Launching Latin? What about the ‘Our Schools and the Black children’s Conference’? by Richard Sudan

An interesting article was published yesterday by The Daily Mail.

http://johnsblog.dailymail.co.uk/2011/11/why-we-need-more-not-less-latin-in-schools.html

The author Lindsay Johns was praising the Mayor’s initiative to make Latin accessible to London school kids through a voluntary scheme engineered by the big wigs at City Hall. 

He highlights the benefits of Latin and argues that we must dispel the dry image that Latin has been tarnished with.

Fair enough you might say.

But when this is contrasted with the lack of noise made about Black history month for example, it should and will cause some to wonder about the priorities of traditional Tory mouthpieces, and equally about the agenda of our current Mayor.

Whilst the Latin initiative is said to be a voluntary scheme, why is it that City Hall didn’t push a voluntary scheme to celebrate and support Black History Month given the budget cut?

It’s fair to say there is probably a greater demand for an emphasis on Black History Month in London than there is Latin.  And furthermore for other needed provision- because there is further twist which raises even more serious questions.

The annually held forthcoming ‘London Schools and our Conference’ - Which this year has conveniently had the word ‘Black ‘omitted from it - has been for the last few years organized by Diane Abbott. The Hackney North and Stoke Newington Labour MP has been squeezed out this year with a notably unprogressive line-up assuming centre stage, including Lindsay Johns.

This hijacking of the conference, with one of the key note speakers effectively acting as an acceptable mask of respectability for The Daily Mail and the Mayor’s push to introduce Latin, seems naïve at best if well intentioned. 

The Mayor’s track record in dealing with needs sensitive to ethnic minority communities is not great. This could be an opportunity to remedy that, especially since the Mayor is scheduled to speak. 

But with angry rumblings already being heard in campaigning circles, the conference and the propaganda to boot are in danger of damaging the Mayor’s and Michael Gove’s reputation further, as the Secretary of State for Education is also scheduled as a keynote.

Such slick and well oiled propaganda is anything other than progressive and will not be viewed as such should the conference retain its current starting line up.

The conference is being held on Saturday 12^th November.

For more details click here. http://www.london.gov.uk/event-meeting/2011/nov/london-schools-and-our-children-conference

By Richard Sudan

Christopher Alder: Justice remains little more than an ideal for some - by Richard Sudan

Christopher Alder

The story broke at the weekend that Hull City Council had mixed up the body of former British paratrooper Christopher Alder 37 who was said to have been buried over a decade ago with that of Grace Kamara, a Nigerian woman in her 60’s who had died of natural causes.

Alder however had died in police custody, footage of which was captured on CCTV.  He had been arrested by police and was handcuffed face down.  The footage of Alder in the cell surrounded by officers appears to reveal the circumstances in which he had died.  Trousers around his ankles face down in a pool of blood, with officers allegedly making monkey noises, 11 minutes of footage is said to show the police standing around laughing while Christopher lays dying. Police later claimed they thought he was putting on an act.

Needless to say all of the officers involved were cleared of any wrongdoing by 2002.  The independent police complaints commission (IPCC) did however concede that the officers were guilty of “Unwitting racism” whatever that means.  I’m not sure how a person or persons can be unwittingly racist, especially when they are police officers charged with the wellbeing of an individual in their custody.  The resulting tragedy seems more like racism due to negligence, not the by product of some level of incompetence.

It must be acknowledged that this story unfolds in the backdrop of the fight for justice of countless other families who have lost a loved one in police custody.  Here is a list of the individuals who have died in police custody over the last 40 years published by United Family and Friends Campaign
No guesses for how many convictions accompany the list totaling more than 3000.

While a statement from Hull City Council chief executive Nicola Yates conceded that “At the moment, we cannot explain this” the tragedy surrounding the case of Christopher Alder is a sharp reminder of the injustices that many families continue to face and is in many ways a double edged sword.

It’s difficult to view the incompetence surrounding the mix up of his body as anything other than another symptom of a system which routinely fails to convict any police officers of any wrongdoing- especially when a Black person dies in police custody.

Christopher Alder’s sister Janet who along with her family believed she had buried her brother more than ten years ago speaking to press in Yorkshire has said that “I think when we buried Christopher they made a mistake, but because we’d had the funeral they didn’t want to release the body of that woman because it would come out.”

“This is why her family has had a hard time trying to get the release of the body.”

The campaign for justice and dignity for Christopher Alder and countless other families continues.

By Richard Sudan
(Originally published at: http://blogs.independent.co.uk)

How many more people have to die in police custody before the question is satisfactorily addressed? - by Richard Sudan

Who polices the police?

Evidently, the answer is that the police (still) police themselves-a status quo that is a strong a symbol of institutional corruption as there ever was.

The news that none of the officers responsible for the welfare of David Emanuel aka Smiley Culture who died while in police custody in March, will face ‘official’ questioning, charges, or suspension will cause anger among many but will not come as a surprise.

The list of individuals who have died in police custody over the last ten years is vast in comparison to the list of officers who have been convicted of any crime.  The latter list contains zero names.

Many will remember the effect of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry many years ago, and the subsequent Macpherson report which concluded that the Metropolitan Police force was institutionally racist.

That was in 1997.

While of course the charges leveled at the Met then were different, the case became symbolic because it united many together with the purpose of holding the police to account for their actions- and that is the point-we are still demanding justice and accountability today.

And we need justice and reform now.  This year we’ve already seen rioting looting in many areas-the scapegoats for which have been the ‘Broken Britian’ and ‘Pure Thuggery’ soundbite tags.

The myth that there is no relationship between the actions of our government both at home and abroad, and the actions of the police force with the unrest, anger, and discontent we are seeing is ludicrous.

The underlying cause which was drowned out by government apologists is poverty.

To accept the government explanation as to the cause social ills is foolish.  Calling the riots are pure thuggery is akin to describing violence as violent.

The phone hacking scandal saga has revealed the level of corruption present within the police force, and to put it politely the bad judgment of Prime Minister Cameron in appointing Andy Coulson.

 Its not society that is broken. It is our political system and the institutions that should serve the people that are broken.

With an unelected government and an unelected House of Lords, public service cuts kicking in, don’t be fooled into looking the other way as to the real cause of the problems we are seeing.

The real problems are not contrary to poplar belief caused by hoodies raiding JJB or by mythical bogeymen in foreign countries with no passport. 

They are caused by individuals in suits and ties that raid the poor to serve the ruling elite.

We all in this together we are told.  Some apparently are more in it than others.

More than ever we need to challenge institutions such as the police, and challenge policy makers in every way possible.

By RICHARD SUDAN