Police in Poland have warned that fake reports of violent crimes being committed by people fleeing Ukraine are circulating on social media after Polish nationalists attacked and abused groups of African, south Asian and Middle Eastern people who had crossed the border last night.
Attackers dressed in black sought out groups of non-white refugees, mainly students who had just arrived in Poland at Przemyśl train station from cities in Ukraine after the Russian invasion. According to the police, three Indians were beaten up by a group of five men, leaving one of them hospitalised.
Footage and reports suggest People of Colour trying to flee the Russian assault on Ukraine have been blocked from routes of escape. And some western media outlets have been grotesquely characterising the conflict as exceptional because it’s happening within a ‘civilised’ country.
These are some of the appalling examples of racist actions and rhetoric that have been on display amid the conflict.
“No Blacks”
Videos circulated on social media suggested that People of Colour trying to board trains or get through borders have been struggling to do so. The #AfricansinUkraine hashtag showed some distressing footage:
There have been reports of South Asian people struggling to escape Ukraine as well:
Both African & South Asian refugees are at the back of the new processing line that has now been set up by Ukraine to reach Poland. Both communities have been sharing experiences dealing with racism and double standards in getting to safety.#AfricansinUkraine#UkraineRussiaWarpic.twitter.com/LF9C15DScZ
Indian student describes (in English and Hindi) abuse that Indians are experiencing at the border, specifically by Ukrainian border guards. She alleges that women are also being assaulted, hair pulled & that some even have fractures as a result of the abuse. https://t.co/LHKTkJPFjI
A father-of-three trying to leave via bus, meanwhile, told the Independent that his family and others were forced to get off at a border crossing. He said he was told “no Blacks” and commented:
In all of my years as an activist, I have never seen anything like this. When I look into the eyes of those who are turning us away, I see bloodshot racism; they want to save themselves and they are losing their humanity in the process.
Some people have gone to get buses, but they’re not allowing Black people basically onto the buses. They’re prioritizing Ukrainians. That’s what they say
On Twitter, Sky described her and others’ efforts to leave Ukraine in detail. She said that during their long drives to border crossings, they encountered lots of police and military who regularly asked to see people’s documentation. At the border crossing into Romania, she said “local Ukrainians” were aggressive and trying to obstruct their journey onwards:
We have reached the actual border experiencing some threats of violence from some local Ukrainians who don’t believe we should enter. This man keeps circling our car pic.twitter.com/kWw5DjkcL0
Sky said the military ultimately turned them away:
The military just knocked on our window and told us to go now so we are moving the car. The locals are complaining about us to the military and the military is assisting them. We are being compliant in order to remain safe
Racism isn’t only apparent in the treatment of People of Colour trying to flee Ukraine, though. It’s also all over TV screens and in written reporting on the conflict.
Repeatedly, news reports have suggested there’s some kind of exceptionalism in the situation because white, western people are the victims. An ITV News reporter, for example, spoke about the “unthinkable” happening to Ukranians. She stressed that “this is not a developing, third world nation; this is Europe”:
'Now the unthinkable has happened to them, and this is not a developing, third world nation, this is Europe.' pic.twitter.com/BFYvql7iie
The CBS News correspondent, Charlie D’Agata, has since apologised.
The Telegraph, meanwhile, gave a platform to the UK peer Daniel Hannan to write about the conflict as an “attack on civilisation itself”. His article began with the words: “They seem so like us. That is what makes it so shocking”.
These commentators don’t seem to care that Iraq is widely known as the cradle of civilisation, as it’s where the first elaborate urban centres appeared.
An NBC News correspondent also asserted that Poland is welcoming many people fleeing Ukraine because they “are Christians, they’re white” and “not refugees from Syria”:
This was the coverage on why Poland is now openly accepting refugees:
Again sympathies with Ukrainian people but look how deeply racist Western media is, and they set high moral and democratic standards for themselves. https://t.co/mzfgpyE9mSpic.twitter.com/31hy9ufRz0
"We are in the 21st century, we are in a European city and we have cruise missile fire as though we were in Iraq or Afghanistan, can you imagine!?” pic.twitter.com/SzSlJJ9JfR
The BBC, meanwhile, failed to call out Ukraine’s ex-deputy prosecutor general David Sakvarelidze when he talked about how emotional it was to see “European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed”:
[Thread] The most racist Ukraine coverage on TV News.
1. The BBC – “It’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed” – Ukraine’s Deputy Chief Prosecutor, David Sakvarelidze pic.twitter.com/m0LB0m00Wg
As one social media commentator highlighted, some are arguing that now ‘isn’t the time’ to raise the issue of racism:
I know I’ve tweeted a lot about the blatant racism and xenophobia that has been brought to light by the crisis in Ukraine, and I know a lot of you want to default to “now isn’t the time”. But it is, because governments are actively broadcasting their bias for white refugees.
But we must confront racism wherever, and whenever, it appears. And racism is very evident in the accounts from People of Colour about what they’re experiencing in Ukraine. It’s also apparent in the assertions being made in western outlets.
They’ve characterised the conflict as exceptional because of where, and to whom, it’s happening. And this fuels a narrative that it’s somehow less devastating or consequential when war strikes elsewhere, namely in poorer countries with majority populations of People of Colour.
On the show, Chris Hedges discusses America’s inner and outer wars and its nexus with capitalism and empire with Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History at New York University Nikhil Pal Singh.
Washington, D.C.: The Difficulties of Firing Police Officers
A group of hackers attacked the Metropolitan Police Department in 2021, leaking 250 gigabytes of data and confidential files.
Buried in tens of thousands of records, Reveal reporter Dhruv Mehrotra found a disturbing pattern. Records of disciplinary decisions showed that an internal panel of high-ranking officers kept some troubled officers on the force – even after department investigators substantiated allegations of criminal misconduct and recommended they be fired.
Aurora, Colorado: ‘Excited Delirium’ and Ketamine in Police Confrontations
When Elijah McClain was stopped by police in Aurora, Colorado, in 2019, he was injected with a powerful sedative, ketamine, and died after suffering cardiac arrest. His death sparked widespread protests.
KUNC reporters Michael de Yoanna and Rae Solomon covered McClain’s case, and it made them wonder how often paramedics and law enforcement use ketamine and why. What they found led to real change.
St. Louis: The History of Prisoner Disenfranchisement Laws in Missouri
Prisoner disenfranchisement laws have been on the books since the founding of our nation and disproportionately affect voters of color.
Reveal Investigative Fellow and St. Louis Public Radio journalist Andrea Henderson reports from Missouri, where about 63,000 formerly incarcerated people could not vote in the last presidential election. She speaks to a community activist who credits getting his right to vote restored as the start of putting him on his current path.
On 17 February, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner announced the party’s “hardline” approach to law and order. In a shocking statement, the deputy leader urged terror police to “shoot first” and “ask questions second”. People soon took to Twitter to express outrage at Rayner’s disgraceful comments.
Shoot first
Appearing on Matt Forde’s Political Party podcast, Rayner said:
On things like law and order I am quite hardline. I am like, shoot your terrorists and ask questions second.
Explaining her “hardline” approach to law and order, Rayner added:
I want you to beat down the door of the criminals and sort them out and antagonise them. That’s what I say to my local police … three o’clock in the morning and antagonise them.
Black Lives Matter?
The Black Lives Matter movement saw a resurgence in 2020 following the police killing of George Floyd in the US. Anti-racist campaigners in the UK highlighted the police’s disproportionate criminalisation and use of force against Black people in this country, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities or experiencing mental health crises.
A central demand of the anti-racist movement remains a move away from punitive and draconian reactions to criminal justice issues, towards healing and community-centred solutions.
Rayner was among the countless neoliberals to perform solidarity with the anti-racist movement at its peak. In 2020, she expressed solidarity by taking the knee in a bizarre photo opportunity with Labour leader Kier Starmer.
Pointing out Rayner’s bare-faced hypocrisy on the matter, independent media outlet Another Angry Voice shared:
She performatively took a knee for Black Lives Matter …
Then she chuckled away with her grotesque Blairite mate about instilling a "shoot first, think later" mentality in the police, without a single thought about what such a policy would mean for people of colour. pic.twitter.com/h70qZBeY1t
And The Canary‘s former editor-at-large Kerry-Anne Mendoza said:
We cannot let Centrist Labour into power in Westminster.
A “Shoot first, ask questions later” police policy is a death sentence for countless people of colour, especially traumatised, disabled & mentally ill.
Didn’t they kill enough of us last time they were in government? Ffs
Indeed, Rayner’s latest remarks echo Tony Blair’s ‘tough on crime’ approach to criminal justice issues. Blair’s punitive anti-crime policies and legislation created a boom in England and Wales’ prison population, and criminalised many people suffering from addiction and experiencing mental health issues.
Further, evidence demonstrates that such approaches fail to reduce crime.
The policy already exists
Others took to Twitter to highlight the fact that the UK’s terror police already enacts Rayner’s suggested ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ policy. Former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal shared: Former chief prosecutor for North West England Nazir Afzal shared:
Some making out Angela Rayner’s comments about shoot first policy for terrorists is some new policy It’s been operational anti-terror response to “marauding terrorist threats” for yrs If faced with man wearing what purports to be “suicide vest” you disable to prevent greater harm
This is exemplified by the tragic case of Jean Charles de Menezes. In 2005, armed police mistook the Brazilian electrician for a suicide bomber, shooting him seven times at close range and killing him in Stockwell station.
Raising this point, Novara‘s co-founder James Butler tweeted:
The "shoot first" approach lauded by Rayner here led to the police murder of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005. It would be good if Labour politicians engaged either their brain or their conscience before inane hardman electoral posturing in the press. https://t.co/Obeymfzg45
And there was this reminder on the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Derry:
On the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, 17 years after the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, Angela Rayner is very keen for our brave security forces to gun down whichever British citizens they consider in that moment to be a "terrorist". https://t.co/K7s6c8vwea
A freedom of information (FoI) request on the Metropolitan Police’s use of strip-searches has revealed that Black people remain over represented in the force’s use of the humiliating and degrading practice. A concerning number of children are also represented in the data.
And despite calls to reduce the number of strip-searches conducted by the Met, Nottingham criminology researcher Dr Tom Kemp found an increasing trend of the force’s use of the draconian measure.
Disproportionate use of strip-searches
An FoI request by Kemp found that Met police carried out a staggering 172,093 strip searches in the past 5 years.
In spite of calls to reduce the force’s use of the humiliating and traumatic practice, Kemp noted a peak of around 34,000 strip-searches in 2020 which “continued a trend in increasing use of strip searches from before the pandemic”.
Kemp’s analysis of the data revealed that 33.5% of strip-searches carried out by the Met police in the last five years were on Black people. This amounts to 57,733 strip-searches. However, Black people only make up around 11% of London’s population.
Conversely, white British people – who make up nearly 45% of London’s population – accounted for 27% of strip-search victims.
A concerning number of children were reflected in the number of strip-searches the Met has enacted. Indeed, the force carried out over 9,000 strip-searches on children in the last five years, including more than 2,000 under-16s.
In an open letter published in the Guardian in 2015, a group of children’s rights organisation leaders raised concerns abut safeguarding and child protection when it comes to strip-searches. The letter read:
Strip-searching is a humiliating, degrading and frightening experience for anyone, but especially for children who come into contact with the police, a high proportion of whom may have experienced abuse and/or mental health difficulties.
Traumatic experiences
In 2019, the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) drew critical attention to the Met’s excessive number of “unwarranted” strip-searches. The inspectorate raised concerns about the disproportionate number of strip-searches carried out on people from racialised Black and ethnic minority backgrounds. It also noted the high number of children represented in the Met’s strip-search figures, highlighting that some cases were not “properly justified”.
The data gleaned from Kemp’s FoI request comes just weeks after the Met was forced to apologise to Koshka Duff after carrying out a degrading and misogynistic strip-search in 2013 which left her with PTSD.
Recounting her personal experience of strip-searches and reflecting on the mental and physical harm caused by the police’s draconian practice, The Canary‘s Emily Apple said:
It has to stop. This isn’t about police safety. This isn’t about ‘concern’ for detainees’ well being. The police do it when they don’t like someone. They do it to subjugate, humiliate and repress people.
As was the case for Apple, the victims of traumatic, unjustified strip-searches are routinely denied access to justice or recourse.
The Met police’s increasing and disproportionate use of strip-searches is incredibly disturbing. Officers can’t be trusted to respect people’s rights as things stand. We can only speculate as to what the future holds if they have even more powers and less accountability.
For Gaby Mendez Ulloa, an upcoming action by the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, isn’t just some obscure government rulemaking. It’s a life-or-death issue.
Over the past few years, the EPA has been working on new standards for nitrogen oxide, or NOx, emissions from heavy-duty trucks — a key ingredient of the brownish haze that blankets the valley east of Los Angeles where Mendez Ulloa lives. Experts expect the proposed rule, currently under interagency review, to be released any day now.
From her home in Riverside, California, part of the most smog-polluted region in the country, Mendez Ulloa worries about her niece, who is four years old. She worries about her younger brother, who has underlying health issues. She worries about her entire community. “I don’t comprehend how everyone’s not freaking out about this stuff,” she said.
It’s been 21 years since the EPA last revised the rules for NOx emissions from heavy-duty vehicles, like buses, semi-trailers, and other large trucks. During that time, business at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has boomed, fueling an expansion of the warehouse industry in the Riverside area and bringing an explosion of truck traffic and a wide range of health concerns for people living in the epicenter of the freight industry.
Now, the EPA is posed to reduce NOx pollution from trucks like the thousands that rumble through Riverside each day. After a public comment period, the agency will finalize the rule before the end of 2022, and it will apply to 2027 models and beyond. “We really should have been doing this yesterday,” said Angelo Logan, a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, calling a stricter limit on NOx emissions “a no-brainer.”
When diesel combusts, it produces a toxic plume that includes NOx, as well as more than 40 cancer-causing compounds. “Diesel exhaust is really one of the worst actors out there as far as what it can do to your health,” said Will Barrett, director of clean air advocacy for the American Lung Association.
In the atmosphere, NOx reacts with volatile organic compounds to form fine particulate matter capable of penetrating deep into our lungs, as well as ozone — the main ingredient in smog. “Ozone is a corrosive gas that can actually burn the tissue in your airways, like a sunburn in your lungs,” explained Barrett. Exposure to particle pollution and ozone can harm our respiratory and cardiovascular systems, causing a greater risk of asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, heart disease, and even premature death. Both are particularly harmful to children.
Not everyone is affected equally by air pollution, of course. In 2021, the American Lung Association found that people of color were over three times more likely to be breathing the most polluted air compared to white people. Air quality is a particular concern for people living near freight infrastructure, like trucking arteries, railroads, ports, and warehouses — areas that health experts often refer to as diesel death zones.
Diesel exhaust contains NOx, as well as more than 40 cancer-causing compounds.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
In Mendez Ulloa’s community, which is predominantly Latino, there are days when the air quality is so bad that schools don’t allow kids to play outside during recess, worried that the pollution trapped in the valley will trigger nosebleeds or life-threatening asthma attacks. “It’s unconscionable that we would allow for this to happen to a segment of our population that don’t have the means to move,” said Logan.
In 2016, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which includes Los Angeles-Long Beach and the surrounding area, was one of 20 organizations to petition the EPA to update NOx emission standards for heavy-duty engines. While trucks are only one source of NOx — the pollutant is formed when fuels burn at high temperatures in incinerators, power plants, industrial boilers, and rail and ship engines — they have an outsized effect on air quality. In California, for example, heavy-duty trucks make up just 3% of the vehicles on the road, but they’re responsible for more than 50% of NOx pollution from all mobile sources within the state.
“We wanted EPA to move as fast as possible,” said Wayne Nastri, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District. “Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”
Two years later and nearly two decades after the EPA had last updated the rules, then-administrator Andrew Wheeler kicked off the EPA’s rulemaking effort. Not long after President Biden took office, he signed an executive order directing the EPA to follow through on the rulemaking, and to consider updating greenhouse gas emissions standards for heavy-duty engines, as well. On December 7, 2021, the EPA forwarded their proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget. Experts expect it will be released to the public before the end of February.
Environmental advocates hope the EPA will adopt a standard at least as strict as the one California finalized in 2020, and the initial signs indicate they have good reason to be optimistic. On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that the forthcoming federal rule will be modeled on California’s, but that some technical details will likely differ, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The California rule, which will be phased in beginning with 2024 models sold in the state, requires engine manufacturers to eventually reduce NOx emissions by at least 90% and includes provisions to ensure trucks meet standards under real-world conditions and extend warranties. “We know that it’s feasible, we know that it’s reasonable, and we know that it is morally the right thing to do,” said Logan.
Rachel Muncrief, deputy director of the International Council on Clean Transportation, stresses that, while we need to transition the freight system to zero-emissions vehicles as quickly as possible, that won’t happen overnight. That’s why the NOx rule is so important for protecting public health in the interim. “If we do not do a good job on this rule, these vehicles are going to be out on the road polluting for many, many years,” she said.
Logan also wants to see a swift transition to a zero-emission freight system, along with a strong NOx rule for heavy-duty engines and more action on harmful emissions from other elements of the freight industry, like ships and locomotives.
Not only do people living near freight hotspots experience more toxic exposure, they’re also vulnerable to climate-induced disasters, like the intensifying hurricanes that have wallopped port communities in recent years, Logan explained. “Communities around freight facilities get a double whammy.”
A policy advisor at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has a history of far-right associations, The Canary can reveal. The DCMS is led by Nadine Dorries.
Francesca Howard previously worked for UKIP, and currently works for the government in cyber security. And there is a trail of association with extreme far-right figures, including to a Swedish party of Nazi origins, which raises serious concerns.
Who is Howard?
Members of the House of Commons are required to list secretaries and assistants in a register. Howard’s name appears in a register from December 2021. Her LinkedIn page also confirms that she worked as a research assistant, sponsored by Conservative MP for Nuneaton Marcus Jones, for nearly two years.
But Howard previously worked for UKIP at the European parliament and it is during this time that she formed connections with concerning groups.
An anonymous source has shown The Canary documents which list Howard, alongside others, who worked in coalition with UKIP under the Eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group. These documents show that Howard worked for UKIP during UKIP’s involvement in the EFDD.
During the eighth European Parliament (2014-2019) the EFDD was made up of several right-wing parties, including the far-right Sweden Democrats. The Sweden Democrats have neo-Nazi roots, and one of its founders was a member of the Waffen SS. As of summer 2021, it held 60 seats out of a possible 349 in the Swedish parliament. The party claims to have divested from its Nazi roots. But it’s also expressed the view that Islam is the biggest threat since WWII. It additionally wants to bring immigration down to nearly zero.
Suspension
Our sources also provided The Canary with a photo showing Howard posing, amongst other UKIP staffers, with a member of the Sweden Democrats. In 2016, Hope not Hate published an article that featured UKIP figures, including Howard, with Carl Joel Ankar. As Hope not Hate wrote:
Pictured above is Carl Joel Ankar, formerly of the extreme-right Sweden Democrats, enjoying a drink with key UKIP organisers Jamie Illingworth and Francesca Howard. The jolly scene was uploaded as EFDD/UKIP staffer David McClure’s Facebook cover photo on 29 May 2016.
The Sweden Democrats is a far-right party that had to ban members from wearing Nazi uniforms to their meetings in 1996.
In documents seen by The Canary, an EFDD staff register lists both Howard and Ankar. The same article from Hope not Hate explains Ankar’s background:
Ankar was first investigated by European Parliament authorities following comments made on the hate website Flashback in which he called his former teacher “Jewish swine”, expressed support for apartheid and blamed domestic abuse victims for their “inability to absorb verbal criticism”. He has also written online that he trained to be a lawyer in order to better prosecute “leftish muppets and crooked Jews”.
The Canary reached out to DCMS with questions. We asked why Howard was able to take up a position in government having associated with far-right figures. A DCMS spokesperson said:
We do not comment on staffing matters.
Current role
Public trust in civil servants is at an all time low. From PPE contract-related cronyism to scandals about government staff (from press officers to civil servants to MPs) breaking lockdown rules, there is a massive erosion of public trust for those in office.
Howard’s appointment to DCMS only adds to this lack of trust. It also raises a fundamental question. Given the background checks needed to work at parliament, it should be inconceivable that Howard’s background wasn’t examined. If that is the case, did DCMS take any steps to ensure that Howard no longer associates with far-right figures? Or perhaps, more worryingly, they just didn’t care.
With the Build Back Better Act frozen in Congress, Democrats now see their best hope in tackling environmental disparities lies in the Environmental Justice for All Act. On Tuesday, Democratic U.S. Representative Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona pushed the bill forward in a hearing held by the House Committee on Natural Resources, which he chairs.
In more than three hours of testimony, Republicans on the committee pushed back on the bill, groundbreaking legislation that aims to address environmental disparities in vulnerable communities across the country. Grijalva and his co-author, Representative A. Donald McEachin of Virginia, drafted the bill to prioritize environmental justice in federal policy and reintroduced the Act in the House of Representatives last March. The bill was created with the help of an extensive network of stakeholders — including representatives from grassroots organizations that focus on everything from climate justice to industrial pollution in communities that have experienced the health effects of toxic emissions and industrial pollution for decades.
Despite Republican protests that the bill will harm communities reliant on the oil and gas industry for work and taxes levied on these industries to pay for municipal services, Grijalva told Grist it’s time for action to protect the health and well-being of these communities. He said the plan is to move forward in what’s known as the mark up phase — receiving input from congressional members, including amendments — while simultaneously receiving feedback from affected communities. “The input from my Republican colleagues to do nothing is not going to happen,” said Grijalva, noting that they have a choice to either strengthen the bill or kill it. His hope is that Republicans collaborate to strengthen the bill given the lives at stake from ongoing pollution. “It’s an issue that is not going to go away, it’s an issue that potentially affects 40 million people in this country directly,” he said.
During the hearing, Republican Rep. Pete Stauber of Minnesota criticized the act for creating more red tape, opportunities for “radical special interest groups” to file more lawsuits, and for requiring federal agencies to develop more reports and studies. His concern, he said, is that all of this will keep affected workers in these industries on the sidelines. “When it claims to speak to so-called environmental justice, it plainly misses the mark,” said Stauber during the hearing.
It’s those studies and the accompanying data that Laura Cortez, a co-executive director with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice in Los Angeles says are necessary to ensure that the cumulative impacts of pollution in disadvantaged communities are considered before more polluting industries are allowed into communities like hers. “There is no single, evil villain polluter in EJ communities. What I see as one of the largest issues is that municipalities and agencies currently treat polluters on a case-by-case basis without assessing cumulative impacts,” Cortez told the committee on Tuesday.
Democratic U.S. Representative Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona is a co-author of the Environmental Justice for All Act.
Caroline Brehman / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
A life-long resident of Bell Gardens, she noted that she grew up next to railroad tracks with trains that rumbled past at 3 a.m., within five minutes of an oil refinery, a block from warehouses, and attended school next to the 710 freeway, which she said sees 40,000 to 60,000 truck trips daily. Cortez’ community has worked to address soil, air and water quality issues throughout the region, and has found success when partnering with scholars that can quantify the effects of cumulative pollution. But a comprehensive federal approach to examining these impacts is needed, she said.
Grijalva pushed back on his Republican colleague’s claims that the Environmental Justice for All Act jeopardizes economic security, specifically jobs, noting that the critics presented no quantitative facts to support their arguments. On the other hand, he noted, there is extensive research showing the disproportionate effects of environmental contamination — from petrochemical facilities, landfills, waste incinerators, oil refineries, smelters, and freeways — on low-income residents and communities of color. “That’s just the reality and it’s far from coincidence, and I hope my Republican colleagues are not trying to rewrite history,” said Grijalva. “We’re trying to correct history and make sure it doesn’t happen again, and that’s what the bill is about.”
The Environmental Justice for All Act aims to:
Amend the Civil Rights Act to allow private citizens and organizations that experience discrimination (based on race or national origin) to seek legal remedies when a program, policy, or practice causes a disparate impact.
Provide $75 million annually for research and program development grants to reduce health disparities and improve public health in disadvantaged communities.
Levy new fees on oil, gas, and coal companies to create a Federal Energy Transition Economic Development Assistance Fund, which would support workers and communities transitioning away from greenhouse gas-dependent jobs.
Require federal agencies to consider health effects that might accumulate over time when making permitting decisions under the federal Clean Air and Clean Water acts.
While the Biden administration has made some strides over the last year to address the concerns of environmental justice communities through executive orders and via EPA funding to prioritize long-standing contamination in vulnerable communities, legislation is critical to ensure that these priorities are codified into law, said Grijalva.
The government promised to learn from Windrush, but citizens trafficked to Syria by Islamic State have also been abandoned
The government’s proposed new powers to strip people of their citizenship without notice rang alarm bells in communities across Britain. Despite being the first Muslim woman in our country’s history to serve in the cabinet, my family and I could be deprived of our citizenship without being told about it, and cast out of our home country if the Home Office believed this would be conducive to the public good. Two in five people from ethnic minority backgrounds could be at risk.
Successive British governments have torn down the basic belief that all British citizens in this country are and should be equal. The consequences of this government’s unprecedentedly broad use of citizenship-stripping powers have become even more clear to me after hearing directly from the families of British citizens detained in north-east Syria.
A video shows a five-year-old playing with a gun watched over by a uniformed man from a neo-Nazi organisation. You could be forgiven for thinking this BBC footage was from Louis Theroux’s new documentary Forbidden America. But you’d be wrong.
In fact, this footage was broadcast immediately after Theroux’s documentary about the far-right in the US, on the BBC Weekend News. But unlike Theroux’s expose, this news item failed to mention that the group it platformed is a neo-Nazi organisation known for ultranationalism, anti-semitism, and Nazi iconography.
The Azov Regiment
As part of the BBC‘s coverage of the situation in Ukraine, journalist Orla Guerin reported on people preparing for invasion. The segment covered a training afternoon for civilians organised by the National Guard. But it neglected to tell viewers that it was the Azov Regiment – formerly the Azov Battalion – that ran the training event.
Azov was formed in 2014. Its first commander Andriy Biletsky is now the leader of the far-right ultranationalist National Corps party. In 2010, Biletsky stated that Ukraine’s mission was to:
lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans].
Azov’s links to neo-Nazi ideology are well documented. Even the Sun ran an article in January describing it as “neo-Nazi militia”. The paper further stated that:
On the Azov Battalion-affiliated Thule Signal Telegram channel, openly racist jokes and memes are posted.
The US State Department described the group as a “nationalist hate group”, and it’s banned on Facebook.
Enter the BBC
Despite these well-known links, the BBC uncritically visited the Azov training afternoon. It depicted young and old people learning how to fire guns, including “a granny with a gun”. And, perhaps most worryingly, it interviewed an Azov major. Over the footage of the earlier-mentioned five-year-old, Guerin narrates that there’s “a sense of peril for Ukraine and its people, like 5-year-old…”. She continues her dramatic voiceover, stating there’s a “sense that danger is closing in”.
Yet not once does Guerin mention the dangers of the organisation they’re training with. She simply describes Azov as the “national guard”. The soldier who she interviews is captioned as a “Major” with the “National Guard”.
Euro News also covered the same training event. But the difference is that it headlined its article:
Ukraine far-right group offers training to civilians
You can watch the BBC segment here:
No excuses
Even if Azov’s links to the far-right weren’t so widely documented, there is no excuse for the BBC not giving its viewers any background information on the organisation it platformed. Moreover, the BBC itself has reported on those links in the past. A 2014 BBC article contains this description of Azov:
Run by the extremist Patriot of Ukraine organisation, which considers Jews and other minorities “sub-human” and calls for a white, Christian crusade against them, it sports three Nazi symbols on its insignia: a modified Wolf’s Hook, a black sun (or “Hakensonne”) and the title Black Corps, which was used by the Waffen SS.
The same article also states:
As a result, the question of the presence of the far-right in Ukraine remains a highly sensitive issue, one which top officials and the media shy away from. No-one wants to provide fuel to the Russian propaganda machine.
