On Friday 7 March, the inquest into the death of 39-year-old Ghanaian Joseph Crentsil recorded a verdict of accidental death. The verdict meant that the jury decided Joseph came by his death ‘unintentionally or unexpectedly’. Joseph died on 25 November 2001 after falling from a third floor balcony of a block of flats in Streatham,
Theme: Alternative voices on integration
Terror policing brings many arrests but few charges
British police have made 304 arrests under anti-terrorist legislation since 11 September 2001. But only forty of those arrests have led to charges being brought. And only three have so far resulted in convictions, none for involvement in Islamic terror groups. The three successful convictions were related to membership of banned organisations rather than any
Doreen Lawrence accuses Blunkett of burying Macpherson report
David Blunkett lost interest in the fight against institutional racism following the riots in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford, says Doreen Lawrence. Speaking at yesterday’s Unite Against Racism conference, organised by the National Assembly Against Racism (NAAR), with UNISON and the South-East Region TUC, Doreen Lawrence won a standing ovation before and after her speech. She
Racism and the police – the case of Sylbert Farquharson
On 31 January 2003, Sylbert Farquharson won a civil case against police officers who subjected him to a racist beating in Stockwell, south London. The facts before Judge Michael Dean, sitting at the Central London County Court, must have been so horrific as to make him cast aside the normal reserve of his office. Mr
Jason McGowan inquest – family walks out
Relatives of Jason McGowan, a black man found hanged in Telford three years ago, yesterday walked out of the inquest into his death in protest at the proceedings. As soon as the jury had been sworn in, family members, along with their legal team, left the court. The McGowan family says it has no confidence
Four sentences reduced, eleven upheld, in appeal for Bradford rioters
In what has effectively become a test case for the sentencing of hundreds of Asians charged with participating in the Bradford riot of July 2001, the Court of Appeal has ruled that four individuals were given excessive sentences but a further eleven did deserve terms of between four and six-and-a-half years. During a two-day hearing,
New Labour and new authoritarianism in criminal justice
Lee Bridges, Chair of the School of Law at Warwick University, comments on the government’s new Criminal Justice Bill. A government’s authoritarianism is marked by the numbers of its citizens it imprisons. Under New Labour the prison population, already rising under the Tories, has soared to over 70,000, so high that even the prison governors
The Criminal Justice System
People from ethnic minority backgrounds are effectively discriminated against three times over when it comes to crime and the whole criminal justice system. They are more likely than white people to be victims of crime; they are likely to receive much harsher penalties than their white counterparts; in terms of employment the legal establishment is
Black Deaths in Custody
Deaths in police, prison and psychiatric custody since 1978. We list below those deaths of black and minority ethnic individuals which have taken place in prison, police or hospital custody and which have given rise to concern because of unexplained or mysterious circumstances surrounding those deaths and / or allegations of maltreatment, dereliction of duty
Deaths with a (known or suspected) racial element 1991-1999
The IRR has, since 1991, been documenting murders with a suspected or known racial element.* This page lists murders from 1991-1999. Click here to read about murders from 2000 onwards with a suspected or known racial element. 1991, Bruce Bryan, 37, central London A father of two murdered in a street attack during which Bruce was