March for Justice for Smiley Culture - next Saturday

The concerns about the strange death of Reggae Star Smiley Culture (David Emmanuel), who died on March 15, aged 48, allegedly from self-inflicted stab wounds during a police drugs raid have not gone away. We are told that this was a serious drugs raid and that Smiley was facing serious drug charges but this was a person with NO criminal conviction for drugs and the only witnesses were the four policemen in his home with him. The questions are not going away and his family and community want answers - This is not an isolated incident; no fewer than 104 black and ethnic minority people have died in police custody in the past 16 years. There has NEVER, I repeat NEVER been a conviction of a Police Officer for murder in relation to a death in Police Custody in England.


Scotland Yard

The campaign for Justice for Smiley Culture is keeping up the pressure for real answers with a demonstration next Saturday.

Saturday 16 April, Assemble 12 noon

Southbank Club, 124-130 Wandsworth Road, London SW8 2DL.


The Campaign for Justice for Smiley Culture has called a demonstration to New Scotland Yard on Saturday, 16 April. It has received massive support from communities around the country, and has the potential to be very big.



The families and supporters of many of those who have died in police custody will be marching. We should also bring along others who have suffered brutality at the hands of police, whether through racist stop and search or being beaten up on a student demonstration. United we can bring change.

Over the next week we can spread the word through our campaign and community groups. Let's make this a march that the police can't ignore.



Join the Facebook group for the Campaign for Justice for Smiley Culture.

www.facebook.com/Campaign4Justice4SmileyCulture

For the background to the unexplained death of Smiley Culture in Police Custody see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/03/strange-case-of-smiley-culture.html

March for Justice for Smiley Culture - next Saturday

The concerns about the strange death of Reggae Star Smiley Culture (David Emmanuel), who died on March 15, aged 48, allegedly from self-inflicted stab wounds during a police drugs raid have not gone away. We are told that this was a serious drugs raid and that Smiley was facing serious drug charges but this was a person with NO criminal conviction for drugs and the only witnesses were the four policemen in his home with him. The questions are not going away and his family and community want answers - This is not an isolated incident; no fewer than 104 black and ethnic minority people have died in police custody in the past 16 years. There has NEVER, I repeat NEVER been a conviction of a Police Officer for murder in relation to a death in Police Custody in England.


Scotland Yard

The campaign for Justice for Smiley Culture is keeping up the pressure for real answers with a demonstration next Saturday.

Saturday 16 April, Assemble 12 noon

Southbank Club, 124-130 Wandsworth Road, London SW8 2DL.


The Campaign for Justice for Smiley Culture has called a demonstration to New Scotland Yard on Saturday, 16 April. It has received massive support from communities around the country, and has the potential to be very big.



The families and supporters of many of those who have died in police custody will be marching. We should also bring along others who have suffered brutality at the hands of police, whether through racist stop and search or being beaten up on a student demonstration. United we can bring change.

Over the next week we can spread the word through our campaign and community groups. Let's make this a march that the police can't ignore.



Join the Facebook group for the Campaign for Justice for Smiley Culture.

www.facebook.com/Campaign4Justice4SmileyCulture

For the background to the unexplained death of Smiley Culture in Police Custody see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/03/strange-case-of-smiley-culture.html

Sean Rigg – still no answers?

Sean Rigg, 1968 - 2008

As I have pointed out before despite over 1,000 people dying in police custody or due to police action since the late 1960s if the police officer who the DPP recently said had assaulted Ian Tomlinson was charged with manslaughter it would have been the first time this has ever happened in Britain. Ask yourself the simple question - what is the statistical possibility that these over 1,000 human beings who died in police custody or as a result of police action were all killed lawfully? They include Blair Peach killed (according to the police’s own investigation) by a TSG member at an anti-racism demonstration in 1979, Jean Charles de Menezes shot with 3 bullets in the brain 5 years ago, Sean Rigg and Joy Gardiner who died in police stations and Harry Stanley, 46, from Hackney, East London, was shot in the head and the hand by the Met officers in 1999 carrying a chair leg in a plastic bag which the two officers thought was a sawn-off shot gun.

