Priti Patel’s Home Office should be stripped of responsibility for the Windrush compensation scheme, MPs said after a “litany of flaws” was identified in the way it operates.
‘Fear, humiliation, and hurt’
The cross-party Commons Home Affairs Committee said the scheme should be transferred to an independent organisation to increase trust and encourage more applications. The MPs said the design of the scheme contained the same “bureaucratic insensitivities” that led to the Windrush scandal in the first place, which was a “damning indictment of the Home Office”.
The scheme was set up to compensate members of the Windrush generation who were wrongly denied their lawful immigration status as a result of Home Office policies. The MPs found that, as of the end of September, only 20.1% of the initially estimated 15,000 eligible claimants had applied, just 5.8% had received any payment, and 23 individuals had died without receiving compensation.
The committee said:
The treatment of the Windrush generation by successive governments and the Home Office was truly shameful.
No amount of compensation could ever repay the fear, the humiliation and the hurt that was caused both to individuals and to communities affected.
It was “deeply troubling” that the Home Office’s handling of claims “has repeated the same mistakes which led to the Windrush scandal in the first place”.
Home Affairs Committee chairwoman Yvette Cooper said the situation was ‘truly shocking’ (Kirsty O’Connor/PA)
Claimants face a “daunting application process”, “unreasonable requests for evidence”, and were “left in limbo in the midst of inordinate delays”, the committee’s report said.
“Too often, injustice has been compounded rather than compensated,” the MPs said. “This is unacceptable and must not continue.”
“Truly shocking”
A Home Office spokesperson said:
The Home Secretary and the department remain steadfast in our commitment to ensure that members of the Windrush generation receive every penny of compensation that they are entitled to.
The Home Secretary overhauled the scheme in December to ensure more money is paid more quickly – since then the amount of compensation paid has risen from less than £3 million to over £31.6 million, with a further £5.6 million having been offered. There is no cap on the amount of compensation we will pay out.
We are pleased this report welcomes the changes made to the scheme in December and we continue to make improvements, such as simplifying the application process, hiring more caseworkers and removing the end date.
We firmly believe that moving the operation of the scheme out of the Home Office would risk significantly delaying vital payments to those affected.
The MPs behind the report argue the reforms have not gone far enough. The committee’s Labour chairwoman Yvette Cooper said:
It has been four years since the Windrush scandal emerged and it is truly shocking how few people have received any compensation for the hardship they endured at the hands of the Home Office.
It is particularly distressing that 23 individuals have died without receiving any compensation.
Urgent action is needed to get compensation to those who have been so badly wronged.
She said it was ”staggering, given the failures of the Windrush scandal, that the Home Office has allowed some of the same problems to affect the Windrush Compensation Scheme too”.
At the urging of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna who is the first Indigenous person to hold a cabinet-level position in a U.S. presidential administration, the federal government is beginning a formal process to remove racist and derogatory names from lands under its jurisdiction.
Last week, Haaland ordered the Interior Department’s Board on Geographic Names to institute procedures to remove terms such as “squaw,” which is found in the names of more than 650 federal sites. For the first time in U.S. history, a federal order now explicitly designates “squaw,” a racist and misogynist term used as a slur against Indigenous women by settlers, as a derogatory term.
In a statement, Haaland said that the move marks a “significant step in honoring the ancestors who have stewarded our lands since time immemorial.”
“Racist terms have no place in our vernacular or on our federal lands,” she added. “Our nation’s lands and waters should be places to celebrate the outdoors and our shared cultural heritage — not to perpetuate the legacies of oppression.”
The new task force charged with implementing the process will be made up of representatives from federal land management agencies, while history experts, members of the general public, and representatives of Indigenous communities will be tapped to create an advisory board to review and recommend the name changes, according to the order. This move accompanies pending Congressional legislation to rename more than 1,000 names on federal land that currently include derogatory terms.
The Native American Rights Fund, which has long called for the removal of derogatory place names, applauded the move.
“Names that still use derogatory terms are an embarrassing legacy of this country’s colonialist and racist past,” said John Echohawk, the group’s executive director. “It is well-past time for us, as a nation, to move forward, beyond these derogatory terms, and show Native people — and all people — equal respect.”
