A reference tool for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe in 2015.
POLICING AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
11 January: Campaign groups Justice 4 Leon and the Faruk Ali Justice Campaign march together through Luton to show a ‘united front’, demanding justice for Leon Briggs and Faruk Ali. (Luton on Sunday, 11 January 2014)
17 January: The family of Mark Grainger, who was shot dead by police in Culcheth, near Leigh in 2012, call for a public inquiry into his death after charges against the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Sir Peter Fahy, are dropped. The CPS refused to reveal secret evidence at his trial under health and safety laws. (Bolton News, 17 January 2015)
18 January: It is reported that police have refused to release a tape (pending ongoing investigations) which is alleged to contain racist comments made by police officers who allegedly assaulted autism sufferer Faruk Ali in Luton. (Luton on Sunday, 18 January 2015)
22 January: Ministry of Justice figures reveal that prison suicides in England and Wales have risen to the highest level for seven years, with 82 prisoners taking their own lives last year. (Guardian, 22 January 2015)
22 January: Metropolitan police officer Warren Luke is cleared of actual bodily harm after kicking and hitting a black mother in a hospital, leaving her with more than 40 injuries, needing plastic surgery and unable to work for a year. (Guardian, 22 January 2015)
22 January: An IPCC investigation is launched into the death of Tobias Terpilowski-Gill, 26, who fell from a balcony in Kilburn in December after being handcuffed by the police. (Brent & Kilburn Times, 22 January 2015)
26 January: The family of Julian Cole, a 21-year-old athlete, who blame excessive police force for leaving him with a broken neck after he was detained in Bedford, have condemned the lack of progress made by the IPCC. They claim that they are no clearer as to what happened 20 months after the incident. (Guardian, 26 January 2015)
30 January: Anthony Long, the ex-police officer accused of the murder of Azelle Rodney during a police operation in April 2005, appears in court and pleads not guilty. (BBC News, 30 January 2015)
30 January: HM Inspector of Constabulary publishes a report: Integrity matters: An inspection of arrangements to ensure integrity and to provide the capability to tackle corruption in policing. Download the report here.
30 January: The Police Federation calls for all uniformed police officers to be provided with Tasers to provide protection from terrorists. (Guardian, 30 January 2015)
1 February: Campaigners from the Justice Alliance call for a three-day event celebrating the Magna Carta to be boycotted because the government has ‘decimated legal aid’. (Guardian, 1 February 2015)
2 February: The inquest into the death of Habib ‘Paps’ Ullah begins in Beaconsfield, eight years after his death following a stop and search by police in High Wycombe. (Slough Observer, 2 February 2015)
2 February: The inquest into the death of 18-year-old Shanice Paris Goff hears that police officers acted aggressively when they arrived at her boyfriend’s Woolwich flat. They had been seeking Goff who had been on the run for eight months after she was released on licence and the licence was revoked. (News Shopper, 2 February 2015)
2 February: The Independent Police Complaints Commission publishes a report: Police complaints: Statistics for England and Wales 2013/14 and 2012/13. Download the statistics here.
4 February: An inquest jury at Worcestershire Coroners’ Court concludes that failings at HMP Hewell contributed to the death of Paul Malicus Coley, a 44-year-old father of five, in December 2013. (Garden Court Chambers, 4 February 2015)
4 February: Mohammed Naved Bashir launches a civil action against West Yorkshire Police who admit to his wrongful arrest and imprisonment in December 2014. (Yorkshire Post, 4 February 2015)
6 February: A report by the Victims’ Commissioner, which comments on how victims of crime should not be ignored, omits any reference to the experiences of those whose family members have died in custody. (Huffington Post, 6 February 2015)
9 February: An MPs’ report that examines antisemitism in Britain recommends that social media users who persistently spread racial hatred online should be given ‘internet asbos’ blocking them from sites such as Facebook and Twitter. (Guardian, 9 February 2015)
9 February: It is revealed that Home Secretary Theresa May is to order an inquiry into the collapse of the country’s biggest ever police corruption trial which fell apart at an estimated cost of £30m in 2011. (Channel 4 News, 9 February 2015)
11 February: The family of a man whose neck was found to be broken after he was arrested by police call for the officers involved to be suspended. Julian Cole, 21, was left in a vegetative state following his arrest outside a nightclub in Bedford in May 2013. (Guardian, 11 February 2015)
11 February: INQUEST publishes a report, Deaths in Mental Health Detention: An investigation framework fit for purpose? Download the report here.