You couldn’t make it up.
The Canary contacted the BBC for a response, but it declined to comment.
Gross negligence or gross manipulation?
At best, the BBC‘s coverage could be gross negligence. It reported on an event and didn’t bother to question who was running it. At worst, it was gross manipulation, deliberately ignoring Azov’s far-right connections in favour of dramatic footage of people ready to arms themselves to fight against the evil Russian invaders.
Either way, the BBC has a responsibility to its viewers that it didn’t uphold in this piece. According to Ofcom in 2020, the BBC “remains the most-used news source”. 56% of adults get their news from BBC One. And according to its charter, the BBCshould:
act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output..
With its segment on Ukraine, the BBC failed to do this. Instead, it platformed dangerous racists without comment. Whatever its reasons, this is simply not good enough.
A new review of 10 years of healthcare research has found “stark ethnic inequalities” affecting parts of the health system including mental health services and the pay levels of ethnic minority staff.
“Race inequity”
The review was first reported in the Guardian and seen by the PA news agency. It recorded inequalities in every field it studied: mental healthcare, maternal and neonatal healthcare, digital access to healthcare, genetic testing and genomic medicine, and the NHS workforce.
The Observatory director Dr Habib Naqvi said the review made a:
clear and overwhelming case for radical action on race inequity in our healthcare system.
He added:
It is clear that existing evidence on the stark health inequalities faced by ethnic minority communities has not led to significant change.
This is why the Observatory has been established: to synthesise what already exists, translate it into actionable policy recommendations, and to challenge leaders to act.
The report said the impact of racism within the NHS workforce included evidence of a pay gap affecting “black, Asian, mixed and other groups”. And during the pandemic, coronavirus (Covid-19) infections were higher in ethnic minority staff. Some of the the largest inequalities were recorded in mental healthcare.
It found GPs were less likely to refer ethnic minority patients to the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme compared to white patients. Moreover, Black children were 10 times more likely to be referred to mental health services via social services than a GP compared to white children.
The review of maternal healthcare found evidence of negative interactions, stereotyping, disrespect, discrimination, and cultural insensitivity. This led to some ethnic minority women feeling ‘othered’, unwelcome, and poorly cared-for.
The time is now
Lead investigator Dr Dharmi Kapadia from the University of Manchester said “the time for critical action” was now. She said:
For too many years, the health of ethnic minority people has been negatively impacted by a lack of high-quality ethnic monitoring data recorded in NHS systems; lack of appropriate interpreting services for people who do not speak English confidently and delays in, or avoidance of, seeking help for health problems due to fear of racist treatment from NHS healthcare professionals.
Our review confirmed that all of these issues are still to be tackled by the NHS. The evidence on the poor healthcare outcomes for many ethnic minority groups across a range of services is overwhelming, and convincing.
Our report funded by @NHS_RHO shows that there are severe racial inequalities in the NHS across many services.
The research was conducted by the University of Manchester in conjunction with the University of Sheffield and the University of Sussex.
Over 13,000 research papers were screened and 178 studies were included in the final review. One problem encountered by the researchers was a lack of research into ethnic experiences in a number of specific areas.
An NHS spokesperson told the Guardian:
The pandemic has shone a stark light on health inequalities across the country and the NHS is already taking action to improve the experiences of patients and access to services.
The NHS has set out what local health services should be focusing on over the next year so they can make these improvements in their local communities and is already working closely with the Race and Health Observatory to drive forward the recommendations set out in this report.
The report. which is expected to be published in full later this week, urges further ‘critical action’ to be undertaken by organisations including NHS England, NHS Improvement and NHS Digital.
Founder of police monitoring group Bristol Copwatch John Pegram is launching a case against Avon & Somerset Police. It’s on the grounds that the force is in breach of data protection laws. And he’s currently raising funds to ensure that he can take the force to court.
Data protection breach
Pegram seeks to challenge his inaccurate record on the Police National Computer (PNC) – the nationwide database for criminal records information.
The PNC entry concerns a conviction for assaulting a police officer during a protest in 2018. The protest was against a fascist English Defence League (EDL) rally in Bristol. Pegram told The Canary that officers arrested him after warning him to remove his face covering.
He was convicted of assaulting a police constable. He subsequently appealed his conviction to the Court of Appeal and the High Court. While the conviction was upheld, the High Court stated that:
All the evidence was that the contact with the officer’s face was accidental, albeit the Crown Court found it was reckless.
Even the officer involved conceded that Pegram had “not calculated to hit the officer in the face”.
However, Pegram discovered that not only did the PNC list the wrong officer, it also gave a completely inaccurate description of what happened. It stated that he had punched the officer in the face.
This inaccuracy means that the force is in breach of the 2018 Data Protection Act. And it’s also an inaccuracy that has far-reaching consequences. As Pegram, a mixed-race Black man, sets out in his crowdjustice appeal:
The information on my PNC record is real time information provided to officers on the street. It’s the sort of information that is shared in intelligence briefings and could influence senior officers decision making. We need only look at how willingly the police use force against black people to understand the implications.
Targeted by the police
Pegram wants to take Avon & Somerset Police to court to ensure that the force corrects his criminal record. And he’s also seeking compensation for the “distress and trauma” the police’s data breach has caused. He believes officers have targeted him on a number of occasions due to being flagged as “a violent criminal” on the PNC database.
Pegram – who frequently attends protests around the country – said:
It’s important to put this breach right as it labels me as a dangerous person, when it comes to protest it may influence how the police treat me when I exercise my right to freedom of assembly.
He suggests that his community organising work and his mixed-race identity may also have contributed to this harassment.
A spokesperson for Avon & Somerset Police told The Canary:
Our professional standards department has investigated a number of complaints made by a man alleging officers have harassed him. Each of the incidents he’s highlighted have been assessed and the service provided was deemed to be acceptable in each, with no evidence of misconduct identified.
Holding the force to account
In January 2022, Bristol Copwatch issued a data rectification notice on Pegram’s behalf. The organisation raised concerns that Avon & Somerset Police is in breach of the Data Protection Act. It urged the police force to change Pegram’s criminal record to accurately reflect the 2019 High Court ruling. The force has still failed to rectify Pegram’s criminal record.
So Pegram feels that he now has no choice but to take the force to court over the data breach. Setting out his intentions for the court case, Pegram said:
The police must be held to account and comply with data protection regulation and my data must accurately reflect the court ruling of 2018 and 2019.
A spokesperson for Avon & Somerset Police told The Canary:
we continue to assess a complaint from the man relating to the accuracy of information recorded about him on the Police National Computer (PNC). Should it be necessary, we will liaise with partners including HM Courts Service and ACRO Criminal Records Office, which manages the PNC.
Kevin Blowe, from police monitoring organisation Netpol, told The Canary:
John’s case highlights Netpol’s long-standing concerns about the way inaccurate information retained on secretive police databases can have alarming real-world consequences. In John’s case, the wrong details on police records reinforces the stereotype of black communities as violent that is so prevalent in institutionally racist everyday policing.
It has taken John’s enormous persistence to discover the false data that means he is routinely targeted and harassed by the police. Now, hopefully, he will raise enough funds to finally start to clear his name.
Represented by Bindmans LLP, Pegram is raising funds to ensure that he can take the police force to court over the suspected data protection breach. Supporters can donate via his crowdjustice campaign.
Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) has warned it will apply to court for an injunction unless striking workers stop picketing on hospital premises and reduce the number of protesters. This comes just five days into a planned 44-day strike by GOSH security guards over unfair terms and conditions. But striking workers – supported by trade union United Voices of the World (UVW) – aren’t backing down without a fight.
Attempts to silence striking workers
The striking guards are fighting for full sick pay and the same benefits as other NHS workers, including annual leave and sick leave.
A GOSH spokesperson told The Canary:
Our lawyers have written to the union involved in this action requesting a signed undertaking: to stay out of Trust premises; leave entries and exits clear for patients, families and staff; and protest in a manner which respects the setting of a children’s hospital.
However, UVW has said that it “will vigorously contest” GOSH’s application for an injunction. A spokesperson for the trade union told The Canary:
UVW does not accept that GOSH has any right to the undertakings sought which are oppressive and a draconian and unjustified encroachment on our member’s human rights to picket and protest.
An ongoing battle
UVW alleges that on one day of strikes, the picket line was “violently attacked” outside GOSH CEO Matthew Shaw’s offices.
GOSH condemned the violent incident in a statement, saying:
We understand that a GOSH contractor was present when the assault took place and we are working with the police to understand his role before deciding what action is most appropriate.
The striking security guards are a group of predominantly Black, Brown and migrant workers. In January, GOSH security guards launched legal proceedings against their employer at an employment tribunal. They – along with GOSH cleaners – are claiming indirect racial discrimination over pay inequality and the denial of NHS benefits.
Explaining why he’s taking part in the industrial action, GOSH security guard Samuel Awittor said:
GOSH is made up of departments of families. And in a family circle, even when one member of the family feels he’s been left behind, or he’s not been treated fairly, there’s always going to be a reaction.
Regarding GOSH’s attempts to silence its striking workers, UVW general secretary Petros Elia said:
It is shocking that GOSH would rather throw tonnes of money at corporate lawyers to attack their security guard’s human rights to strike and protest, rather than simply treating them with respect and as equal members of the NHS.
He added:
We have made clear that we remain available to negotiate at any time, and hope that common sense will prevail and that the security guards’ reasonable demands will be met without the need to move to an all-out strike.