The order could empower activists across the country, including those living in the area currently named Squaw Valley, located in Fresno County, California. For two years, residents have claimed that local officials have been unwilling to meet with them to discuss renaming the valley.
Following Haaland’s announcement, Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig indicated that the federal order would not necessarily alter the stance of county officials. “When I saw the Secretary make that decision that they made, I was a little bit taken aback because they are one individual,” he told The Fresno Bee. “But there are other voices that are out there that need to be heard, too, that are just as valuable as her opinion.”
While changing federal names has historically been an arduous process that can take many years in some cases, several name changes have established a precedent that Haaland is building upon. For example, following the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the peak of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, the Board on Geographic Names took actions to eliminate the use of derogatory terms for Black and Japanese Americans. And in recent years, states like Oregon, Maine, Montana, and Minnesota have passed legislation prohibiting the use of the word “squaw” in place names.
Harris Academy Tottenham fired teacher Josh Adusei after he publicised allegations about the school’s draconian ‘zero tolerance’ policies. He accused the school of institutionalised racism, adding that new policies disproportionately impacted Black pupils and children with special educational needs (SEN).
Moreover, Adusei also accused the school’s senior leadership of bullying staff. He’s taking the academy to tribunal on grounds of unfair dismissal. As part of the National Education Union (NEU)’s Black Educators’ Conference, the union’s Black Educators Alliance is has tabled a motion in support of Adusei, calling for an end to racist discrimination against all Black staff and students.
Allegations of institutional racism
In April 2021, Adusei launched a petition accusing Harris Academy Tottenham of institutional racism. The petition urging the school’s executive principal to resign has gained over 6,690 signatures at the time of writing. He launched the petition just weeks after student protests at Pimlico Academy and Batley Grammar.
In the petition, Adusei alleged that, since taking up the leadership role in September 2020, the school’s executive principal introduced ‘zero tolerance’ behaviour policies which disproportionately impacted Black and other racially minoritised pupils, as well as students with SEN. The petition alleged that during his first month in the role, the principal excluded three Black students.
Highlighting her concern about the lack of oversight and accountability in the academies sector, NEU Black educators executive Denise Henry told TheCanary:
Academies like the one where Josh worked, are particularly concerning: they are not democratic structures in that they are not accountable to their local authorities and local communities; they are often in highly ethnically diverse areas with high levels of socio-economic disadvantage; they are proponents of zero tolerance behaviour policies which disproportionately affect Black pupils and those with SEND [special educational needs and disabilities], amongst other already marginalized groups.
Harris Academy Tottenham is located in the north London borough of Haringey. Fixed-term exclusion rates in Haringey for Black Caribbean children are more than five times higher than their white counterparts. The school is part of one of England’s biggest multi-academy trusts, the Harris Federation. A 2018 Guardian investigation raised concerns about academy heads’ excessive use of their power to exclude pupils.
Bullying staff
Adusei also alleges that the school’s principal was “bullying staff into accepting redundancy” as part of restructuring plans.
On the day Adusei published the petition, senior leadership suspended him from his role as PE teacher. He was “swiftly fired” following a misconduct investigation, according to a Crowdfunder set up to support him. According to Adusei, he’s been living without a salary for eight months. Meanwhile he has appealed against his dismissal, claiming that Harris Academy Tottenham leadership fired him after whistleblowing. School leadership hasn’t responded to his request, but Adusei has taken the case to tribunal.
Zero tolerance policies
According to Adusei, pupils took to the petition’s comments section to share their experiences. They shared their accounts of the draconian environment the school’s new leadership instilled. One stated that teachers “treat us like inmates”. Another claimed that their experiences as a student at the academy had contributed to their mental ill health, and that since the change in leadership, the school was “run by white people…who don’t understand the children”.
Following a spate of alleged threats against the executive principal, Change.org suspended the petition’s comments section. Adusei stated that he did not condone the alleged threats. However, he argued that by removing all comments, the platform was curtailing students’, staff, and parents’ free speech. He agreed to remove the principal’s name from the petition.
Not a unique experience
Henry told The Canary:
There is abundant evidence spanning decades that institutional racism is alive and well in education and Josh’s case brings it to light very sharply.