12 February: Four police officers appear at Bristol crown court charged with misconduct and accused of wilful neglect in public office following the murder of Bijan Ebrahmi who had requested police help hours before his death in July 2013. (Bristol Post, 12 February 2015)
13 February: The Metropolitan police is warned it risks breaching the European Convention on Human Rights by refusing to police a second planned protest in central London next month. (Enfield Guardian, 13 February 2015)
13 February: A former commissioner for the Commission for Racial Equality, Mohammed Amran, vows to fight on after the IPCC finds that West Yorkshire police did not seek to undermine his credibility as a witness during the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. The police had suggested ‘discreet inquiries’ were conducted into his background. (Telegraph & Argus, 13 February 2015)
14 February: Johsua Bonehill-Paine, who has recently called for an anti-Semitic rally in Stamford Hill, is banned from the whole of London after being arrested in connection with a string of anti-Semitic messages sent to an MP. (East London Times, 15 February 2015)
16 February: It is revealed that six police officers and seven police staff will face disciplinary proceedings in relation to Bijan Ebrahimi’s death in 2013. Bijan Ebrahimi was murdered in Bristol after being harassed and victimised. (Bristol Post, 16 February 2015)
18 February: The Chief Inspector of Prisons calls for a review of the lessons learned from the opening of the G4S-run Oakwood prison before any more ‘supersized’ jails are opened. (Guardian, 18 February 2015)
20 February: Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association (JENGbA) publishes its latest Newsletter. Download the January/February issue here (pdf file, 2.1mb).
20 February: The High Court rules that the Lord Chancellor’s guidance on legal aid for inquests contains material errors and the threshold is set too high. (Bindman’s, 20 February 2015)
22 February: An IPCC spokesman says that an investigation into the death of Adrian McDonald, who died after being Tasered by the police in Huddersfield in 2014, is still some way off completion. (Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 22 February 2015)
24 February: The Equality and Human Rights Commission publishes new research, Preventing Deaths in Detention of Adults with Mental Health Conditions. Download the reports here.
24 February: Channel 4 News reports on the death of a vulnerable teenager, 15 -year-old Alex Kelly who took his own life in Cookham Wood young offenders Institution, and a coroner’s report which is highly critical of the care he received. (Channel 4 News, 23 February 2015)
24 February: Bedfordshire police announces that flowers left in tribute to Leon Briggs, who died in Luton police custody, are to be removed from Luton police station station as they pose a ‘security risk’. (Luton on Sunday, 24 February 2015)
25 February: The Court of Appeal quashes the convictions of two men who were convicted under the doctrine of joint enterpise. (JENGbA press release, 25 February 2015)
25 February: The inquest into the death of Chang Somers (aka Valan Anthony Pitts) hears that his body was found months after he went missing after requests from family and friends that he be sectioned. Police are also being investigated for how they dealt with missing person reports from his family (Plymouth Herald, 24 February 2015)
26 February: Bish Sharif, a 42 year old Asian man, expresses his anger after being dragged from a cafe in Redcar and wrongly detained under anti-terrorism powers for thirty minutes by Cleveland Police. (Northern Echo, 26 February 2015)
27 February: The Home Affairs Committee publishes Gangs and youth crime. Download the report here. (pdf file, 369kb)
1 March: A report by INQUEST reveals that 65 children and young adults have died in detention during the last four years, an average of one a month. Download the report, Stolen Lives and Missed opportunities: The deaths of young adults and children in prison, here.