The family of Sean Rigg who died in custody in Brixton Police, London on the 21st August 2008 are still looking for answers and accountability from the Police who we pay from our taxes to protect us, not to kill us. I reprint in full the invitation from the United Campaign against Police Violence (join them on Facebook) to a vigil to commemorate the second anniversary of his death.


Brixton Police Station

SEAN RIGG 1968-2008 - Second year memorial vigil and meeting this Saturday
21 August 2010:

Second Year Memorial Vigil Outside Brixton Police Station 5pm

Followed by a Public Meeting 6-8.30pm

The Karibu Education Centre, 7 Gresham Road, Brixton, London SW9 7PH.
(Directly opposite Brixton Police Station on Gresham Road)

On 21 August 2008, our brother Sean Rigg was arrested by police, “restrained” and transported to Brixton police station in the back of a van. He was removed from the van in a collapsed state and died a short while after whilst in the station yard. He never entered the custody suite door.

The events leading to his death raise suspicion and concern. Although a mental health service user, Sean was fit and healthy with no illicit drugs or alcohol found in his body at the time of his death. The Independent Police Complaints Commission's (IPCC) report completed in February 2010 is, in the family’s opinion, “Heavily biased in favour of the police”, despite the obvious suspicious circumstances surrounding Sean’s death. A catalogue of errors in the investigation has caused the family to lose faith in the British judicial process following a DEATH IN CUSTODY.

For two years the family have vigorously enquired and campaigned in an attempt to find out the truth of what really happened on the night. Currently the family’s legal team are preparing for the inquest, scheduled for 2012.

Justice and Change will be hosting an open floor discussion where they and other families will talk about their experiences of injustice. The family campaigns include Christopher Alder, Brian Douglas, Roger Sylvester, Ian Tomlinson, Blair Peach and Jean Charles de Menezes amongst others, who have lost loved one’s in police custody – all have lost faith in the British Judicial System. What has really changed in the last 30 years?

Come listen and discuss your views about the controversial topic of DEATHS IN CUSTODY and the lack of accountability.

Other supportive death in custody campaign organisations, such as INQUEST, Newham Monitoring Project (NMP), Black Mental Health UK (BMH UK) and United Campaign Against Police Violence (UCAPV), will speak about the current issues and explore what can be done do to bring about awareness and change.



Family solicitor Anna Mazzola said: “It is now two years since Sean died and his family are no closer to getting answers to fundamental questions such as: why didn’t the police and NHS Trust respond to pleas for help from Sean’s mental health hospital? What happened to Sean in those crucial minutes between him being arrested and arriving in a collapsed state at Brixton police station? Why haven’t they been able to access key CCTV footage from the night? It is devastating for the family that they should have to wait until 2012 for a full inquest and deeply worrying that until that time the policies and failings which led to Sean’s death will remain unremedied.”

Deborah Coles of Inquest said: “Sean’s family’s disquiet about the lack of impartiality and independence of the investigation process and the serious delay in holding an inquest have once again resulted in a lack of confidence in the investigation mechanisms following deaths involving the police. The recent decision not to prosecute anyone in relation to the death of Ian Tomlinson follows a litany of cases where the police have not been held to account for unlawful use of force and further anger and mistrust about how the state responds to such deaths.


Sean Rigg's family

“Sean Rigg was another black man who has died after being restrained by police officers. INQUEST’s monitoring of deaths in custody following police contact has highlighted how a disproportionate number of people from black and minority ethnic communities have died following the use of force. INQUEST will continue to work with his family and raise the serious issues his death raises at a parliamentary and policy level. There must be non means tested public funding for the family to be represented at the inquest in the same way that police lawyers will be paid for out of the public purse and the inquest must be held as promptly as possible given the serious family and public interest in scrutinising the events leading to the tragic death of a vulnerable man.”