She added:
Black staff are more likely to be made redundant, be on temporary, precarious posts, be on support plans, more likely to lack pay progression. We know about the ethnicity pay gap and there is very limited support for Black educators to progress. Black children need and deserve to see themselves represented in education at all levels.
Highlighting that school leaders are more likely to discipline Black educators nationwide, labelling them as “aggressive” or “troublemakers”, she concluded:
Black lives should matter in Education. Too many Black workers are forced out of their jobs, and too many are considering leaving because of feeling devalued and because of the impact of racism on self-esteem.
Black educators unite
On 11-13 November, Black educators are coming together for NEU’s Black Educators’ Conference. Henry is moving a motion in support of Adusei and all Black educators. The motion, seconded by Adusei, states:
Sadly, a number of our members have reported feeling let down by the Union in race discrimination cases, in particular being denied legal assistance.
And it goes on to say:
Conference believes this situation has to be addressed without delay, and that the Union must ensure that members facing racism have robust support and representation, including re-evaluating the criteria of our threshold for taking cases to [employment tribunal].
NEU’s Black educators are calling on the union’s executive to develop robust mechanisms for dealing with cases of discrimination, and to develop a new, more inclusive executive committee.
An NEU spokesperson told The Canary:
It’s absolutely right to say that many Black staff face discrimination in schools and things aren’t changing fast enough. Everyone has to do more, and do better. We need better training for leaders and good policies and practices embedded in every school and college.
And they went on to add:
The NEU is here to support every individual member if they’ve faced discrimination at work. We need to challenge all discrimination but also change things through proactive conversations about racism. This should include asking Black staff and Black young people what they feel about where they work and learn and what’s happening for them.
They concluded:
The NEU keeps our advice and procedures under review to ensure good access to advice and support. There is always more to do and more to learn and we’re fully committed to doing that.
Support for Adusei
As well as supporting Henry’s proposed motion, the Coalition of Anti-racist Educators (C.A.R.E.) has launched a crowd-funder on Adusei’s behalf, saying:
Josh is the example of exactly the kind of teacher our young people desperately need and deserve
The coalition is urging supporters to donate to the fund to help Adusei get back on his feet, fight his case at tribunal, and realise his proposed community initiative supporting young people’s mental health.
The Canary contacted Harris Academy Tottenham, the Harris Federation and the NEU for comment, but received no response by the time of publication..
Billey Joe Johnson Jr. and Hannah Hollinghead met in their freshman year of high school. Hollinghead says Johnson was her first love, and in many ways, it was a typical teen romance. Friends say they would argue, break up, then get back together again. Some people were far from accepting of their interracial relationship.
On Dec. 8, 2008, they were both dating other people. According to Hollinghead and her mother, Johnson made an unexpected stop at her house, moments before he died of a gunshot wound during a traffic stop on the edge of town.
But it appears that investigators failed to corroborate statements or interview Johnson’s friends and family to get a better idea of what was going on in his life on the day he died. Reveal exposes deep flaws in the investigation and interviews the people closest to Johnson, who were never questioned during the initial investigation.
In a first-of-its-kind investigation, on Tuesday the U.S. Department of Justice, or DOJ, announced an environmental justice probe into wastewater management and infectious disease programs managed by the Alabama Department of Public Health as well as the health department of the state’s Lowndes County. The historic investigation is centered on the widely-chronicled wastewater overflow problems in Lowndes County and the surrounding Black Belt region, which has led to sewage inundating the yards of predominantly Black residents for years.
Public health departments are required to operate their wastewater disposal systems and infectious disease measures in a safe, uniform, and equitable manner, DOJ officials said on Tuesday. Over the last several years, the state and county health departments have received millions of dollars in federal funding to reconfigure and improve their waste treatment systems with little to show for it, prompting the probe. DOJ officials said that Alabama officials are cooperating with the investigation.
Federal prosecutors in the department’s civil rights division will explore whether Alabama officials discriminated against Black residents in a manner that led them to experience the adverse effects of poor wastewater treatment, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said on Tuesday morning.
“State and local health officials are obligated, under federal civil rights laws, to protect the health and safety of all their residents,” Clarke said. “Sanitation is a basic human need, and no one in the United States should be exposed to risk of illness and other serious harm because of inadequate access to safe and effective sewage management.”