3 March: An inquest into the death of Habib Ullah returns a verdict of death by ‘misadventure’, but Thames Valley police says there will be further action against officers involved. (Slough & South Bucks Observer, 3 March 2015)
5 March: The Met. police issues an appeal for witnesses who may have seen two men close to where 50-year-old Londoner Kester David was found murdered in July 2010 in suspicious circumstances. The IPCC is currently investigating how the case was originally investigated and whether crucial evidence was missed. (ITV News, 5 March 2015)
6 March: Civil Rights Defenders, acting on behalf of eleven Roma in Sweden, have filed a lawsuit against the government on the basis that a police register of Roma maintained by the regional Skåne police in southern Sweden is a violation of human rights and constitutes ethnic discrimination. (The Local, 6 March 2015)
10 March: An inquest is told that 37-year-old Jubel Miah died three days after being stopped and searched by police in Camden who thought that he had swallowed drugs in June 2014. (Hampstead & Highgate Express, 10 March 2015)
10 March: The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman publishes a report Learning from PPO Investigations: Self-inflicted deaths of prisoners – 2013/14. Download the report here.
11 March: HM Inspector of Constabulary publishes new report The welfare of vulnerable people in police custody. Download the report here.
12 March: The Home Secretary announces a public inquiry to be headed by a senior judge, Lord Justice Pitchford, to examine claims that undercover police officers spied on family campaigns, including that of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence. (Guardian, 12 March 2015)
19 March: The inquest into the death of 37-year-old Jubel Miah finds that he died from cardiac arrest following a search for drugs by two Camden police officers in June 2014. (Camden New Journal, 19 March 2015)
24 March: HM Inspectorate of Constabulary states that police forces have made too little progress on improving their use of stop and search powers, with too many officers lacking any understanding of their impact on the lives of young black people. (Guardian, 24 March 2015)
24 March: HM Inspectorate of Constabulary publishes: Stop and search powers 2: are the police using them effectively and fairly? Download the report here (pdf file, 600kb)
25 March: The Independent Police Complaints Commission publishes its investigation into the death of Mark Duggan in August 2011. Download the report and other documents here.
25 March: A former undercover police officer, who spied on family-led campaigns in the 90s, reveals that he also spied on MPs such as Diane Abbott, the late Bernie Grant, Peter Hain, Jeremy Corbyn and Ken Livingstone. (Guardian, 25 March 2015)
25 March: The mother of Mark Duggan, who was shot fatally by police in Tottenham in 2011, describes a report from the Independent Police Complaints Commission clearing the officers of any wrongdoing as ‘another slap in the face’ for her family. (Guardian, 25 March 2015)
25 March: The Central London County Court orders that the Met Police pay £8,200 in damages and £400,000 in legal costs after ‘unreasonably’ using a taser on Daniel Sylvester, who had unlawfully been stopped three times in nine months by police. (BBC News, 25 March 2015)
25 March: The Court of Appeal dismisses an appeal by the Law Society and others against the government’s proposals to cut criminal legal aid. (Law Gazette, 25 March 2015)
26 March: A two-day inquest into death in police custody of Sharmila Ullah concludes Bloxwich police are not to blame despite possible ‘individual failings’ in regards to observations whilst she was in custody. (Express and Star, 26 March 2015)
26 March: A mother organises a march in memory of her son, Aston Mclean Williams, who was killed in a collision with a police car last year. Berkshire Coroner’s Office refuses to release his body as investigations continue. (Reading Chronicle, 26 March 2015)
30 March: Black police officer, Paul Bailey, brands as ‘immoral and unethical’ his bosses at Greater Manchester Police who, after initially accepting the ruling of an employment tribunal that he had been racially discriminated against during his employment, are now appealing the decision. (Manchester Evening News, 30 March 2015)