A GOSH spokesperson told The Canary:
We fully support the right to strike and the right to peaceful protest, but the recent conduct of protesters has caused distress to children and families and affected our ability to provide essential care.
UVW is committed to fighting GOSH management’s union busting attempts. In the meantime, the industrial action continues.
Anyone looking to support the striking security guards can donate to their strike fund, sign their petition, or write a letter to GOSH bosses urging them to give hospital guards equal NHS terms and conditions.
On 1 February, human rights organisation Liberty launched a judicial review claim challenging the lawfulness of the Metropolitan police’s gangs matrix. Acting on behalf of two clients, Liberty intends to take the Met to court on the grounds that the gangs matrix is racist, and breaches human rights law. Liberty is urging people to support the case by raising awareness and donating to their fundraiser.
The gangs matrix
The gangs matrix is a database of people that the Met police thinks could be gang affiliated. The watchlist’s unclear criteria includes who people are friends with, or what music videos they share on social media. According to the criteria, sharing drill or grime music videos can help the Met place someone on the watchlist. Both of these genres are firmly rooted in Black British youth culture.
In 2019, Wired found that the watchlist includes children as young as 13. And a 2020 report by Amnesty found that in 2017, 78% of people on the gangs matrix were Black, even though only 27% of individuals convicted of serious youth violence offences were Black.
The Met shares gang matrix data with other bodies, including immigration authorities, schools, workplaces and NHS service providers. This increases people’s risk of deportation and unfair treatment.
According to Liberty, police consider most people on the matrix to be “low risk”. But the watchlist’s “enforcement actions” are extremely damaging. They include exclusion from school, benefits and housing, as well as eviction. Police are also likely to target those on the matrix with more stops and searches and police surveillance.
Police don’t tell people if they are on the watchlist. And there is no way for individuals to appeal their inclusion, or seek a review of the data.
We all want to feel safe in our communities, but the gangs matrix isn’t about keeping us safe – it’s about keeping tabs on and controlling people, with communities of colour and Black people worst affected.
Arguing that the gangs matrix “is fuelled heavily by racist stereotypes”, she added:
Secret databases that risk young Black men being excluded from society based on racist assumptions are not a solution to serious violence, they are part of the problem.
Challenging the discriminatory database
Liberty has launched a judicial review claim challenging the lawfulness of the Met’s gangs matrix on the grounds “that it discriminates against people of colour, particularly Black men and boys, and breaches human rights, data protection requirements and public law principles”.
Liberty is acting on behalf of Awate Suleiman, who has experienced and witnessed harassment by Met police since childhood. Suleiman tried to find out whether he is on the gangs matrix in 2019. The Met only told Suleiman that he isn’t on the database in December 2021 after he threatened legal action.
The fact that I had to threaten the police with judicial review before they would confirm whether I was on the GVM [gangs violence matrix] is not good enough and another indication of the Met’s intention to covertly surveil young, black people.
Liberty’s legal team is also acting on behalf of Unjust UK, an organisation that works to challenge discriminatory policing.
Unjust UK’s founder Katrina Ffrench told Liberty:
The clandestine nature of the Gangs Matrix must be challenged. Everyone has a right to be policed fairly and treated equally before the law. It is hoped that the decade-long wrongs of the Matrix can be remedied in bringing this case.
CONTENT WARNING: This article contains references to sexual violence and criminal acts perpetrated by police officers
A watchdog has published “shocking” racist, sexist, and homophobic messages exchanged by police officers. The highly offensive language uncovered was dismissed as “banter”. The messages have been revealed while a review of ‘culture’ at the Met is ongoing.
“I would happily rape you”
Details of messages from WhatsApp groups and a Facebook chat group including multiple references to rape, violence against women, and racist and homophobic abuse were unveiled by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) on 1 February.
The watchdog took the unusual step of publishing the messages in full – despite the fact that much of the content is too offensive to print in mainstream news coverage – as it detailed the “disgraceful” behaviour of Metropolitan Police officers based in a now disbanded Westminster team between 2016 and 2018.
Nine are still serving with the force, while another is working as a contractor in a staff role.
Messages exchanged in two WhatsApp groups and one Facebook group included multiple references to sexual violence including, “I would happily rape you” and “if I was single I would happily chloroform you”.
In other discussions one officer bragged that he had hit his girlfriend, and told a colleague: “It makes them love you more”, while another boasted that he had repeatedly slept with a prostitute who he met through work.
One officer was referred to as “mcrapey raperson” in WhatsApp messages because of rumours that he had brought a woman to a police station to have sex with her.
Homophobic language was also used including one entry that said “f*** you bender”, and a number of racist messages including references to African children, Somali people, and Auschwitz that are too offensive to print.
There were also references to ‘Muslim fanatics’ and offensive terms for disabled people, and messages about police officers attending a festival dressed as known sex offenders and a molested child.
The Met response
The messages were uncovered as part of nine linked investigations into officers based in Westminster, mostly at Charing Cross police station, that began in March 2018 after allegations that an officer had sex with a drunk person at a police station that were later found unproven.
The Metropolitan Police Force and its leader Cressida Dick have been accused of corruption on more than one occassion. Referring to its “values”, the Met said in reference to the latest accusations of police misconduct:
The conduct of a team of officers at Charing Cross Police Station in central London does not represent the values of the Metropolitan Police Service.
The behaviour we uncovered was disgraceful and fell well below the standards expected of the officers involved. While these officers predominantly worked in teams in Westminster, which have since been disbanded, we know from other recent cases that these issues are not isolated or historic.
The learning report we are publishing today is shocking and contains language which is offensive – and some may find it upsetting. However, we felt it was important to provide the context for the public, the Met and other forces, for why such hard-hitting recommendations are necessary.
The IOPC found that the offensive language was dismissed as banter to hide bullying, and that officers felt unable to raise concerns.
Messages revealed included: “There’s a few of those grassing c**** I would like to knife”, “grassing is dirty”, and “I’ve made it the no grassing no shit of anyone team… it’s my f****** baby”.
Naseem said:
Our investigation showed the officers’ use of ‘banter’ became a cover for bullying and harassment. Colleagues were afraid to speak out about these behaviours for fear of being ostracised, demeaned or told to get another job.
We are grateful to those officers who were brave enough to speak to us about the cultural issues that existed within these teams, realising that in doing so they risked further bullying. This took courage. Hopefully our learning report and recommendations will give officers the confidence to come forward in the knowledge that people are listening and that changes will be made.
The relationship between the police and the public is critical to maintaining the principle of policing by consent.
The concerns about behaviour and culture addressed in our report, if allowed to continue and go unchallenged, risked causing serious damage to that relationship.
Gross misconduct
Fourteen officers were investigated by the IOPC, and two were found to have a case to answer for gross misconduct – one of whom resigned and one was sacked. Misconduct was proven against another two, one of whom received a written warning. Another four had internal measures to improve their performance.
Deputy assistant commissioner Bas Javid said:
I am angry and disappointed to see officers involved in sharing sexist, racist and discriminatory messages. It’s clear we have a lot of work to do to ensure bullying and discrimination does not exist in any part of the Met.
The actions of these officers between 2016 and 2018 were unacceptable, unprofessional, disrespectful and deeply offensive. I read their messages with increasing disgust and shame.
We haven’t waited for the IOPC’s report to take action – a number of officers have been subject to misconduct proceedings, including one officer dismissed and one who would have been dismissed had he not already resigned.
Every Met employee has also been spoken to about responsible use of social media.
We recognise that there is need for real change in the Met and we are committed to creating an environment that is even more intolerant to those who do not uphold the high values and standards expected of us.
Culture
A review of culture and standards in the Met is currently being carried out by baroness Casey. It comes in the wake of the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer, and the violent policing of a vigil following her death.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said:
I am utterly disgusted by the behaviour outlined in this IOPC report, which details the shocking evidence of discrimination, misogyny, harassment and bullying by police officers.
The conduct of these officers was totally unacceptable and what has been revealed by these investigations will only further damage public trust and confidence in the police.
It is right that the team concerned has been disbanded and the police officers found to be involved have been dismissed, disciplined or have left the police.
Anyone found to be responsible for sexism, racism, misogyny, Islamophobia, antisemitism, bullying or harassment does not deserve to wear the Met uniform and must be rooted out.
Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) cleaners from racialised minority backgrounds are taking their employer to court claiming indirect racial discrimination over pay inequality. A group of 83 GOSH cleaners are claiming indirect racial discrimination within the NHS
A dispute over pay and conditions
The United Voices of the World (UVW) union is supporting the group of mostly Black, Brown and migrant workers. The litigation comes after GOSH cleaners won a case against their outsourcing in 2021. The workers originally worked for private contractor OCS Group UK. The case forced GOSH to bring its cleaners’ contracts in-house.
But the group alleges that GOSH is still not giving them the same pay and benefits as other NHS workers, who are predominantly white.
Memuna Kabia, a cleaner for GOSH and a UVW member said:
GOSH has been robbing us for a long time, and finding excuses not to treat us fairly. They are meant to look after us, but they left us in the hands of private companies who bullied us and denied us our right to NHS pay and other benefits. GOSH knew about it and did nothing. So we need to take them to court to get justice.
Institutional racism
In 2021, UVW supported outsourced Royal Park attendants in a similar case. In a landmark judgement, an employment tribunal ruled that the Royal Park’s outsourcing of contracts was unlawful as it amounted to indirect race discrimination.
The litigating GOSH cleaners are demanding the same pay and conditions as other NHS staff. They also seek compensation for the years spent working under inferior private contracts.