Alabama’s Black Belt region is named for the dark rich soil that fueled cotton plantations and the U.S. slave trade, but that type of soil makes it nearly impossible for septic tanks, which filter and transport wastewater, to function. These issues were recently brought to national attention by Catherine Coleman Flowers, who grew up in Lowndes County and recently published a book on the wastewater crisis. (Flowers was also a 2017 Grist Fixer.)
The lack of safe and clean disposal options for wastewater in the U.S. South has led to the uncontrolled spread of diseases and parasites, such as hookworms. Across the country, roughly 1 in 5 wastewater systems aren’t functioning at their full capacity, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers — and these problems are being exacerbated by increasingly frequent severe weather events linked to climate change. Communities of color in the U.S. are disproportionately burdened by aging and failing wastewater infrastructure.
A 2017 study by researchers at Baylor University found that more than 30 percent of residents in and around Lowndes County — where roughly 30 percent of the people live in poverty — had tested positive for hookworm. In addition, the study found that 73 percent of Lowndes County residents reported exposure to raw sewage inside their homes.
According to Clarke, the DOJ’s investigation is its first ever to enforce Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights act for an environmental program funded by the department, alluding that there may be more to come.
During the announcement of the probe, Clarke attributed some of the county’s problems to climate change, emphasizing the department’s new commitment to focusing on investigations into communities that have been “historically marginalized and overburdened by pollution and underinvestment in housing, transportation, water, and wastewater infrastructure and healthcare.”
Special Agent Joel Wallace of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation was called in to investigate the death of Billey Joe Johnson. He worked alongside two investigators from the George County district attorney’s office.
Wallace said that arrangement didn’t happen very often. And he now questions why they were assigned. “If you’ve got me investigating the case, then I’m an independent investigator,” he said. “But why would I need the district attorney investigator to oversee me investigating a case?”
The Johnsons were initially relieved, because Wallace had experience investigating suspicious deaths. As a Black detective, he had dealt with racist backlash to his work.
Reveal host Al Letson and reporter Jonathan Jones visit Wallace, now retired, to talk about what happened with the investigation. When Wallace finds out what Reveal has uncovered, he begins to wonder whether the case should be reopened.
On October 24, 1991, nearly 300 Black, Native, Latino, Pacific Islander, Asian American, and other minority activists gathered in Washington, D.C. to discuss, for the first time in history, the environmental injustices their communities were experiencing. During the four-day event, delegates told stories of Black communities forced to relocate due to dangerously high pollution levels, farmworkers forced to live in homes built on abandoned chemical dump sites, Indigenous groups fighting against mining and nuclear testing on their reservations, and Asian immigrants developing respiratory problems after working for years in factories.
There was excitement, remembers sociologist Robert Bullard, an environmental justice advocate who served on the summit’s planning committee, but also anxiety. Conversations got heated. “We had to unpack, and throw off that baggage of mistrust that’s kept African Americans from knowing that much about Latinos, Latinos from Asian and Pacific Islanders and Indigenous people,” said Bullard. “Those first few days were very intense.”
“That was the moment that we came together — not knowing much about each other — but we learned during those first few days,” he added.
Thirty years later, the 17 principles of environmental justice laid out during the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit are as relevant as ever. The intersection between race and environmental injustices has been recognized by the federal and state governments, and a growing number of people understand certain groups are more vulnerable to the devastating effects of environmental degradation and climate change due to historical injustices. On the 30th anniversary of the summit, we talked to four of its key figures to understand the legacies of the watershed moment, and what challenges still lie ahead for environmental justice.
Robert Bullard: United Nations Environment Program / Donna Chavis: Matika Wilbur / Charles Lee: Courtesy of Charles Lee / Gail Small: Kate Medley
Q. How did this event change the environmental movement in the United States?
A. Robert Bullard: The First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit was groundbreaking in that people of color basically decided we wouldn’t wait for white environmental groups to ride in on a white horse and save us. Our communities were being poisoned, but many of the environmental groups did not see our issues as part of their agenda. So we pushed back. A couple of them showed up at our summit, and we said that people of color will no longer take a backseat when it comes to advancing our policies. When we see environmental racism, we will call it what it is, and we will fight to dismantle structural and systemic racism in this country. That was 1991. It has taken almost 30 years for that lens to become the dominant lens. For me that was a power shift. Our EJ lens was a footnote. Today, it’s the headline.