31 March: HM Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland calls for a clear code of practice for stop and searches after an investigation found no guidance and a lack of data, and that there is no clear link between stop and searches and a reduction in crime. (BBC News, 31 March 2015)
3 April: A coroner refuses to grant police officers anonymity at the forthcoming inquest into the shooting death of Dean Joseph in Canonbury, London in September 2014. (Islington Tribune, 3 April 2015)
7 April: The inquest into the death of Kingsley Burrell commences in Birmingham. Burrell died in Queen Elizabeth Hospital in March 2011 after being detained under the Mental Health Act. (Birmingham Mail, 8 April 2015)
7 April: The inquest into the death of Kingsley Burrell, who died following contact with the police in Birmingham in 2011, hears how his four-year-old son told his family ‘a naughty black policeman hit daddy in the back of the ambulance’. (Voice, 7 April 2015)
9 April: Former Metropolitan Police commissioner Lord Stevens is being investigated by the IPCC over allegations of a cover-up of police corruption in the Stephen Lawrence murder probe in the 1990s, it is revealed. (Channel 4 News, 9 April 2015)
10 April: Relatives of Birmingham prisoner Adnan Rafiq – who predicted his own death in 2013 in a letter to jail staff – speak of their grief after an official report finds more could have been done to help him before he was fatally assaulted by another inmate. (Birmingham Mail, 10 April 2015)
10 April: In Spain, eleven people are arrested and face charges of being part of an Islamist plot to bomb a Jewish bookshop in Barcelona and other Jewish targets in the Catalonia region. (Reuters, 10 April 2015)
19 April: The criminal justice system makes it too hard for families whose loved ones have died in police custody to get answers, according to a letter written by the home secretary to the families of Sean Rigg and Olaseni Lewis. (Guardian, 19 April 2015)
20 April: A tribute to Sean Rigg, who died in police custody in 2008, is painted on shop shutters in Atlantic Road, Brixton. Street artists have been painting on the shutters of businesses threatened with eviction to highlight their plight. (Brixton Buzz, 20 April 2015)
22 April: The Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association campaign (Jengba) publishes its latest newsletter. Download it here (pdf file, 1.5mb)
27 April: A Labour government would look again at the law of Joint Enterprise, Ed Miliband writes in a letter to a constituent. (The Justice Gap, 27 April 2015)
2 May: More than 3,000 police officers are being investigated for alleged assault – with black and Asian people significantly more likely than white people to complain of police brutality, according to an Independent investigation. (Independent, 2 May 2015)
3 May: Hundreds of people march through Brixton, south London, to protest at police brutality and racism, and to show solidarity with the people of Baltimore, US. (Brixton Buzz, 3 May 2015)
4 May: Restraint was a ‘key’ factor in Kingsley Burrell’s death in 2011, a pathologist tells the jury at his inquest. Mr Burrell died following contact with four police officers and six NHS staff in Birmingham. (Voice, 5 May 2015)
5 May: Friends of Sheku Bayoh, who died in Scotland on 3 May hours after being arrested, demand answers over how police handled the incident. (Daily Record, 5 May 2015)
8 May: A mental health trust and the Metropolitan Police are accused of trying to cover up alleged racism towards patients during a night in 2012 when 48 officers – some in riot gear – were deployed to deal with disturbances at Bethlem Royal Hospital, in a ward of vulnerable adults. (Independent, 8 May 2015)
12 May: The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) announces that five Thames Valley police officers, who were involved in the death of Habib ‘Paps’ Ullah in 2008, will have disciplinary hearings in public. (Slough & Bucks Express, 12 May 2015)
11 May: Two Met policemen are sacked for a ‘gratuitous’ assault, in 2009, on Iranian and Pakistani car chase suspects after the men claimed they were kicked in the head and told they would go ‘one-to-one’ with a dog. (WN.com, 11 May 2015)
13 May: The French human rights ombudsman says he will investigate the police after a video is released purporting to show officers in Calais using violence against migrants as they attempt to board lorries headed for the UK. (Independent, 13 May 2015)
13 May: The president of the National Black Police Association accuses Cleveland Police of ‘watering down’ a damning report probing institutional racism in the force. (Darlington and Stockton Times, 13 May 2015)
