Too many Irish dying in custody
BY FERN LANE
| |
An IBRG study found that 53% of white people who die in police custody in England are Irish. The group also estimates that in England one Irish person a month dies whilst in the hands of the police
|
With the conclusion of the Butler Inquiry earlier this month and the acquittal on 29 July of the three police officers charged with the manslaughter of Irishman Richard O'Brien in April 1994, the question of the number and manner of deaths in police custody in England seems set to fade again from public view.
But what makes the outcome of the Inquiry and its aftermath deserving of close and continuing attention is that the rate at which people have been dying in police custody has been rising steadily since the beginning of the decade, with the highest number ever in one year, 65, being recorded for 1998, an increase of 41% over five years. Since 1990, over 500 people have died whilst in the custody of the police, either during the course of arrest, in police cells or whilst being transported in police vehicles.
Although a degree of ethnic monitoring of deaths is carried out, no record is kept in respect of the Irish community. As could be expected, given the inherently racist nature of the police force revealed by the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, the number of people of colour dying in custody is hugely disproportionate to their number in the general population - 18.5% of those killed compared to 5% representation in the wider community. However, the Irish in Britain Representation Group, an Irish human rights monitoring group based in London, has carried out its own ethnic monitoring of deaths in custody occurring in the Metropolitan Police area and has discovered the startling statistic that, of the white deaths - people of colour again form the largest group - the majority of those dying in police custody, 53%, are Irish. They also estimate that in England one Irish person a month dies whilst in the hands of the police.
The Butler Inquiry was set up after the death of Richard O'Brien and severely criticised the Crown Prosecution Service for its handling of his case and that of Oluwashijibomi Lapite. Judge Gerald Butler QC described the system at the CPS as ``inefficient and fundamentally unsound'' and pointed out that the refusal of even the most senior members of the service, including the then head, Barbara Mills, to accept responsibility for the original decision not to prosecute officers Richard Ilett, Gary Lockwood and James Barber for the manslaughter of Richard O'Brien, despite the fact that the jury at O'Brien's inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing. O'Brien, a 37-year-old father of seven, suffocated when he was pinned face-down by officers in a police van after being arrested, supposedly for being drunk and disorderly, at a family gathering at an Irish centre in London. His wife, Alison has said repeatedly that officers had ignored his pleas that he could not breathe and that they had directed racist abuse at him whilst holding him down.
For all that, however, the fact remains that none of the CPS staff involved have had any action taken against them and none of the police officers involved in either case have been disciplined or removed from the force. Furthermore, the Butler Inquiry has not led to any significant change in police practice other than vague calls urging police officers to exercise greater sensitivity and to undergo extra training on restraint techniques.
Richard O'Brien's family, who had fought hard for the Inquiry to be set up, were profoundly disappointed with the outcome and have said that their campaign will continue. However, they join a number of other Irish families such as those of Patrick Quinn, who was beaten to death on Christmas eve in 1990 in a police cell, and John Leo O'Reilly who died after being refused medical treatment as he lay critically ill in a police cell, who have set up campaign groups.
These deaths, and those of Matthew Power, Patrick Maloney, John Ryan and many others who died in suspicious circumstances whilst in custody, strongly suggest that the police have an unquestioning inclination to go in mob-handed based on a belief that Irish people are more likely to be drunk and violent than other non-black ethnic groups, leading to unnecessary force and a refusal to provide appropriate medical care to detainees who are ill. What needs to be confronted and exposed in a similarly systematic way to the Lawrence Inquiry is the pervasive anti-Irish bias of the British police, borne out by the statistics, and the foul stereotypes which clearly inform and dictate their dealings with the Irish community.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)