Patrick Ward of United Campaign Against Police Violence, said: “The treatment of the family of Sean Rigg smacks of a justice system chasing its tail to cover up a scandal. Now the family are told to wait for the inquest in 2012, when no doubt the judicial system will seek other ways of proving its 'innocence'. We must unite at events like this to coordinate our continued campaign for justice for all those who have died at the hands of those who claim to protect us.”



The Campaign will also be hosting a private screening of the film “SUS” - a true and chilling account of one man's brush with the police in 1979 - written by Barrie Keefe who also wrote “The Long Good Friday”. Unfortunately due to limited seating, this will be by invitation only. However, SUS will be out on DVD 6 September. See the film’s website for upcoming screenings

www.susthemovie.com

Family Solicitor: Anna Mazzola, Hickman and Rose - amazzola@hickmanandrose.co.uk

See also;

Remember Sean Rigg

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/08/remember-sean-rigg.html

Death of Ian Tomlinson

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/07/ian-tomlinson.html

A death in London – Jean Charles de Menezes

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/death-in-london.html

For more on Policing and Civil Liberties issues see “Plod Blogs” in my Blog sidebar.

Sean Rigg – still no answers?

Sean Rigg, 1968 - 2008

As I have pointed out before despite over 1,000 people dying in police custody or due to police action since the late 1960s if the police officer who the DPP recently said had assaulted Ian Tomlinson was charged with manslaughter it would have been the first time this has ever happened in Britain. Ask yourself the simple question - what is the statistical possibility that these over 1,000 human beings who died in police custody or as a result of police action were all killed lawfully? They include Blair Peach killed (according to the police’s own investigation) by a TSG member at an anti-racism demonstration in 1979, Jean Charles de Menezes shot with 3 bullets in the brain 5 years ago, Sean Rigg and Joy Gardiner who died in police stations and Harry Stanley, 46, from Hackney, East London, was shot in the head and the hand by the Met officers in 1999 carrying a chair leg in a plastic bag which the two officers thought was a sawn-off shot gun.

The family of Sean Rigg who died in custody in Brixton Police, London on the 21st August 2008 are still looking for answers and accountability from the Police who we pay from our taxes to protect us, not to kill us. I reprint in full the invitation from the United Campaign against Police Violence (join them on Facebook) to a vigil to commemorate the second anniversary of his death.


Brixton Police Station

SEAN RIGG 1968-2008 - Second year memorial vigil and meeting this Saturday
21 August 2010:

Second Year Memorial Vigil Outside Brixton Police Station 5pm

Followed by a Public Meeting 6-8.30pm

The Karibu Education Centre, 7 Gresham Road, Brixton, London SW9 7PH.
(Directly opposite Brixton Police Station on Gresham Road)

On 21 August 2008, our brother Sean Rigg was arrested by police, “restrained” and transported to Brixton police station in the back of a van. He was removed from the van in a collapsed state and died a short while after whilst in the station yard. He never entered the custody suite door.

The events leading to his death raise suspicion and concern. Although a mental health service user, Sean was fit and healthy with no illicit drugs or alcohol found in his body at the time of his death. The Independent Police Complaints Commission's (IPCC) report completed in February 2010 is, in the family’s opinion, “Heavily biased in favour of the police”, despite the obvious suspicious circumstances surrounding Sean’s death. A catalogue of errors in the investigation has caused the family to lose faith in the British judicial process following a DEATH IN CUSTODY.

For two years the family have vigorously enquired and campaigned in an attempt to find out the truth of what really happened on the night. Currently the family’s legal team are preparing for the inquest, scheduled for 2012.

Justice and Change will be hosting an open floor discussion where they and other families will talk about their experiences of injustice. The family campaigns include Christopher Alder, Brian Douglas, Roger Sylvester, Ian Tomlinson, Blair Peach and Jean Charles de Menezes amongst others, who have lost loved one’s in police custody – all have lost faith in the British Judicial System. What has really changed in the last 30 years?

