1500 cases from 1990-2016 (that we know of). And to clarify, this lists comprises of brown and black lives.. thereās so many names I could add to this, we are far from this post-racial utopian society people try to paint us as. In some areas in the UK, black people are 17x more likely to be stopped and searched. Black bodies mysteriously die in cells while the IPCC torments the families with biased investigations that they were never here to seek justice for them. Just this February Sarah Reed a black British woman died under mysterious circumstances in her cell. Tell me how a black woman who was sexually assaulted in the psychiatric hospital she was put in ended up in prison? She was also a victim of police brutality a couple of years ago. In 2012, police broke the neck of science student Julian Cole leaving him brain dead while the family still awaits his justice in 2016!
We need to know why our lives are seen as so disposable. We need to know why black people are over represented in the custodial system and why such racial prejudices exist in the criminal system in the first place. They purposely hide the history and achievements of black people in the UK so we remain ignorant and forget about our own movements in the 60s - our fights to bring in āno discriminationā laws. Our fights to be treated as equal. Many Brits donāt even know the origin of the biggest festival in Europe - Notting Hill carnival, which was political, created as a means to celebrate our heritage and culture in the face of adversity. Gangs of police have been terrorising us since the majority of our grand parents came during the windrush era in the 40s. Police brutality is nothing new. Ask your grand parents how they used to try to intimidate black folks minding their business, kidnap and beat them up only to drop them off somewhere far from home. How theyād ignore evidence pointing to members of white hate groups who would murder us, harass us and vandalise our property/businesses. This isnāt anything new. And history continues to repeat itself as the list of brown and black lives continue to be taken away/brutalised. The media may try to hide it but itās happening.
Letās not pretend that the UK hasnāt played a huge role in propagating the false belief that whiteness is superior. Letās not pretend that they have not spread this through violence, pillaging countries, colonisation and slavery. Do not wipe away the history of this country and what they continue to do to paint some utopic fantasy which you can use to compare to America. What can Britain teach America about valuing black lives? We arenāt above them at all.
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