Vol. 76/No. 17      April 30, 2012

Duggan’s family continues to press for authorities to tell the truth about his killing, which sparked protests and riots in London and other cities last August.

The government’s Independent Police Complaints Commission announced at the end of March that a coroner’s inquest would be delayed until at least January 2013. It also said it has evidence that it would not disclose to an inquest, citing a law that bars evidence obtained from phone taps in court.

Authorities used the same pretext for refusing to hold an inquest into the 2005 killing of Azelle Rodney, who was shot eight times by police. A judge-led inquiry into his death, parts of which may be held behind closed doors, is scheduled for September this year.

Duggan was shot in Tottenham, North London, in a pre-planned operation by a special police unit, after they stopped a taxi he was riding in. The complaints commission initially claimed that there was an exchange of gunshots, but later admitted that only the police had fired.

All the cops involved in the incident have refused to be questioned by the commission unless they get “categorical assurances” they are not being viewed as possible suspects. “While they will want to cooperate, they also need to be able to control what is said,” Steve Evans, secretary of the Police Federation, told the Daily Mail.

Both the London Metropolitan Police and the Independent Police Complaints Commission have called for a change in law to allow phone taps to be presented in court, as have some liberal politicians, lawyers and charities.

This comes at a time when the government is proposing to set up secret courts to hear such “evidence,” sparking a debate in ruling class circles over whether or not aspects of these courts are “too broad.”

The family of Mark Duggan continues to press for the truth about his killing. He was “executed on the streets of London by the Metropolitan Police,” his aunt Carole Duggan told the BBC. “We definitely want an inquest to be held and we deserve one.”

In a related development, Gail Hadfield, the partner of Anthony Grainger who was killed by police March 3 in Culcheth near Manchester, is calling for the policeman responsible to be charged with murder.

Police investigating a robbery in mid-February shot Grainger once with a submachine gun while he was sitting in a parked car. According to the Manchester Evening News, he was shot when he failed to obey a police order to put his hands in the air. Sixteen armed cops were part of the operation.
 
 
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