Come listen and discuss your views about the controversial topic of DEATHS IN CUSTODY and the lack of accountability.

Other supportive death in custody campaign organisations, such as INQUEST, Newham Monitoring Project (NMP), Black Mental Health UK (BMH UK) and United Campaign Against Police Violence (UCAPV), will speak about the current issues and explore what can be done do to bring about awareness and change.



Family solicitor Anna Mazzola said: “It is now two years since Sean died and his family are no closer to getting answers to fundamental questions such as: why didn’t the police and NHS Trust respond to pleas for help from Sean’s mental health hospital? What happened to Sean in those crucial minutes between him being arrested and arriving in a collapsed state at Brixton police station? Why haven’t they been able to access key CCTV footage from the night? It is devastating for the family that they should have to wait until 2012 for a full inquest and deeply worrying that until that time the policies and failings which led to Sean’s death will remain unremedied.”

Deborah Coles of Inquest said: “Sean’s family’s disquiet about the lack of impartiality and independence of the investigation process and the serious delay in holding an inquest have once again resulted in a lack of confidence in the investigation mechanisms following deaths involving the police. The recent decision not to prosecute anyone in relation to the death of Ian Tomlinson follows a litany of cases where the police have not been held to account for unlawful use of force and further anger and mistrust about how the state responds to such deaths.


Sean Rigg's family

“Sean Rigg was another black man who has died after being restrained by police officers. INQUEST’s monitoring of deaths in custody following police contact has highlighted how a disproportionate number of people from black and minority ethnic communities have died following the use of force. INQUEST will continue to work with his family and raise the serious issues his death raises at a parliamentary and policy level. There must be non means tested public funding for the family to be represented at the inquest in the same way that police lawyers will be paid for out of the public purse and the inquest must be held as promptly as possible given the serious family and public interest in scrutinising the events leading to the tragic death of a vulnerable man.”

Patrick Ward of United Campaign Against Police Violence, said: “The treatment of the family of Sean Rigg smacks of a justice system chasing its tail to cover up a scandal. Now the family are told to wait for the inquest in 2012, when no doubt the judicial system will seek other ways of proving its 'innocence'. We must unite at events like this to coordinate our continued campaign for justice for all those who have died at the hands of those who claim to protect us.”



The Campaign will also be hosting a private screening of the film “SUS” - a true and chilling account of one man's brush with the police in 1979 - written by Barrie Keefe who also wrote “The Long Good Friday”. Unfortunately due to limited seating, this will be by invitation only. However, SUS will be out on DVD 6 September. See the film’s website for upcoming screenings

www.susthemovie.com

Family Solicitor: Anna Mazzola, Hickman and Rose - amazzola@hickmanandrose.co.uk

See also;

Remember Sean Rigg

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/08/remember-sean-rigg.html

Death of Ian Tomlinson

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/07/ian-tomlinson.html

A death in London – Jean Charles de Menezes

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/09/death-in-london.html

For more on Policing and Civil Liberties issues see “Plod Blogs” in my Blog sidebar.

Remember Sean Rigg

Friday 21 August - assemble 5.30pm Junction of Fairmount Road and Brixton Hill, Brixton, London Rally at Brixton Police Station, SW9 7DD – Candlelight vigil

On 21 August 2008, at approximately 7.30pm, Sean Rigg was arrested and restrained by four Brixton police officers, placed in a van and driven to Brixton police station. Within approximately one hour of being arrested, Sean, a physically fit and healthy man, was dead. Since Sean’s death, his family have campaigned tirelessly for justice. But their commitment to seeing justice done has met with opposition from the supposedly Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), whose weak, flawed investigation seems immensely biased towards the police. The United Campaign against Police Violence fully supports this evening of remembrance, starting at the hostel at which Sean was staying to Brixton police station. We must ensure that justice is done, and that there are no more deaths in police custody. No justice – no peace!