UVW general secretary Petros Elia said:
This lawsuit will be a permanent stain on the already tarnished reputation of GOSH. And it should also send a strong message to other NHS Trusts out there, that if you outsource your facilities workers and don’t give them NHS contracts, then we’ll be coming for you in the courts and on the picket line.
GOSH security guards – who are gearing up to strike – are also considering bringing the same legal claim against their employer on the grounds that their outsourcing is race discrimination.
GOSH responds
Addressing the claims, a spokesperson for Great Ormond Street Hospital told The Canary:
Our cleaning and domestic services colleagues are valued members of our team and we welcomed them directly into NHS employment in August 2021. Since then, we have been working to bring the multiple sets of terms and conditions of this team in line with NHS frameworks. All staff, irrespective of role, are on NHS contracts.
They added:
On transfer we aligned sick pay, maternity and paternity pay, holiday pay and provided access to the NHS pension scheme. All staff also received a 3% pay rise, with the lowest paid staff receiving an extra 4%, to ensure alignment with their NHS counterparts. In line with other NHS staff, all staff are on standardised pay rates based on role.
They concluded:
This has been a complex process because staff had so many different contractual agreements which were protected by law on transfer. These have to be unpicked carefully to ensure no-one is accidently disadvantaged. We are committed to full-scale harmonisation of terms and conditions across all areas and continue to work towards this in partnership with the domestic services.
Anyone looking to support the litigating cleaners can sign their petition or send a letter to GOSH trustees. People can also sign up to join the campaign in solidarity.
A Tory MP has revealed how rampant Islamophobia is in the Tory Party while trying to defend Boris Johnson.
Speaking on LBC, Tory MP Michael Fabricant said that Nusrat Ghani’s accusations were a “lame excuse” for being sacked because she’s:
hardly someone who looks like a Muslim.
What an appalling, disgraceful thing to say. If the Tories wanted to show they were serious about tackling Islamophobia, they could start by removing the whip from Michael Fabricant https://t.co/xWmApQbZvK
Michael Fabricant has a history of anti-Muslim bigotry, and the fact he still retains the Conservative whip is testament to the problem of institutional Islamophobia within the party. https://t.co/NL3dJ9dEav
Ghani was told by a government whip that “Muslimness was raised as an issue” as a reason for her sacking.
A politically vulnerable Johnson has now found himself forced to announce an inquiry into her sacking. It should come as little surprise that Johnson had to be under media – and therefore public – scrutiny to finally announce an inquiry. Ghani’s allegations of Islamophia were downplayed when they came to light two years ago. Instead, Ghani was told to go through the internal party complaints process.
The very use of the term ‘Muslimness’ is yet another reminder of the institutional Islamophobia that runs through the veins of the Tory party:
It starts with comparing Muslim women to 'letter boxes'. It ends with sacking Muslim women ministers for 'Muslimness'.
Racist politicians put BAME people in inherent danger
The Canary’s Afroze Fatima Zaidi has pointed out that the Tory party’s multiple instances of Islamophobia and racism. She has also listed the racial slurs that Boris Johnson has made over the years, from calling Black people “flag-waving piccaninnies” to stating that “Islam is the problem” in the wake of the London bombings. These bigoted comments are repeatedly ignored by a party that is in itself institutionally racist and Islamophobic. And while we have racist politicians in power, people of BAME backgrounds are inherently at risk. After Johnson’s article describing Muslim women as looking like “letter boxes” and “bank robbers”, there were serious consequences for Muslim women. Zaidi said:
In the week following the article’s publication, hate crime against Muslim women rose by an astronomical 375% – a stark reminder of the real-world consequences of racism from those in power. Johnson has repeatedly refused to apologise for these comments.
Of course, Tory racism doesn’t stop at Johnson. It’s important to remember that Ghani herself is instrumental to a party that seeks to divide its population by bringing more and more fascistic legislation into law, and by continuing worldwide domination through bombing Muslim countries.
Asim Qureshi, researcher at CAGE, argued:
How to sympathise with someone who used her Muslimness to prop up military, security and prison industrial complexes that actively harmed Muslims in the UK and around the world?
By letting someone else do it. Got zero time for Gani becoming our cause célèbre.
The announcement of the Ghani inquiry comes after a long line of disgraceful racist policies and actions since the Tories came back into power. Zaidi pointed out that:
what’s also beyond doubt is the racism inherent in Tory policies over the last ten years. The Hostile Environment and Go Home vans, the mishandling of Grenfell, the Windrush scandal, the flourishing of the Prevent strategy, all happened under Tory rule.
So we probably shouldn’t be surprised by Johnson’s handling of Ghani’s dismissal, nor should we be surprised by the comments being made by Tory MPs defending the prime minister.
Statistics just published by Birmingham University have revealed that the Gypsy and Irish Traveller communities are “least liked” in the UK, followed by Muslim people. With politicians like this having sway over the population, and with a mainstream media quick to parrot racist politicians, it’s tragically unsurprising.
Featured images via Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licences CC BY 3.0 and CC BY-SA 2.0, resized to 770px X 3403px
Deputy prime minister Dominic Raab has said there will be no “specific investigation” into a Tory MP’s claim that she was told she’d been fired as a minister due to concerns about her “Muslimness”.
Nusrat Ghani said a government whip told her that her faith was “making colleagues uncomfortable”. This was when she lost her job as a transport minister in 2020.
No investigation
Raab said while Ghani’s allegation was “incredibly serious”, there would be no investigation by the Conservative Party unless she submitted a formal complaint.
However, in her interview, Ghani said she had not pursued the matter at the time. This was after warnings that she’d be “ostracised by colleagues” and her “career and reputation would be destroyed”.
Her explosive claim brought immediate condemnation from Conservative MPs and opposition parties alike. And Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi led demands for an inquiry.
Nusrat Ghani said she was warned her career would be destroyed if she pursued the matter (Christopher McAndrew/UK Parliament/PA)
In her interview, Ghani, the MP for Wealden, said she was shocked when the issue of her background and faith was raised. It came up during a meeting in the whips’ office after the mini-reshuffle in February 2020. She told the paper:
It was like being punched in the stomach. I felt humiliated and powerless…
I was told that at the reshuffle meeting in Downing Street that ‘Muslimness’ was raised as an ‘issue’, that my ‘Muslim women minister’ status was making colleagues uncomfortable and that there were concerns ‘that I wasn’t loyal to the party as I didn’t do enough to defend the party against Islamophobia allegations’.
It was very clear to me that the whips and No 10 were holding me to a higher threshold of loyalty than others because of my background and faith.
In the following weeks, I was informed that if I persisted in raising this that I would be ostracised by colleagues and my career and reputation would be destroyed.
Party whips leading by example
In a dramatic move, chief whip Mark Spencer outed himself as the individual who spoke to Ghani. But he strongly denied using the words Ghani claimed:
To ensure other Whips are not drawn into this matter, I am identifying myself as the person Nusrat Ghani MP has made claims about this evening.
These accusations are completely false and I consider them to be defamatory. I have never used those words attributed to me
The row erupted at the start of a crucial week for Johnson. Sue Gray, the senior civil servant investigating lockdown parties in Downing Street, is expected to deliver her report this week.
The conduct of the whips’ office has come under intense scrutiny recently. It’s following claims that tactics amounting to blackmail were used to pressurise Tory MPs seeking to oust Johnson.
Raab told Sky News’s Trevor Phillips On Sunday programme:
[Spencer] has categorically denied it in what can only be described as the most forthright and robust terms indeed…
If there are any claims like this they should result in a formal complaint which allows a formal investigation to take place.
As the Chief Whip has pointed out Nus hasn’t made a formal complaint. She was asked to do so. In the absence of doing so there will be no specific investigation into this.
Only two of the government briefings held at the height of the coronavirus pandemic were led by a female politician, and in both cases it was the home secretary, Priti Patel, a report into gender representation across the UK’s top jobs has shows.
The 2022 Sex and Power Index, compiled by the Fawcett Society, a charity campaigning for women’s rights, showed equality is still “decades off”, as men continue to dominate the top ranks of law, politics and business.
Campaigners have called for action to end the isolation of Shaqueille Plummer, who has been held in segregation at HMP Long Lartin for over a year.
They claim that Shaqueille has also been denied access to his personal possessions, such as his books and legal paperwork for the last five to six months. However, the Ministry of Justice now claims that these have been given to him.
Campaign group Anti-Carceral Solidarity (ACS) is calling for people to write letters demanding an end to his isolation:
Advice says segregation should be no longer than 14 days
In 2015, a ruling from the UK’s Supreme Court found that:
The use of segregation in prisons should always be considered as a serious measure. Indeed, the Council of Europe’s Committee on the Prevention of Torture advises that for punitive purposes any stint should be limited to 14 days
However, prisoners are routinely held in excess of 14 days. In fact it’scommonfor UK prisoners to be held in segregation for years.
A 2021 Justice Inspectorates report found that “Prisoners were held in segregation for too long” at Long Lartin.
“Segregation” is a euphemism for solitary confinement – spending almost 24 hours alone in a cell every day, deprived of all sensory stimulation. Spending over 2 weeks in solitary confinement is reported to cause lasting harm.
ACS says that the denial of Shaqueille’s access to property – coupled with his segregation – was “inexcusable”:
Shaqueille has no books, no TV and no electric. He is confined to an empty cell on his own for almost 24 hours a day. Access to reading materials is vitally important to survive the brutal conditions of solitary confinement. Such degrading treatment, on top of solitary confinement, is inexcusable.