15 May: An inquest jury finds that Kingsley Burrell, who was detained under the Mental Health Act in Birmingham in 2011, died as a result of neglect by police officers and ambulance staff who forcibly restrained him and left him handcuffed for hours on a hospital floor. (Guardian, 15 May 2015)
17 May: A report claims that a police chief tried to mobilise his force’s top anti-terrorism officer and senior criminal justice figures in an attempt to undermine damning research into the extensive use of stop and search in Scotland. (Sunday Herald, 17 May 2015)
18 May: Two police officers are cleared of charges in their involvement in the deaths of Zyed Benna (17) and Bouna Traoré (15), who died in 2005 in Clichy-sous-Bois, France, after they were chased by police officers, hid in an electricity substation, and were hit by tens of thousands of volts of electricity. (Le Monde, 18 May 2015)
20 May: Tesfa Hughes, a 26-year-old man from Leeds, dies in a traffic accident after being pursued by police car on Wednesday 20 May. The case has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. (Yorkshire Evening Post, 20 May 2015)
20 May: A HMIP inspection of Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre carried out in February 2015 finds ‘several serious incidents of unacceptable staff behaviour’ including ‘poor application of restraint … and racism’. (Download the report here)
21 May: Jeremiah Duggan, who was found on a German motorway in 2003, did not kill himself, a coroner rules. He also says that Duggan’s revelations to members of a far-right organisation he was a British Jew ‘may have had a bearing on his death’. (BBC News, 21 May 2015)
22 May: The European Court of Human Rights condemns France for a lack of remedy for degrading detention conditions in its overseas territory of New Caledonia. (Statewatch News Online, 22 May 2015)
24 May: The family of Kingsley Burrell, who died after being arrested and then left for hours handcuffed on a hospital floor in Birmingham in 2011, urges Theresa May to launch an independent public inquiry into deaths in custody. (Guardian, 24 May 2015)
25 May: After a two-year investigation, the IPCC announces that Humberside police officers could face criminal prosecution for allegedly spying on the family of Christopher Alder, who died in police custody in 1998. (Hull Daily Mail, 25 May 2015)
25 May: An internal Greater Manchester Police memo shows how senior police officers ordered intelligence to be gathered on supporters of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence days before a public inquiry into his murder visited Manchester in 1998. (Manchester Evening News, 25 May 2015)
27 May: The mother of Sheku Bayoh, who died in police custody in Fife earlier this month, accuses lawyers of ‘shameful’ behaviour after she received a legal threat demanding the removal of a post on a website set up to demand answers over her son’s death. (Herald Scotland, 27 May 2015)
27 May: Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCSPI) and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) publish a: Joint inspection of the provision of charging decisions, May 2015. (Download the report here.)
28 May: An investigation into evidence given to the Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry by a former Metropolitan Police chief is expanded to include other senior officers. (Voice, 28 May 2015)
28 May: Amnesty International calls for an investigation into claims on BBC1’s Panorama programme that agents inside Ulster loyalist and republican terror groups were able to kill and target victims with impunity during the Northern Ireland Troubles. (Guardian, 28 May 2015)
29 May: No criminal action will be taken against police involved in the death of Seni Lewis, restrained by officers in a London psychiatric hospital in 2010, the CPS states. (BBC News, 29 May 2015)
29 May: Four police officers and a community support officer appear in court to face charges of misconduct in public office; the community support officer also faces a charge of perverting the course of justice in relation to the murder of Bijan Ebrahimi in Bristol in July 2013. (Western Daily Press, 29 May 2015)
1 June: The Equality and Diversity Forum (EDF) Research Network publishes a collection of essays: Beyond 2015: Shaping the future of Equality, Human Rights and Social Justice. (Download the essays here.)