What Sean Rigg needed, desperately, was help: urgent medical attention for his serious mental illness. What he got, instead, was restraint. He was taken into custody by police officers who failed to notice his illness. And within hours of being arrested, he was dead.

His grieving family pleaded with the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to discover how he died. Four months later, their questions still unanswered, they have accused the IPCC of failing to conduct a fair and independent investigation. The investigators have refused to take even the basic step of interviewing the officers involved.

The family says they have been denied access to information they believe would explain why Mr Rigg, a physically fit 40-year-old man, died so suddenly, despite investigators' pledges to be open. The family's MP, Sadiq Khan, a human rights lawyer, is to meet investigators on Tuesday to discuss his concerns about the case.



While Mr Rigg was physically well, he had a long-history of mental illness, and Brixton police had been involved in taking him to hospital on several occasions over the years. He lived in a supported hostel and was well known locally as a musician.
On 21 August last year Mr Rigg became disturbed after suffering a breakdown. Staff at his hostel made six 999 calls from around 5pm, asking for help in taking Mr Rigg to a place of safety. The police refused to attend.

Mr Rigg left the hostel in a disturbed state at 7pm and police approached him after a member of the public raised the alarm. Mr Rigg was restrained, handcuffed and arrested for a public order offence and alleged assault on a police officer. He was carrying his passport in his pocket at the time.

Mr Rigg arrived at Brixton police station in a van at 7.30pm but collapsed before he was transferred to the station. No one spotted that he was suffering from a mental illness or identified him as someone who had previously been detained under the Mental Health Act. A police surgeon and an ambulance attended, but he was pronounced dead at King's College Hospital at 9.24pm.



His family believe he was dead before he left Brixton police station. What exactly happened has proved impossible to establish independently. The family was told there was no CCTV inside the van, and crucial footage from the police station yard is missing. The existence of a camera which overlooked where he collapsed was acknowledged by police only after Mr Rigg's siblings insisted on looking around the station. Police now claim the camera had not worked since May 2008.

Anna Mazzola, of solicitor Hickman and Rose, acting for the Rigg family, said: "The IPCC only agreed to make the disappearance of the CCTV part of the terms of reference following repeated representations on behalf of the family. Despite the manner of Sean's death, the IPCC are refusing to treat the matter as a criminal investigation. Nearly four months after Sean's death, no statements have been taken from the officers involved and no explanation put forward as to what happened on the way to the station."

One of the family's complaints is that they were not informed of his death until almost six hours afterwards. They were not allowed to see his body for a further 36 hours.


Brixton Police Station

Samantha Rigg-David, Sean Rigg Justice and Change Campaign and sister of Sean Rigg, said: "Friday 21st August 2009 will be a year to the day since Sean died and we are still fighting for answers, answers that make sense. We have called for a robust and fair investigation, but still the IPCC continue to take the word, side and perspective of the police. “As a family it has been hard to grieve. Instead, we have had to campaign tirelessly and ask some very hard questions and almost conduct our own investigation into what happened to Sean on the night he died in Brixton police station. Our questions only raise yet more questions and lead us into further suspicion. “We can only continue in our quest for justice and hope that all those responsible for Sean's death, all those that failed him on that fateful day, will be called to account. These needless deaths need to stop, the police need to indeed work with us, the community, learn to treat us with the respect and care that we deserve in truly working together for 'a safer London' , not one where innocent people turn up 'dead' in the hands of the police."

Mr Rigg's death is one of 24 deaths in police custody last year. No fewer than 102 black and ethnic minority people have died in police custody in the past 16 years.

Remember Sean Rigg

Friday 21 August - assemble 5.30pm Junction of Fairmount Road and Brixton Hill, Brixton, London Rally at Brixton Police Station, SW9 7DD – Candlelight vigil

On 21 August 2008, at approximately 7.30pm, Sean Rigg was arrested and restrained by four Brixton police officers, placed in a van and driven to Brixton police station. Within approximately one hour of being arrested, Sean, a physically fit and healthy man, was dead. Since Sean’s death, his family have campaigned tirelessly for justice. But their commitment to seeing justice done has met with opposition from the supposedly Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), whose weak, flawed investigation seems immensely biased towards the police. The United Campaign against Police Violence fully supports this evening of remembrance, starting at the hostel at which Sean was staying to Brixton police station. We must ensure that justice is done, and that there are no more deaths in police custody. No justice – no peace!

