On July 3 2015 retired police officer Anthony Long, also known as E7 was acquitted of the murder of Azelle Rodney, bringing to an end a 10 year fight for truth and justice as Bro. Azelle’s mother was quoted as saying in response to the verdict: “Now that the jury has done its job, my family and I have to draw a painful line under the last 10 years. I need some time to myself to grieve properly for the loss of my 24-year-old son.” Sis. Susan must be commended for her valiant decade long fight, truly against the odds. The jury was not told the outcome of a judge-led inquiry in 2013 that concluded the shooting by E7 was not legally justified and Mr Long’s accounts of what he saw in the seconds before opening fire should not be accepted. Moreover, Azelle Rodney was by no means Long’s first fatality, a senior colleague once jokingly referred to him as “the Met’s very own serial killer.” Thus it can be surmised that Colombian drug dealers (whom Rodney and colleagues Wesley Lovell and Frank Graham were allegedly on their way to rob at the time of the shooting) who are ostensibly still at large have more right to life than Afrikan men in the UK.

Police supporters have lamented that the case should never have come to trial and queried why it took a decade to happen. However, even the most superficial appraisal of the UK criminal justice system indicates that cases like these actually are not supposed to come trial and what ensues is an endurance test for the families’ campaigns with only the most resilient making any headway. Consequently, history demonstrates that when the police, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), the inquest, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) fail the scupper a campaign, the jury (an under examined factor in the injustices face by Afrikan people) can be relied upon to do so, such is their endemic reluctance to convict the police. IPCC statistics reveal that from 1998/99 to 2008/09, there were 333 deaths in or following police custody, with the IPCC recommending 36 criminal charges against 13 police officers, none of the charges resulted in a conviction and not a single charge was for murder. Long is only the third officer to be charged with murder and the third to be acquitted.

Nevertheless, the campaigns continue. The recent “neglect” inquest verdict in the case of Kingsley Burrell caused the family to demand that the CPS review their original, default “insufficient evidence to give rise to a realistic prospect of convicting any person of any criminal offence” verdict. That the CPS’ decision preceded the inquest verdict must bring into question the quality and thoroughness of the original investigation. The inquest heard that Kingsley was “repeatedly punched in the head, handcuffed for six hours and not allowed to use the toilet.” With the disciplinary case against the four police officers involved being adjourned until September, the expectation is that it will be held under the new government guidelines announced in March of this year that disciplinary hearings are held in public. The family are calling for the police officers involved as well as two ambulance staff and nine mental health workers – who dealt with Burrell to be sacked and for home secretary, Theresa May, to launch a robust public inquiry into the “systemic failings” that led to his death. His sister Kadisha Brown-Burrell said: “There’s no closure. It’s too soon to say that. Until people are accountable for their actions then there will be no closure. It doesn’t end here. The next step is a public inquiry to get accountability from 15 people. She added that the family had “no faith, no trust” in the police and mental health services, and claimed “institutionalised racism” led to her brother being falsely stereotyped as a thug and a drug dealer.

In terms of making legal headway, the Sean Rigg campaign continues to break new ground with the announcement on July 8th that of custody sergeant Paul White will be charged with perjury for testimony given at the inquest that he forced to accept under cross examination much of what he had told the jury under oath was not in fact true. The announcement follows the October 7th 2014 decision that there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against White and constable Mark Harratt. The about turn follows a review of the case under the recently introduced CPS Victims’ Right to Review (VRR) scheme that allows victims to seek a review of a CPS decision not to prosecute in certain circumstances.

So we ask the question, again:

Deaths in custody – Will we ever get justice? Part 4

01. What would it take to get a police officer convicted of murder?
02. What happened to the “Columbian drug dealers”?
03. Was “institutionalised racism” a factor in Kingley Burrell’s treatment and death?
04. What do CPS reversals say about their original investigations?
05. Should there be a mechanism for supporting all the campaigns rather than just leaving it up to the individual capacity of the families?

Our special guests are:

Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and UNIA-ACL Ambassador for the UK. A veteran activist of over 30 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An Africentric Guide To Excellence

Sis. Kadisha Brown-Burrell: is the sister of Bro. Kingsley Burrell who died in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham on 27/03/2011 and has been at the forefront of then campaign to get to the truth and seek justice for her brother.