3 June: Avon and Somerset Constabulary offers an ‘unreserved apology’ to Tajudeen Taiwo and his family for a failure to protect them after ‘appalling racist treatment’. Taiwo’s head was split open in a racist attack in 2012; but when the police arrived they threatened him with a taser, arrested and detained him for 35 hours and charged him with possession of an offensive weapon and threats to kill. (Weston Mercury, 3 June 2015)
3 June: The decision not to charge any police officers with the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes on a London tube in 2005 is to be challenged in the European court of human rights. (Guardian, 3 June 2015)
4 June: Five police officers accused of gross misconduct following the death of Habib ‘Paps’ Ullah in High Wycombe in 2008 altered their statements on a ‘breathtaking scale’, a hearing hears. (Slough & Bucks Express, 4 June 2015)
4 June: The IPCC refuses to identify two retired police officers who are being investigated in connection with allegations that they spied on the family of Stephen Lawrence. Three people were named last year by the Ellison Review (Richard Walton, Bob Lambert and Colin Black). (Guardian, 4 June 2015)
6 June: A taxi driver in West Yorkshire, who was seriously assaulted in a racist attack by a passenger, criticises the police for allegedly taking an hour-and-a-half to reach the scene of the attack after he contacted them. (Daily Mirror, 6 June 2015)
7 June: Mark Duggan’s family, relatives of other black men killed in custody, and one of the UK’s most senior black lawyers call for a public inquiry into policing in Britain. (Guardian, 7 June 2015)
7 June: Hundreds of people attend the funeral of Sheku Bayoh, who died in police custody in Kirkcaldy last month. The funeral procession stops at Kirkcaldy police station, where a two minute silence is held. (BBC News, 7 June 2015)
10 June: A Metropolitan police firearms officer shot dead Azelle Rodney in 2005 by firing a rapid volley of eight shots from close range, including two that struck him in the top of his head, a jury hears. The ex-officer denies the charges. (Guardian, 10 June 2015)
10 June: A panel of more than twenty judges at the European court of human rights (ECHR) hears arguments that Metropolitan police officers should be prosecuted for the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005. (Guardian, 10 June 2015)
11 June: Protracted delays to an IPCC probe into the death of Leon Briggs in Luton are branded ‘unacceptable’. (Luton Today, 11 June 2015)
13 June: Istiak Yusuf dies in a police cell in Luton after being arrested. Although the police say he ‘became ill’, his family tell the Luton News that the 25-year-old had no known medical conditions at the time of the incident. (Luton News, 14 June 2015)
14 June: A 26-year-old black woman is awarded £37,000 damages (with no apology) by the Met police after being forcibly strip-searched by five police officers at Chelsea police station in March 2011. (Guardian, 11 June 2015)
15 June: Five police officers who changed their accounts of a stop and search carried out on Habib ‘Paps’ Ullah in High Wycombe in 2008, who later died, are cleared of misconduct by a disciplinary panel. (Slough & South Bucks Express, 15 June 2015)
15 June: Private company G4S could lose the contract for Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre where children suffered racist abuse at the hands of staff, the government says. (Independent, 15 June 2015)
19 June: The Independent Police Complaints Commission will consider whether the ethnicity or the mental health of a 33-year-old prisoner injured in a cell influenced the actions of six officers involved in his restraint, resulting in the severing of three of the man’s fingertips. (BBC News, 19 June 2015)
22 June: The Daily Mirror reports on allegations from Duwayne Brooks that the police are still withholding information on him that has been collected by police spies since the 1993 murder of Brooks’ best friend Stephen Lawrence. (Daily Mirror, 22 June 2015)
24 June: Anthony Long, 58, a former armed police officer tells the Old Bailey he was ‘absolutely convinced’ that Azelle Rodney was about to shoot when he fired eight shots in rapid succession, two of which hit Rodney in the head. (Guardian, 24 June 2015)
24 June: Figures, issued by the Youth Justice Board (covering young offender institutions, secure detention centres and secure training centres in England and Wales), and analysed by the Guardian, reveal a ‘shocking increase in the proportion of ethnic minority children and young people being held in the youth justice system’. (Guardian, 24 June 2015)
24 June: In an unprecedented judgement, the Court of Appeals in Paris finds the French state guilty of the use of discriminatory stops and identity checks in the cases of five black and Arab complainants. The Court rules that the French state must pay the complainants €1,500 each. A petition calling for the end of ethnic profiling has garnered 11,000 signatures. (Le Monde, 24 June 2015)
25 June: The National Debate Advisory Group publishes a report for Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary: Reshaping policing for the public: a discussion paper from the advisory group on the national debate on policing in austerity. Download it here.
