Republican News · Thursday 14 February 2002

The film that refuses to die

Defying censorship to expose deaths in custody in Britain

Between 1969 and 1999, there were 1,000 deaths in police custody in prisons and mental institutions in Britain, without a single conviction against the officers involved. One of those deaths was that of Brian Douglas, who in May 1995 was stopped by police in Clapham, south London, after a night out with a friend. Two police officers, Mark Tuffy and Paul Harrison, used batons to restrain Douglas before getting him into the police van and to Kensington police station.

Despite serious head injuries, he spent 15 hours at the station before being taken to hospital. He died three days later in St Thomas' Hospital from a fractured skull and damage to his brain stem. At the inquest, Tuffy said that his baton had "slipped up" when hitting Douglas on the shoulder. Evidence by the police forensic team showed that the blow was administered on top of the head, and its force was the equivalent to being dropped onto his head from 11 times his own height. The jury returned a verdict of misadventure, unsuccessfully challenged by the family at the High Court.

Douglas' case is one of those included in the documentary "Injustice". The film touches on many deaths including that of Joy Gardner, who asphyxiated after being gagged with surgical tape by immigration officers trying to deport her in 1993; Shiji Lapite, a Nigerian asylum seeker and father of two who was stopped by police in Hackney in December 1994 for "acting suspiciously" and was held by one officer in a headlock while a fellow officer kicked him in the head (the coroner found more than 40 areas of injury on Lapite's body); and Ibrahim Sey, a Muslim from Gambia, who died in the custody suite at Ilford police station. In Lapite and Sey's cases, both inquests returned verdicts of unlawful killing, and in Sey's case the jury insisted on adding manslaughter to the verdict.

However, only in David Oluwale's case, back in 1969, has a police officer been charged or convicted. 'Injustice' includes calls for several Metropolitan Police officers to be prosecuted and this seems to be the reason why the Police Federation, through its solicitors Russell, Jones and Walker, has launched an unprecedented campaign to stop the film being shown in commercial venues, sending legal warnings to cinemas planning to screen it.

The film makers, Migrant Media, have developed a strategy to show the film by using alternative venues, like community centres, or film festivals, to publicised the plight of the families and the documentary.

On Saturday, 2 February, Injustice was shown in Derry's Gasyard Centre as part of the Bloody Sunday weekend of events. Ken Fero, the director of the film, and BRENDA WEINBERG, sister of Brian Douglas, attended the screening. Brenda is the chair of United Friends and Family Campaign, an umbrella group for the different campaigns around the cases included in the documentary. She spoke with An Phoblacht's SOLEDAD GALIANA.

 

Soledad Galiana: How is your family coping with the verdict of misadventure in Brian's inquest and the subsequent unsuccessful challenge to this decision?

Brenda Weinberg: My brother was killed in 1995 and it was the third death after the newly introduced American long-handled batons. He was coming home with a friend and he was stopped by the police and an attempt at an arrest was made and Brian was subsequently hit on the head. He died three days later in St Thomas' Hospital from a fractured skull. The police had held him for 15 hours before taking him to hospital. By them, the family had been notified and we had the ultimate job of having the life support machine turned off after three days because he was in essence brain dead.

Since then it has been an uphill battle to get any kind of justice or prosecution of the two officers. They claim that Brian was armed with a knife. That was disproved, there were no witnesses that said he had anything on him or in his hand or that he was acting in an aggressive manner and even if he was, no one has the right to take his life.

We had no justice from the courts, we had no justice from our government and so, the family has joined with other families to take over the fight for justice. Brian's is not an isolated death; there are many many others.

 

SG: What do you think it is the main reason behind all these deaths in police custody?

BW: What is ultimately at fault is that police officers are immune to the law. They can take a life and get away with it. They are government employees, they are protected by the government, they are protected by the judicial system. The ultimate deterrent to combat this ongoing situation of deaths in custody is for the officers to be prosecuted and send to prison. But the police who killed my brother never stopped working as officers; these officers were never suspended. They carried on working throughout and they are still working now. I want their jobs and I want their freedom. They need their day in court, they need to be prosecuted and they need to go to prison. They have taken a life. If it was you or me, that is what would happen. The process should work equally for police officers as it does for everyone else. Why should they be above the law?

 

SG: How is the British government dealing with this issue?

BW: The British government is trying to hide from this issue; that is why we are campaigning so vociferously to raise as much awareness as possible. It is not a problem or an issue that they want to face. They shy away from it as much as possible.

Certainly in the six years that my family and other families have been campaigning hard, there have been some changes. One of the changes to come about is that in 2003 there will be a disbandment of the current Police Complaints Authority and the introduction of a newly independent body. How is that going to work? I do not know. How independent is it going to be? I do not know. But at least it is a step forward in the direction that we wish this process to go and that has only come about by our campaigning and constantly pushing this issue and keeping it in the public eye.

 

SG: Some people would say this is coming too late for your brother and the other victims.

BW: No, I do not think so. If Nazi crimes that were committed back in 1942 can still be tried at The Hague, I fail to see any reason why those officers responsible for my brother's death or for Joy Gardner's death cannot be brought to trial retrospectively.

 

SG: Most of the deaths in police custody documented in the film affect members of the black community in Britain. Are there any other ethnic groups in the same situation?

BW: The majority of people killed in custody are white, but the black community is a minority in Britain and there is a disproportional amount of black people killed in custody. There is also a disproportional amount of Irish people who have been killed in police custody, but the statistics do not show that. The statistical numbers care for black and Asian people, but they do not for Irish and there is a large number of Irish people who are right now fighting for that.

At the moment we are in the process of getting other campaigns affiliated with our group, because we feel that strength is in numbers. If we fight in unity, if we come together, our voice is stronger, louder and we will get farther quicker. Although we appreciate and respect individual campaigns, we encourage campaigns to get together and speak with one voice.

 

SG: You were very much involved in the making of this documentary, and it seems that the police has been very much involved in placing all kind of obstacles to stop it from being shown in public.

BW: One of the things that the film Injustice has done is, instead of showing, as the media sometimes does, an isolated incident of death in custody, it brought all those deaths together and showed the atrocity of what happened. It has been also valuable in bringing the families together. I do not think that without the film the families would have bonded in such unity to campaign the way we do. It also brings us closer to other people who are not aware of death in custody. It is a valuable weapon and a valuable tool that we intend to exploit as much as possible.

The police are certainly reluctant for this film to be shown and have placed many many barriers in the way. But to me, that is a sign of their own guilt. If they had nothing to hide they would not fear a piece of celluloid.