LETTER from Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot Labour Party Member
In March 2019, Kevin Clarke, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, died while police were restraining him. During a psychotic episode, the police took action that contributed to his death. As with George Floyd in the US Kevin was filmed, telling officers he couldn’t breathe. Professor Leslie Thomas QC, representing the Clarke family, said that the nature of the restraint was a product of ‘fear’ and described the level of force used as ‘disgusting’.
This death in custody was the subject of a BBC Panorama programme broadcasted a couple of weeks ago, entitled I can’t Breathe. The BBC reporter, Mark Daly, made the point that a black man is twice as likely to die as a white man while in police custody. He also stated that black people are three times more likely to have force used against them when arrested.
Benefit of hindsight
The verdict of an Inquest on Kevin Clarke’s death was damning: the jury supported the view that excessive force was used. A member of the Clarke family pointed out that when officers were asked, with the benefit of hindsight, if they would have done anything differently, but shockingly, some of the officers said ‘no’. It is clear that lessons still need to be learnt.
The programme highlighted another recent case of a trainee gas engineer, Sheku Bayoh who died in May 2015. He was reportedly, high on drugs and restrained by six police officers and he died as a result of his injuries. The police claim that Bayoh was the instigator of the violence, but an independent eye-witness contradicted this claim and the case is subject to a public enquiry.
According to Daly, 27 black men have died in similar circumstances in the last fifteen years.
“it has to stop”
Deborah Coles, the Executive Director of the charity Inquest, said that the stereotype of large black men being prone to violence was part of police culture and practice. Professor Thomas also said that this had been the case since throughout his whole 25-year career as a barrister, adding, “it had to stop”.
The only problem with the programme was a lack of any clear solutions. Socialists would argue that the police should be accountable to elected bodies within our local communities, and all of their work, including operational matters, should be subject to democratic scrutiny. However, until there is a fundamental shift in power and wealth within society for the benefit of the great majority, discriminatory practices of all kinds will persist.
The BBC Panorama programme is still available to watch on BBC i-player, here.