26 June: Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association (JENGbA) publishes the latest edition of its newsletter. Download it here (pdf file, 1mb).
29 June: Under the Freedom of Information Act the Metropolitan Police releases a redacted copy of the Special Demonstration Squad Tradecraft Manual. Download it here. (pdf file, 3.3mb)
30 June: The man accused of the 1998 murder of Surjit Singh Chhokar will stand trial in February 2016. Ronnie Coulter, 47, from Wishaw, denies killing 32-year-old Mr Chhokar in in Overtown, North Lanarkshire while acting with two other men. (Glasgow Evening Times, 30 June 2015)
1 July: The Citizen Safety Law (dubbed the ‘gagging law’) comes into effect in Spain. Protesting in front of Congress or regional assemblies now carries fines of up to €600,000. Judges will be bypassed by police officers engaged in public order duties who have the power to impose immediate sanctions. Stopping a housing eviction will now be deemed unlawful as police power to sanction extends to those who ‘obstruct any authority, public employee or official corporation in the exercise of administrative or judicial agreements or resolutions’. (El Pais in English, 1 July 2015)
1 July: The Ministry of Justice publishes the Harris Review: Changing Prisons, Saving Lives: Report of the Independent Review into Self-inflicted Deaths in Custody of 18-24 year olds. Download it here.
2 July: The German lawyers for the family of Jeremiah Duggan, the British Jewish student who died in Wiesbaden in 2003, and Green Party members of the Bundestag, speak at a press conference in Berlin. A letter has been written to the interior minister of Hesse demanding a far-reaching investigation into Jeremiah’s death including a thorough examination of the dangerous recruiting practice of the LaRouche cult. See the press release, by Justice for Jeremiah, here.
26 June: A judge in Northern Ireland describes the state collusion in the 1989 murder of solicitor Pat Finucane and the obstruction of investigations as ‘abominations’ but rejects a challenge to the refusal of a public inquiry. (UK Human Rights Blog, 7 July 2015)
3 July: Former police marksman Anthony Long is cleared of murdering Azelle Rodney who he shot six times and killed in north London in 2005. (Guardian, 3 July 2015)
4 July: A silent protest is held in The Hague in memory of Mitch Henriquez, a 42-year-old tourist from Aruba who died in hospital on 28 June following his violent arrest the previous day at a music festival in Zuiderpark in the Netherlands. Henriquez’ death led to four nights of rioting in the Schilderswijk district, a temporary curfew and hundreds of arrests. Preliminary findings from a post mortem indicated that Henriquez died of asphyxiation after being held in a chokehold and pinned down by five white police officers. (France 24, 4 July 2015)
6 July: The IPCC calls on Sussex police to launch legal proceedings against an officer in relation to events in 2013 when a man in Brighton, Firas Albaja, was pepper-sprayed, wrongfully arrested and denied treatment. Sussex police decide not to refer the case to the CPS, stating it is ‘not in the public interest’. (Argus, 6 July 2015)
8 July: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announces that police officer Paul White is to be charged with perjury over evidence he gave during an inquest into the death in police custody of Sean Rigg in Brixton after the bereaved family challenged the CPS decision not to prosecute. (Guardian, 8 July 2015)
9 July: Greater Manchester police release statistics showing that twenty-one police officers have been sacked for misconduct by the force over the last two years for reasons including posting racist messages on Facebook. (Manchester Evening News, 9 July 2015)
11 July: A public inquiry into Bedfordshire Police is set to be held in the coming weeks, focusing on an Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation into the alleged assault of autistic man Faruk Ali by two police officers in 2014. (Luton on Sunday, 11 July 2015)
11 July: The Metropolitan police issue a ‘sincere and unreserved apology’ for staging a police terror training exercise in which one of the ‘terrorists’ was wearing a Cuban flag T-shirt. (Morning Star, 11 July 2015)
13 July: The daughter of Philmore Mills, who died while in police custody in 2011 in Slough, speaks of her frustration that a police misconduct hearing will remain behind closed doors. (Slough Observer, 13 July 2015)
13 July: A 14-year-old Muslim boy is shot and badly injured by a police officer with a flash-ball gun after exiting a mosque in Argenteuil, France. The boy was shot in error, and, after falling to the floor, was not aided by police officers but instead by passers-by who took him to hospital. (Islam & Info, 14 July 2015)
16 July: Doreen Lawrence, the mother of murdered teenager Stephen, calls for undercover officers who infiltrated political campaigns and spied on her family to be identified. (Guardian, 16 July 2015)
16 July: The Met police suspends Sergeant Paul White, who is facing perjury charges in connection with his evidence given to inquest into Sean Rigg’s death, after sustained pressure from Rigg’s family. (Guardian, 16 July 2015)
16 July: The London Campaign Against Police and State Violence publishes a briefing paper on objections to Operation Shield. Download it here (pdf file, 242kb).
19 July: Police in London are criticised for including activists from the city’s Occupy protests with al Qaida in a presentation being given to prepare nursery and primary school staff for potential terrorist attacks on the UK. (Guardian, 19 July 2015)
19 July: The Met launches an investigation into allegations that its officers used a ‘secret’ Facebook group to air racist views about Gypsies and Travellers. (Independent, 19 July 2015)
22 July: Family and friends of Jean Charles De Menezes gather at Stockwell tube station, ten years after he was shot dead on the tube by armed police. (Huffington Post, 22 July 2015)
23 July: The IPCC publishes its annual report on deaths during or following police contact in 2014/15. Download it here.
23 July: The IPCC delays again its report into how Julian Cole’s neck was broken after contact with six police officers in the street more than two years ago. (Guardian, 23 July 2015)
25 July: New medical evidence suggests that Sheku Bayoh, the Sierra Leonean man killed in police custody in Kirkcaldy earlier this year, may have died from asphyxiation after being held face down by at least four officers, his family’s lawyer says. (Guardian, 25 July 2015)
26 July: Newly disclosed documents reveal that a secret Scotland Yard review of an undercover unit at the heart of the controversy over long-term infiltration of political groups concluded that the squad had been shut down because it broke official rules. (Guardian, 26 July 2015)
30 July: A 17-year-old boy, Jack Susianta, dies after falling into a canal in east London after being chased by police officers, who were seeking him after his parents raised concerns for his welfare. (Guardian, 30 July 2015)
27 July: A retired Metropolitan police sergeant, who won a series of racial discrimination claims against the force, is cleared of racially and sexually abusing a teenager 29 years ago. The judge at Southwark Crown Court said that the allegations may have been a part of a conspiracy against the retired sergeant. (Channel 4 News, 27 July 2015)
31 July: A court is told that Nicola Short, one of the police officers involved in the death of Sheku Bayoh in May 2015, is ‘not fit for trial [on breaching data protection laws] due to a complicated medical state following on from an incident in Kirkcaldy.’ (Daily Record, 1 August 2015)
4 August: On the fourth anniversary of his death, the mother of Mark Duggan calls for an urgent public inquiry into events that led to the shooting. Sign the petition calling for a public inquiry into Mark Duggan’s death here. (Guardian, 4 August 2015)
6 August: The family of Aston McLean Williams mark the year since his death after being knocked over by a police vehicle in Reading. His family are still waiting to bury him a year on as the IPCC continues its investigation. (Reading Chronicle, 6 August 2015)
6 August: Five children of Cherry Groce, whose shooting by a police officer led to the 1985 Brixton uprisings, are to sue the Metropolitan police for the damage caused to them after she was paralysed in the raid almost 30 years ago. (Guardian, 6 August 2015)
7 August: Analysis of new figures finds that black people are far more likely to be stopped and searched by police in England and Wales; in 36 (out of 39) forces black people are targeted more than white people. (Independent, 7 August 2015)
17 August: A man who has been subjected to a fourteen-month campaign of racial harassment is given a conditional discharge