What Sean Rigg needed, desperately, was help: urgent medical attention for his serious mental illness. What he got, instead, was restraint. He was taken into custody by police officers who failed to notice his illness. And within hours of being arrested, he was dead.

His grieving family pleaded with the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to discover how he died. Four months later, their questions still unanswered, they have accused the IPCC of failing to conduct a fair and independent investigation. The investigators have refused to take even the basic step of interviewing the officers involved.

The family says they have been denied access to information they believe would explain why Mr Rigg, a physically fit 40-year-old man, died so suddenly, despite investigators' pledges to be open. The family's MP, Sadiq Khan, a human rights lawyer, is to meet investigators on Tuesday to discuss his concerns about the case.



While Mr Rigg was physically well, he had a long-history of mental illness, and Brixton police had been involved in taking him to hospital on several occasions over the years. He lived in a supported hostel and was well known locally as a musician.
On 21 August last year Mr Rigg became disturbed after suffering a breakdown. Staff at his hostel made six 999 calls from around 5pm, asking for help in taking Mr Rigg to a place of safety. The police refused to attend.

Mr Rigg left the hostel in a disturbed state at 7pm and police approached him after a member of the public raised the alarm. Mr Rigg was restrained, handcuffed and arrested for a public order offence and alleged assault on a police officer. He was carrying his passport in his pocket at the time.

Mr Rigg arrived at Brixton police station in a van at 7.30pm but collapsed before he was transferred to the station. No one spotted that he was suffering from a mental illness or identified him as someone who had previously been detained under the Mental Health Act. A police surgeon and an ambulance attended, but he was pronounced dead at King's College Hospital at 9.24pm.



His family believe he was dead before he left Brixton police station. What exactly happened has proved impossible to establish independently. The family was told there was no CCTV inside the van, and crucial footage from the police station yard is missing. The existence of a camera which overlooked where he collapsed was acknowledged by police only after Mr Rigg's siblings insisted on looking around the station. Police now claim the camera had not worked since May 2008.

Anna Mazzola, of solicitor Hickman and Rose, acting for the Rigg family, said: "The IPCC only agreed to make the disappearance of the CCTV part of the terms of reference following repeated representations on behalf of the family. Despite the manner of Sean's death, the IPCC are refusing to treat the matter as a criminal investigation. Nearly four months after Sean's death, no statements have been taken from the officers involved and no explanation put forward as to what happened on the way to the station."

One of the family's complaints is that they were not informed of his death until almost six hours afterwards. They were not allowed to see his body for a further 36 hours.


Brixton Police Station

Samantha Rigg-David, Sean Rigg Justice and Change Campaign and sister of Sean Rigg, said: "Friday 21st August 2009 will be a year to the day since Sean died and we are still fighting for answers, answers that make sense. We have called for a robust and fair investigation, but still the IPCC continue to take the word, side and perspective of the police. “As a family it has been hard to grieve. Instead, we have had to campaign tirelessly and ask some very hard questions and almost conduct our own investigation into what happened to Sean on the night he died in Brixton police station. Our questions only raise yet more questions and lead us into further suspicion. “We can only continue in our quest for justice and hope that all those responsible for Sean's death, all those that failed him on that fateful day, will be called to account. These needless deaths need to stop, the police need to indeed work with us, the community, learn to treat us with the respect and care that we deserve in truly working together for 'a safer London' , not one where innocent people turn up 'dead' in the hands of the police."

Mr Rigg's death is one of 24 deaths in police custody last year. No fewer than 102 black and ethnic minority people have died in police custody in the past 16 years.