Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Families and Friends at Downing St

Peter Marshall | 01.11.2009 12:45 | Repression

Families and Friends of those who have died in suspicious circumstances in custody held a demonstration opposite Downing St in London calling for justice and for properly independent investigations into deaths of people in the care of police and prison offers. Saturday 31 October 2009.

Paul Calvert
Paul Calvert

1960 LEON 1992 & "The person who changed my life"
1960 LEON 1992 & "The person who changed my life"

Sean Rigg
Sean Rigg

IPCC
IPCC

Jason Thompson
Jason Thompson

Ricky Bishop
Ricky Bishop

-
-

Sarah Campbell
Sarah Campbell

Paul Calvert
Paul Calvert


Over the past years, the march by the 'United Friends and Families' of those who have died in suspicious circumstances in police custody, prison and 'secure' mental health facilities has become an annual event, making its way at a funereal pace in silence inch by inch down Whitehall to halt outside Downing Street for an angry protest before continuing noisily to a final rally in Parliament Square.

At last year's event a large banner was carried with 2500 names of those known to have died over the years, including 182 in the previous year, and among those taking part were the mother and other family members of Jean Charles de Menezes. It seemed then an added insult that the police insisted on searching all the bouquets before allowing them to be laid at the gates of Downing St in what I described as "a surreal manifestation of anti-terrorist paranoia."

A decision was made not to hold a march this year, but it was suggested that some of the families might meet to hold a demonstration, and on Saturday afternoon a number of them came to Whitehall for a protest opposite Downing St.

Although some of the cases would appear to have involved deliberate acts of violence and others a woeful lack of the care required, those responsible for these deaths have seldom been brought to justice or even reprimanded for their actions. Where investigations have been held, they have often been seen largely as ineffectual or designed to cover up offences committed by police and prison officers.

Among those present were the family of Sean Rigg, who died after being taken ill in police custody in Brixton Police Station on Thursday 21 August 2008, and Ricky Bishop died in the same police station after being arrested during "Operation Clean Sweep" on November 22, 2001, an action described by some as a "modern day lynching."

I first photographed Pauline Campbell a few months after the death of her daughter in Styal prison in 2003, and was deeply moved. She went on to devote the rest of her life to a campaign not just for justice for her daughter but on behalf of all prisoners, particularly women in prison. I got to know her better after photographing her being assaulted by a police officer at a demonstration outside Holloway Prison after the death there of 24 year old of Jaime Pearce, the eighth woman to die in jail in 2007, after which we exchanged many e-mails. Her own suicide, at her daughter's graveside in May 2008, moved me strongly, and I felt something of this again at seeing the banner with her daughter's image.

On a lamppost on the opposite side of the road, right in front of the Downing Street gates the families had taped a single rose and A4 sheets about three of those who have died. One was simply a photograph of a healthy, athletic looking young man with the caption 1960 LEON 1992.

Below it on a sheet above a photograph of another young man, Jason Thompson, who died in Swansea prison at the age of 26 five years ago on 1 Nov 2004, was a story written by an eleven-year-old girl that brought tears to my eyes, "The person who changed my life." Here is a part of it:

"In 2004 my brother died in prison, but he wasn't suppose to be in prison, the police had got the wrong person it was suppose to be my brother's friend. I was only 6 when Jason (my brother) died. I went to Jason's funeral because he was my big brother and while I was at the funeral I cried and cried and cried. After the funeral I was still crying basically every day, even now I still get up set... He changed my life when he died it made me feel like there was a hole in a part of my life. That's what happens when someone you love dies, it is the worst feeling ever."

On the opposite side of the post was a picture of the mother of Paul Calvert and his son at a demonstration, holding a picture with a photograph of his father and the words "Justice for my Dad. Why? Paul Calvert died Pentonville Prison 24 October 2004."

Paul Calvert was 40, and although the original charges made against him had been dropped he was arrested for being in breach of his bail conditions. Two days after being put into Pentonville he hanged himself. He had actually pressed the emergency button for help, but the alarm bell had been taped over to mute it and the warning light outside the cell was ignored for 40 minutes, allegedly because the officer in charge was playing Backgammon.

Across the road, his mother was holding a banner calling for 'JUSTICE FOR MY SON" and on the back of her t-shirt was the message "My son went to prison to lose his liberty not his life!"

A few more pictures on My London Diary in a few days
 http://mylondondiary.co.uk/2009/10/oct.htm

Peter Marshall
- e-mail: petermarshall@cix.co.uk
- Homepage: http://mylondondiary.co.uk

Comments

Display the following 3 comments

  1. Solidarity — anarchist
  2. solidarity with all involved — George Coombs
  3. Onward.... — 4WardEver UK
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech