This wasn't much of that welcome in evidence last week however when the family of Mohammad Hassan who died on Saturday 9th January 2021 within hours after contact with Cardiff Police held their first meeting with the Wales Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC).
As many of you will know, I have supported the Hassan family from the beginning of the tragic death of their son and involvement with South Wales Police. As a result, I was personally invited to attend this important meeting with the family.
The IOPC agreed that all those listed to attend including me, would be sent a zoom link to the meeting. That link did not arrive until minutes before the meeting was due to start. Surprisingly I was not included in that email
As the meeting was about to begin, Senior Lead Investigator Rebecca Hinton informed the family that they (IOPC) had not sent me the link as they had sought legal advice that concluded that I couldn't attend as my "legal role" was not clear. This is simply bizarre and inexplicable.
I have attended many meetings supporting the families of victims of death in custody held by the IOPC in London over the years. In all that time, I have never been asked to clarify my legal role or as far as I know has my intended attendance been the subject of legal advice.
It will be interesting to hear from IOPC Wales why they felt it necessary to seek legal opinion, what was the question asked and the legal advice they received in response? I have written to the IOPC to ask them that very question.
This decision of the IOPC to deny the Hassan family's right to be accompanied by experienced advisers of their choice can be seen as blatant political interference in a ham-fisted and incredibly clumsy attempt to no doubt cause division between the family and myself. There is no legal reason why I should not attend these meetings as my frequent attendance at London IOPC meetings demonstrates.
The critical question is, what’s the difference between IOPC Wales and London? I would suggest the only differences being is Wales is around 40 years behind London on the question of racial justice. Dealing with a backwater organisation operating as if it was 1981 not 2021 provides all the explanation anyone needs to understand their decision.
Part of the reason will undoubtedly be my public criticism of the IOPC in previous blogs where I highlighted their apparent synchronised press releases with South Wales Police. I wrote about what I believe to be was an attempt to mislead the public, with information designed to appease widespread community outrage, about the circumstances of Mohamud's death.
The meeting itself was an opportunity for the family to press for answers to crucial questions relating to Mohamed's arrest, detention, release without charge, and subsequent death.
Critical questions were put forcibly to the IOPC. However, they had few answers in return.
Giving rise to further concern is that Rebecca Hinton's boss at the IOPC is Ian Andrew who is a retired police officer.
The black community's overwhelming perception is it matters not whether somebody is a currently serving or retired police officer. The culture of institutionalised racism renders the vast majority blind to racism and black injustice. Many in the black community, share the view that these retired officers' predominant perspectives are biased towards the police. I believe this can be seen and detected in the Wales IOPC initial press release referred to above.
Concerning the arrest of Mohamud, we now have strong evidence to suggest that he may have been tasered, more than once, during his arrest.
Again, if this is true, it would dramatically highlight the extent to which the IOPC and South Wales Police were less than forthcoming in providing complete transparency around the circumstances, and the degree of violence used during his arrest.
Is it any wonder they are rarely believed when they seem to conspire to withhold critical information such as this blog to the family of the deceased and the wider public?
Despite the IOPC and South Wales Police media manipulation and attempt to exclude voices like mine in supporting families, the reality about the British black communities open hostility to the so-called "independent police complaints investigation process" will not diminish one iota. The current process is oppressive and fundamentally unjust.
There remain many questions to answer about the arrest and death of Mohamud Hassan, and we continue to demand the police body cam video which the IOPC continues to withhold from the family, and we can all guess why. To date the public petition calling for justice and the release of this footage is 29,000 strong. Please make sure you sign and share.
We must demand that this investigation reshapes and sets new standards in IOPC investigations, or we must bring that institution to his knees, if necessary, in an effort to secure justice. The choice is clear, immediate radical reform or total abolition
In pursuit of these goals, the family have established a Crowd Justice fundraising page that will support their legal strategy to achieve justice.
What is vitally important to understand is that there are two arms to this struggle. The first is to place massive political pressure on the IOPC to open up this investigation, set new and essential precedents for openness and transparency, the second to robustly legally challenge any aspects of their decisions that constitute a fundamental block on the pursuit of justice for the Hassan family.
In Wales, this was achieved when we forced South Wales Police to adopt new standards of investigation in response to the appalling racist injustice suffered by the Bute Town Three in 1997 a case that Hilary Brown (current legal rep for the family) and I were both involved with at the time.
We cannot, and we must not allow the present status quo to remain unchanged. Our job in the name of Mohamud Hassan, George Floyd and the countless other victims of these injustices at the police's hands is to ensure that our demand that #BlackLivesMatter is not just a slogan, but heralds a paradigm shift in our demands for real police accountability.
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