black Lives Matter and 4WardEverUK have come together to announce the People’s Tribunal on Police Killings.”
“May this Tribunal prevent the crime of silence” declared Lord Bertrand Russell to define the spirit and the objective of the International War Crimes Tribunal constituted in 1966 to investigate crimes committed in Vietnam and judge them according to international law. Initiated by Lord Russell it was supported by eminent intellectuals such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Lelio Basso, Guenther Anders, James Baldwin, Simone de Beauvoir, Stokely Carmichael, Isaac Deutscher, Gisèle Halimi and others. It was named the Russell Tribunal. It is in this spirit that the People’s Tribunal on Police Killings will have its first session in the UK in 2023.
The Tribunal will focus on the crimes of murder and manslaughter committed by serving police officers in the UK. The lack of justice in these cases, the flouting of the law and the systemic nature of the crime and the impunity offered to police officers has proved that failure of State officials to ensure the basic right to life is made worse by the failure of the State to prosecute those responsible for deaths at the hands of the police. The failure to successfully prosecute the police officers responsible for these deaths has sent the message that the State can act with impunity.
The People’s Tribunal will act as a court of the people, a Tribunal of conscience, faced with injustices and violations of law, that are recognised but continue with complete impunity due to the lack of political will of successive UK governments. The Tribunal will call an international panel from outside the UK to examine the evidence collated from cases covering three decades of crime and impunity in terms of police violence that has led to death.
It will also;
- Highlight the issue of racist police violence as it impacts citizens
- Identify all the failings in the implementation of the right to life and will condemn all the parties responsible for these failings, in full view of international public opinion
- Take the collated evidence and findings of the international panel forward in order to meet the demands of justice by the families of the dead
These will form the basis of class actions by the families of the victims of police violence. The Tribunal will be the most important action around police killings this country has ever seen inspired by Malcolm X who said: “If you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they’ll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action.”
Ken Fero is a filmmaker and activist. His latest film ‘Ultraviolence’ is here www.vimeo.com/migrantmedia/ultraviolence
Volunteers are needed for the PT as researchers, media & communications and logistics. Please contact us via email here: tribunalpeoples@gmail.com
The People's Tribunal on Police Killings 