15 – 29 October 2024
Following firearms officer Martyn Blake’s acquittal just over a week ago of the murder of Chris Kaba, it did not take long for the home secretary to cave in to demands from the National Police Chiefs Council to rewrite the framework for the investigation and prosecution of police officers. Yvette Cooper’s proposed reforms follow the police script almost to the letter. A ‘presumption of anonymity for firearms officers subject to criminal trial following a police shooting … up to the point of conviction’ is proposed, along with a review of the charging threshold to make prosecution for on-duty actions harder. This after a year of outrage from firearms officers, who threatened to hand in their guns in protest at the CPS decision to prosecute Blake. The Police Federation also reacted angrily when the mental health charity Mind tweeted a message of support for people affected by Chris Kaba’s killing.
In a democracy, a firewall should exist between the legislators (who make the law), the courts (who interpret it) and the police (who enforce it). For at least fifty years, police chiefs have lobbied legislators to give them more powers. But now, we are entering new territory, as the NPCC and Met police chief Sir Mark Rowley seek to redefine the limits of police accountability by rewriting the law to grant, as INQUEST points out, ‘effective immunity’ to police officers who kill or maim. For the Justice for Chris Kaba campaign, this cannot be the legacy of yet another police shooting of a young Black man. Despite the Old Bailey verdict, and mindful that the inquest has yet to be heard, campaigners speak of their strengthened resolve, urging us all to unite around a vision of a ‘future where justice and accountability are the norm, and no one is above the law.’
This week’s calendar of racism and resistance also charts the police shooting of Odair Moniz in Portugal, and the shocking response from the far-right Chega party’s parliamentary leader, who said, ‘if the security forces shot more to kill, the country would have more order’.
The tragic deaths in the Channel covered in the calendar, including that of a four-month-old baby, are the result of parallel policies of deterrence and enforcement in Britain and France. Activist and writer Francesca Humi analysesthe hardening border policy brought about by – or despite – recent elections in both countries, and the importance of the burgeoning cross-border solidarity movement of resistance.
Finally, we have updated our asylum statistics pages, and have added a section on migration for work which reveals the extent of exploitation in sectors reliant on migrant workers, including care, domestic work and agriculture. See the updated pages here.