BY TONY HUNT
LONDON - The death in police custody of 26-year-old
Wayne Douglas in the predominantly Black area of Brixton in
south London has outraged many working people. A peaceful
protest of 300, Black and white, took place in front of the
Brixton police station December 13. Two hours later riot
police attacked a crowd of 200 who had marched up main
street in Brixton from the original protest. The cops
blocked off most escape routes from the area before they
charged at protesters.
In the disturbances that followed as demonstrators tried to defend themselves from the vicious cop assault, a policeman and a businessman were seriously injured and hospitalized. A number of local shops were burned out and looted. Two young people reportedly suffered gun wounds.
The Evening Standard reported that the police actions included "carrying semi-automatic carbines and shotguns... as firearms were openly deployed for the first time in a riot in mainland Britain."
Douglas, a resident of a homeless hostel, was found unconscious in his cell at Brixton police station at about 3:30 a.m. on December 5. He was dead on arrival at the hospital. He had been arrested on a charge of aggravated burglary. The Metropolitan police claimed he died of a heart attack.
But area residents described a different story. One eyewitness told the Caribbean Times how Douglas threw down a knife he was carrying when confronted by the cops. "As soon as he did it, they all jumped on him," said the unnamed bystander. "They dragged him to the park and beat the s--- out of him. They murdered him. I could hear the guy screaming.... They were jumping on him, kicking him, hitting him with their batons."
Another account in The Voice said that "you could hear the sound of their batons on his bones." According to the Guardian, two witnesses gave statements to a local lawyer detailing the police assault.
This latest killing has thrown a spotlight on cop racism and brutality, and on the rise of deaths in police custody - especially of Blacks. Metropolitan police figures show that Blacks are five times more likely to be stopped and searched by cops.
A "complex social situation" was the reason for this, said Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Condon on December 14, as his officers swamped the Brixton area. Condon blamed "thugs and criminals" for the previous day's police riot. He also announced the police department is testing the waters for attacks on free speech. "We have established a criminal inquiry," he said, "not just into the criminal offenses on the streets but into the inflammatory nature of the speeches made outside the police station."
Rudy Narayan, one of the speakers and the principal target of the cop charge of "incitement to riot" responded. "There wasn't a problem until he marched on the Black people and assaulted them," he stated. Civil Rights UK, Narayan's organization, has called for the cops involved to be charged with murder.
Earlier in 1995, Condon had sparked outrage when he declared that most street crime in London is committed by Blacks.
On December 14, BBC television news detailed the upward trend in deaths under police custody. Thirty-one people died under the cops' eyes from 1991 to 1993, the report said. The same figure jumped to 48 for the 1994-95 period, of whom 25 died inside police stations.
The Independent on Sunday explained the statistics show "you are four times as likely to die in custody if you are Black."
The death of Wayne Douglas follows the killings in custody of Brian Douglas and Shiji Lapite earlier in 1995. In 1994, Richard O'Brien, an Irish man, died while being arrested by police officers in Walworth, just a few miles from Brixton. An inquest jury recently returned a verdict of "unlawful killing" on O'Brien's death.
Andy Morris, deputy chairman of the community organization Brixton City Challenge, said that the increased cop powers under the Criminal Justice Act meant "police can stop young people, Black and white, whenever they want.
"Young people around here are fed up with the way police handle them," he said.
After anti-police riots in 1981, the government initiated a program to "regenerate" Brixton. More than 200 million of "regeneration funding" has reportedly been spent so far. This has had minuscule impact on the abysmal living and job conditions and rampant discrimination facing Blacks, especially youth.
The average unemployment rate in Brixton is 17 percent. For Blacks in Brixton joblessness reaches 29 percent. Throughout London, Blacks between the ages of 16 and 24 are twice as likely to be out of work as whites of the same age.
A worker relaxing in a local bar told BBC, "They could put 1 billion into Brixton but it would make no difference unless they controlled the police."
"The police treat us like animals and they think they can always push us around," one area youth told the Evening Standard. "But we have now shown we are not going to tolerate this behavior any longer."