Vol. 75/No. 29      August 8, 2011

“Nobody has been brought to justice for the people killed in police custody in recent years,” Audrey Cotterell, who was on her first march, told the Militant. “This is not about color. Ordinary people can live side by side. But the police can do what they want and the courts cover them.”

According to police accounts reported in the Birmingham Mail July 4, Burrell, 29, had been arrested March 27 and detained under the Mental Health Act, after calling to report intimidation by a local gang. Authorities say that following a March 30 “disturbance” at the hospital where he was held, Burrell died of cardiac arrest.

Culture, 48, died of a stab wound March 15 while police were in his south London home to arrest him. Culture was a musician who had big sellers in the 1980s, including “Cockney Translation” and “Police Officer.” According to a Scotland Yard spokesman cited by the Guardian, “While they were at the address, an incident occurred during which a 48-year-old man died.” Investigators “are understood to be looking into whether the wound was self-inflicted,” the paper reported.

Fraser, 21, from London, was living temporarily in Birmingham, a condition of his bail. According to the June 14 Mail, Fraser was found by police seriously injured at the bottom of the apartment building where he lived, shortly after the cops visited the address reportedly to investigate an alleged breach by Fraser of curfew conditions. Fraser died shortly afterwards.

“It not clear how he had come to be at the foot of the tower block,” the Mail reported, but “one unconfirmed report said he may have fallen from the 11th floor.”

Family and friends of others who died in police custody joined the protest. Among them were the brother and sisters of Sean Rigg, who carried a banner demanding “Justice for Sean Rigg.” They told the Militant their brother died in police custody following his arrest in 2008.

Tippa Naphtali marched behind the banner “Friends of Mikey Powell.” His cousin Powell died while in police custody in Birmingham in 2003, Naphtali said. Caroline Bailey told the Militant that her son Michael Bailey, 23, was found hanged in his prison cell in 2005.

Inquest, an organization that investigates deaths in custody, says that 1,400 people died in England and Wales after contact with the police between 1990 and 2011—937 in police custody, 310 during pursuits, 109 in traffic accidents, and 52 in shootings.

In the 11 years up until 2011, the Independent Police Complaints Commission investigated 333 deaths in police custody. The IPCC, an official government body mistrusted by many working people, recommended that 24 cops be prosecuted. None was convicted.

The most publicized recent death at the hands of the police was Ian Tomlinson. On April 1, 2009, Tomlinson, 47, was walking home from work and crossed paths with a demonstration protesting the G20 summit in central London. According to the Guardian, Tomlinson died shortly after “being struck with a baton and pushed to the ground” by police officer Simon Harwood. The events were caught on video.

At first the director of public prosecutions refused to bring criminal charges against Harwood. In face of a public outcry, and after an inquest jury concluded Tomlinson had been unlawfully killed, Harwood was charged with manslaughter. He will stand trial in October.

Alex Xezonakis contributed to this article.  
 
 
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