When The Canary contacted the Ministry of Justice about why Shaqueille’s books were being withheld, we received this response, which may well show that the pressure from ACS has been working:
Mr Plummer received books this morning and his property has been collected from Reception and is due to be issued today.
“Inhumane treatment of Black prisoners” in segregation
ACS has also pointed out that Shaqueille is a Black prisoner, and demands that the prison authorities “Stop the inhumane treatment of Black prisoners in HMP Long Lartin segregation unit”.
ACS has described the regime Shaqueille has to go through to get unlocked from his cell. It claims:
Shaqueille’s unlock level has been increased to 4 man unlock in the last week, meaning that he now has to have 4 officers with him to leave the cell, all wearing body cams. Before they enter the cell, he has to stand against the wall in a degrading and dehumanizing position (known as back wall unlock). These increased punitive measures are being used against Shaqueille because he is Black.
The Canary contacted the Ministry of Justice for a comment about ACS’ allegations of racism at Long Lartin, we received this reply:
We have a zero tolerance for discrimination in our prisons and will not hesitate to take action where necessary.
All claims are investigated and there is no evidence of any racial discrimination in this case.
Not the first time
This isn’t the first complaint that a Person of Colour has been mistreated in the segregation unit at Long Lartin. In September 2021, The Canary reported on alleged racism and Islamophobia at the prison. One Muslim prisoner was allegedly disciplined by prison officers after an argument arose when officers tried to stop prisoners from carrying out a call to prayer.
Segregation “used as a weapon against the vulnerable”
According to long term prisoner Kevan Thakrar – a prisoner who has spent time in the UK’s segregation system:
[segregation] is used as a weapon against the vulnerable, marginalised and all too often the minorities.
This is backed up by statistics. A 2017 study by the Runnymede Trust – a racial equality thinktank – found that Black and Muslim prisoners were more likely to be subjected to segregation in prison.
No impunity
The reason why it’s so easy for prisoners to be held in segregation for so long is because it happens away from public scrutiny. It’s up to us not to forget about those inside.
Headteachers are calling on the government to address pay disparities among ethnic groups, as campaigners observe Ethnicity Pay Gap Day.
‘Erosion’
Headteachers’ union NAHT said teachers of Black, Asian, or minority ethnic background risked facing a “double hit” as a combination of already “eroding” pay and ethnicity wage inequality. The latest government figures show that in 2019 the median hourly pay in all industries for those in the white ethnic group was £12.40 per hour, compared with those in ethnic minority groups at £12.11 per hour – a pay gap of 2.3%.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of NAHT, said:
We’ve seen school leadership pay eroded for everyone over the last decade, but for those with protected characteristics, including leaders from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background, they risk facing a ‘double hit’ as a result of inequalities in the pay system.
Despite a broad national pay framework, education does not escape the barriers which contribute to pay gaps.
Our report Closing the Gender Pay Gap in Education: A leadership imperative, published at the end of last year, highlights the challenges for women, including women of colour, and stresses the need for greater information on the pay penalties that people from different ethnic backgrounds working in education may face.
He said the union was calling on the government to implement calls from the School Teachers’ Review Body, which makes recommendations on the pay, professional duties, and working time of school teachers in England and the wider sector, for a full review of the pay framework.
Among the union’s requests is a comprehensive analysis by the Department for Education (DfE) on the equality implications of the teachers’ and leaders’ pay system and consideration of the role that performance-related pay has on any differences.
#EthnicityPayGap
The call comes on 8 January, declared Ethnicity Pay Gap Day by the #EthnicityPayGap Campaign. It’s an organisation founded to raise awareness of the gap and encourage the government to make ethnicity pay disparity reporting mandatory.
Research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found in September that just 13 FTSE 100 companies report any ethnicity pay gap. CIPD chief executive Peter Cheese previously said mandatory reporting of ethnicity pay gap data would create “fairer workplaces and societies and kickstart real change”.
In September, the government said it was considering an independent report on the ethnicity pay gap by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities and would “respond in due course”.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), across 2012 to 2019, those of Chinese, white Irish, white and Asian, and Indian ethnicities typically made more than white British people, but many other ethnic groups – including Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and Arab – consistently earned less than those of white British ethnicity over the same time period.
The ethnicity pay gap was largest in London, at 23.8% in 2019, and smallest in Wales at 1.4%. However, in the East of England those from an ethnic minority background made 8.6% more than white British people.
A police officer has been dismissed after regulators investigating the sharing of photographs of the murder scene of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman found him to have used a racial slur in a text chat.
Racism in the Met
PC Harry Chandler, who was based in North-East London, used “the P-word” in a WhatsApp message to another police officer about which area of London to rent a flat in, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said. The slur was revealed during an investigation into photographs taken at the scene of the sisters’ murders in Fryent Country Park in Wembley in June 2020, the watchdog confirmed.
The IOPC said Chandler had been dismissed without notice after allegations of gross misconduct were proven at a two-day disciplinary hearing which concluded on 17 December.
Deniz Jaffer (left) and Jamie Lewis were jailed after sharing crime scene photos of the murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman (Victoria Jones/PA)
The independently chaired disciplinary panel found the case proven that Chandler had breached the standards of professional behaviour relating to equality and diversity, and had shown discreditable conduct, the IOPC said.
Chandler, who admitted the allegation, will also be placed on the barred list preventing him from future employment within the police service.
IOPC regional director Graham Beesley said:
Chandler’s offensive use of language in his WhatsApp messages came to light while we investigated the photographs taken at the scene of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry’s murders, by former Met officers Jamie Lewis and Deniz Jaffer.
His dismissal today sends a clear message that the use of offensive language, whether on or off duty, is wholly unacceptable.
The former Met officers Lewis and Jaffer were sentenced to two years and nine months for taking and sharing photos of Smallman and Henry as they lay dead. The IOPC confirmed that messages from Chandler were found on a phone belonging to Lewis during its initial investigation into the murder scene photos.
The watchdog said it then received a separate referral from the Met in July 2020 and completed its investigation in May 2021.
Lewis’s failure to challenge the messages was among the allegations put to a recent accelerated hearing organised by the Met when he was dismissed from the force following his conviction for misconduct in public office.
Throughout the continental United States, people of color are more likely to be exposed to air pollution than white people, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
Researchers from the University of Washington explored racial and ethnic disparities by comparing air-pollution levels to census data from 1990, 2000 and 2010. That data included information about income status. Focusing on six major air pollutants, the team’s findings revealed that people of color are, on average, more likely to breathe in polluted air, regardless of income.
While lower-income groups generally faced greater exposure than their wealthier counterparts, those differences were not as pronounced as the racial and ethnic disparities, senior author Julian Marshall told Grist.
“Even if you account for differences in income, you still see disparities,” he said.
The study dovetails with a large body of research showing that decades of segregation and racist housing policies have resulted in people of color being more likely to live near highways, power plants and other sources of pollution.
“This paper is a chance to recognize that, while every community is unique, there are some factors that play out over and over again consistently across our country,” said Marshall, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at UW, in a press release. “If we go state by state, there’s no place where there are no environmental justice concerns.”
While previous research has analyzed air pollution disparities in specific locations during particular time periods, this study is relatively novel in that it provides a national analysis of exposure disparities among racial and ethnic groups, including trends over time in each of the lower 48 states and Washington D.C.
Building on the team’s previous research that showed people of color in the U.S. are disproportionately exposed to nitrogen dioxide, which is emitted in vehicle exhaust, the team expanded their research to include five additional pollutants that have been shown to harm human health. The new study incorporates carbon monoxide, ozone, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter, including both a larger class of particles categorized as PM10, such as dust or pollen, and smaller particles known as PM2.5, which includes harmful molecules in vehicle exhaust.
To determine the concentration of air pollutants for each census year, the researchers compiled pollution estimates from satellite data and EPA monitoring stations. These levels were then overlaid onto census demographic blocks for the contiguous U.S., including the race/ethnicity categories Black, Asian, Hispanic and white.
Disparities varied depending on location, but for all years and all pollutants, people of color had the highest level of exposure. Although pollutant concentrations have declined overall since 1990, when the Clean Air Act was strengthened through a series of amendments, that trend continued in each of the census years.
In 2010, Asian Americans faced the highest levels of transportation-related pollutants such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, as well as ozone; Black Americans experienced the greatest exposure to PM2.5 and sulfur dioxide; and Hispanic communities were exposed to the most PM10. With the exclusion of ozone and sulfur dioxide, the average national exposure to pollutants was lowest for white Americans.
Overall, the study shows air quality has improved over the past three decades, yet despite some declines, disparities persist. Environmental justice advocates say clean air protections must be enforced equitably so that communities of color can breathe air as clean as their white counterparts do.
“There have been so many improvements. But we still see these disparities persist, even after two decades,” said lead author Jiawen Liu, a UW doctoral student in civil and environmental engineering. “We hope this information will motivate change.”
Four people are to go on trial accused of criminal damage in relation to the toppling of a statue of slave trader Edward Colston. Rhian Graham, 29, Milo Ponsford, 25, Jake Skuse, 36, and Sage Willoughby, 21, will go on trial at Bristol Crown Court after denying charges of criminal damage.
“Heroic”
The bronze memorial to the 17th century slave merchant was pulled down during a Black Lives Matter protest on 7 June last year. It was later dumped in Bristol Harbour before being recovered by Bristol City Council. The topplers have previously been called “heroic”:
Heroic protesters in Bristol, England pulled down and flung into a river the bronze statue of Edward Colston, a prominent 17th Century slave trader.
His ships transported about 84,000 of our ancestors from Africa to the Americas, not counting thousands tossed into the Atlantic. pic.twitter.com/yVKpb4mG25
— Facts About Africa (@OnlyAfricaFacts) June 8, 2020
From left, Milo Ponsford, Rhian Graham and Jake Skuse arrive at Bristol Crown Court earlier this year (Ben Birchall/PA)
Charges allege that the four defendants, together with “others unknown”, damaged the Colston statue and plinth of a value unknown without lawful excuse. They are all on unconditional bail. Judge Peter Blair QC, the Recorder of Bristol, will preside over the trial.
The statue of King William III in Queen Square in Bristol has been wrapped in 'fragile' tape this morning. Slave trader Edward Colston transferred a large amount of shares in the Royal African Company to William III when he became king in 1689. pic.twitter.com/gcDZsWQtrY
However, there are also those who believe that unrest in Britain today can be directly blamed on the toppling of a slave trader’s statue:
Since Colston's statue came down our country has become a far worse place, far more intolerant, far more blinkered, far more divided, race set against race.
That's why this video absolutely sickens me, to see all that being cheered and applauded. https://t.co/rqNHUIUaAT
— Save Our Statues -Robert Poll (@_SaveOurStatues) December 13, 2021
On 11 December, anonymous artist Banksy sold t-shirts to fundraise for those on trial. He said at the time:
Next week the four people charged with pulling down Colston’s statue in Bristol are going on trial.
I’ve made some souvenir shirts to mark the occasion. Available from various outlets in the city from tomorrow. All proceeds to the defendants so they can go for a pint.
Despite the moral and ethical case for slavery being long-since settled, the statue of Colston remained standing until 2020. It’s unclear how long it would have remained standing if not for the intervention set to be put on trial.
The Canary has covered the saga of the toppling since the statue first went into the harbour. In June 2021, Eliza Egret wrote:
The toppling of the statue came after years of campaigning and protests by Countering Colston and its supporters. The group had previously achieved a number of significant concessions, including the decision by Bristol Music Trust to change the name of the Colston Hall. And after the events in June 2020, a number of buildings and landmarks around Bristol named after the slave-trader finally bowed under pressure to change their names.
Street artist Banksy will be selling T-shirts to support four people facing trial accused of criminal damage in relation to the toppling of a statue of slave trader Edward Colston.
Toppled
The anonymous artist posted on Instagram pictures of limited edition grey souvenir T-shirts. They’ll go on sale on 11 December in Bristol. The shirts have a picture of Colston’s empty plinth with a rope hanging off, with debris and a discarded sign nearby and ‘BRISTOL’ written above.
Banksy said proceeds from the sale will be given to the four people facing trial next week in Bristol for criminal damage. The topplers have previously been called “heroic”:
Heroic protesters in Bristol, England pulled down and flung into a river the bronze statue of Edward Colston, a prominent 17th Century slave trader.
His ships transported about 84,000 of our ancestors from Africa to the Americas, not counting thousands tossed into the Atlantic. pic.twitter.com/yVKpb4mG25
— Facts About Africa (@OnlyAfricaFacts) June 8, 2020
Milo Ponsford, Rhian Graham, and Jake Skuse (Ben Birchall/PA)
A gift from the Bristol-based artist
In a post on social media, Banksy said:
Next week the four people charged with pulling down Colston’s statue in Bristol are going on trial.
I’ve made some souvenir shirts to mark the occasion. Available from various outlets in the city from tomorrow. All proceeds to the defendants so they can go for a pint.
Bristol-based Banksy said sales would be limited to one per person and each T-shirt would cost £25 plus VAT.
Sage Willoughby (Ben Birchall/PA)
Rhian Graham, Milo Ponsford, Jake Skuse and Sage Willoughby face trial at Bristol Crown Court from 13 December.
The bronze memorial to the 17th century slave merchant was pulled down during a Black Lives Matter protest on 7 June 2020. It was then dumped in Bristol Harbour and later recovered by Bristol City Council.
Charges allege that the four defendants damaged the statue without lawful excuse, jointly and with others. The statue of the slave trader is a listed monument belonging to the city council.
The defendants are accused of committing the offence “intending to destroy or damage such property or being reckless as to whether such property would be destroyed or damaged”.
A long time coming
Despite the moral and ethical case for slavery being long-since settled, the statue of Colston remained standing until 2020. It’s unclear how long it would have remained standing if not for the intervention set to be put on trial.
The Canary has covered the saga of the statue toppling since it first went into the harbour. In June 2021, Eliza Egret wrote:
“The toppling of the statue came after years of campaigning and protests by Countering Colston and its supporters. The group had previously achieved a number of significant concessions, including the decision by Bristol Music Trust to change the name of the Colston Hall. And after the events in June 2020, a number of buildings and landmarks around Bristol named after the slave-trader finally bowed under pressure to change their names.
“Glad Colston’s Gone released a statement on the anniversary, saying:
We…support the anti-racist aims of the protests throughout the summer 2020. We abhor the legacies of institutional and structural racism arising from European colonisation and the trafficking, enslavement and transportation of African men, women and children into plantation slavery in the Caribbean and Americas.”
The final episode of Mississippi Goddam shares new revelations that cast doubt on the official story that Billey Joe Johnson accidentally killed himself.
This week marks the 13th anniversary of Johnson’s death. His family is still seeking justice. Our reporting brought up questions that the original investigation never looked into. Host Al Letson and reporter Jonathan Jones go back to Mississippi to interview the key people in the investigation, including Johnson’s ex-girlfriend – the first recorded interview she’s ever done with a media outlet. The team also shares its findings with lead investigator Joel Wallace and the medical examiner who looked into the case.
Finally, after three years of reporting, we share what we’ve learned with Johnson’s family and talk to them about the inadequacy of the investigation and reasons to reopen the case.
The public inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic should examine the “mishandling” of the NHS 111 service, bereaved families have said.
“Horrific” consequences
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group said the role of the telephone advice service in the early stages of the crisis was to “alleviate the burden on the NHS”, with “horrific” consequences. Despite an extra 700 call handlers being added, the service was quickly “swamped” as the first wave hit and operators were making life or death decisions with just 10 weeks training, it argued.
Around a fifth of the group’s then 1,800 members (more than 350 people) at the end of the first wave believed that the 111 service had “failed to recognise how seriously ill their relatives were and direct them to appropriate care”. It is one of several critical issues families and more than a dozen expert groups believe the promised inquiry must cover when it starts next year.
The groups have published the report Learn Lessons, Save Lives, saying they had not been consulted by Downing Street on the scope of the probe. Other key areas they want the inquiry to examine include:
The government’s pandemic preparedness.
The disproportionate impact on Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and the role of socio-economic inequalities and structural racism.
Shortages of basic PPE for health and care workers and inadequate risk assessments.
The policy to discharge hospital patients into care homes without prior testing.
How the crisis affected clinically extremely vulnerable and disabled people.
“Could it all have been so different?”
Lobby Akinnola, a member of the bereaved families group, said his father Olufemi Akinnola called NHS 111 four times over two-and-a-half weeks in April 2020 but was told that he should not go to hospital. He believes the assessments were informed by his father saying he did not have blue lips – a symptom of hypoxia that as a black man he did not have.
The 60-year-old was thought to be recovering from coronavirus, but he was experiencing hypoxia (low blood oxygen) that proved to be fatal.
Lobby, 30, said:
It’s hard not to believe that if my dad had gone to hospital, he might still be with us today.
A healthy, active man, I can’t help but wonder if he’d received different advice from 111, could it all have been so different?
If he had been white and his lips had turned visibly blue, would he have received the same advice? Would I still have my dad?
Lobby said he does not blame operators, adding:
111 must be a key issue that the inquiry looks at, and the families that lost loved ones as a consequence of the failings resulting from the government’s mishandling of the service must be at the forefront of that.
“Ghosting”
A government spokeserson said:
Every death from this virus is a tragedy and our sympathies are with everyone who has lost loved ones.
We will ensure the inquiry gets to the bottom of many of the questions thousands of bereaved families have about the pandemic.
We have committed to holding a full public inquiry as soon as is reasonably possible, and will appoint the chair of the inquiry by Christmas and consult bereaved families and other groups on the terms of reference before they are finalised.
It is critical we understand what happened in detail but, at the moment, it is right that public servants continue to focus their efforts on tackling the pandemic before moving on to the inquiry in spring.
A separate inquiry, by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch, was launched earlier this year following concerns that the advice given did not fully respond to severity of reported symptoms and delays in answering or returning calls.
In September, when meeting members of the bereaved families group for the first time, Boris Johnson said an inquiry chair would be appointed by Christmas and families would be consulted on the probe’s terms of reference. Last week the group complained that the PM was “ghosting” them and said they want to avoid a situation where they are consulted close to Christmas, which will be distressing for those facing the festivities without loved ones.
Downing Street has said the inquiry is due to start in spring 2022.
Black communities around Mississippi have long raised concerns about the suspicious deaths of young Black men, especially when law enforcement is involved.
Curley Clark, vice president of the Mississippi NAACP, calls Billey Joe Johnson Jr.’s case an example of “Mississippi justice.”
“It means that they still feel like the South should have won the Civil War,” Clark said. “And also the laws for the state of Mississippi are slanted in that direction.”
Before Johnson died during a traffic stop with a White sheriff’s deputy, friends say police had pulled him over dozens of times. And some members of the community raised concerns that police had been racially profiling Black people.
Reveal investigates Johnson’s interactions with law enforcement and one officer in particular.
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