Donna Chavis: The event’s legacy is not just symbolic, it is concrete. The executive order they used for the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act, which came out of the Clinton administration, grew out of the summit and the organizing work that happened post-summit. If you look at the structure of the [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] now, and trace back to when its focus began to include environmental justice, it was post-1991 summit.
Q. How has the EJ movement changed and evolved since the summit?
A. Charles Lee: The call to action from the summit was to go back to our communities and to organize, and all the people that showed up took that to heart. Particularly the people from community organizations. They went back to all parts of the country and organized over several decades to build power at home, to really deepen the roots in terms of those struggles. In that process, it began to really impact local dynamics, and then regional, and now national over this period of time.
Gail Small: There was steady progress for the environmental justice movement going back 30 years, using administrative and legal methods to get our voices heard. All of that was wiped out when Trump came into office. He eroded all of the administrative protocols for what we called the Administrative Procedure Act — how agencies operate and how they’re required to participate in a public notice to those affected. That in and of itself was a wake up call to the environmental justice movement that the progress we’ve made is fleeting. The momentum is still there. That’s important to say. But a lot depends on who gets into political office, who has the power to unilaterally throw out decades of precedent and decades of rulemaking.
Q. How are today’s challenges different or similar from the ones you had in 1991?
A. Robert Bullard: The underlying condition that creates environmental health, housing, energy, climate, and food and water insecurity challenges in communities of color, disproportionately, is racism. Systemic racism is still a major challenge, a barrier that we have yet to dismantle. And it was the same challenge in 1991. Our communities are still getting poisoned, and our institutions and organizations are still not getting the funding they need. The fact that racism is so ingrained in American DNA, that means that when we come up with solutions, they need to include a whole-system approach.
Donna Chavis: They’re not different challenges, I just think they’ve been magnified. For me, you can’t have anti-racism without anti-environmental racism. You can’t have racial justice without environmental justice. And yet, so often, I find in the environmental justice arena, fear and timidity, sometimes, of being too vocal, because you don’t want to seem like you’re trying to overshadow other issues. We’re all in the same boat when it comes to dealing with unjust systems.
Q. What gives you hope after 30 years of working on EJ issues?
A. Robert Bullard: In 1991, when we say we are fighting environmental racism, they would run from us, it was almost like we were carrying a match and gasoline. But today, there are some folks and organizations, institutions or politicians standing with us trying to really cut out this cancer that’s holding back our nation.
Charles Lee: Environmental justice issues were originally not heard at all, even at the time of the summit. It wasn’t until events like Hurricane Katrina that raised this issue in the mainstream American consciousness. And then certainly Flint, Michigan, made environmental injustice real to people. Now, it’s totally different — it’s expanding in terms of getting attention in the federal and state government. That creates all kinds of new opportunities to leverage resources. The idea that 40 percent of the benefits over a set of federal programs should go to disadvantaged, overburdened, or environmental justice communities — that’s a huge sea change in terms of how we do our work.
We have the opportunity to really make environmental justice part of the regulatory process. In the past we have not been able to fully analyze disproportionate impacts, particularly cumulative impacts. That’s a challenge that has been there, but I think it’s the first time people are directly looking at it.
Gail Small: The environmental justice movement, the tribal sovereignty movement, that momentum continues. And it continues with us mentoring and teaching younger generations our knowledge and our experiences. What gives me a lot of hope is that younger people are very open minded. They’re very aware of the environmental movement. They’re very aware of the climate crisis, and they don’t see it as something that is separate from their daily lives.
Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Mark Armao, Jena Brooker, and Emily Pontecorvo contributed reporting to this story.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has launched an investigation after an officer was accused of forcibly removing the religious head covering of a Sikh man while he was in custody.
“Racially motivated”
The police watchdog announced the probe after a complaint was made against West Midlands Police. The IOPC said the complaint claims officers’ actions towards the Sikh man were “racially motivated”. It follows an incident at Perry Barr custody suite, just outside of Birmingham city centre, on 25 October.
WMP response to social media posts regarding incident in Perry Barr custody suite pic.twitter.com/zZOr3AOhXk
In a statement, West Midlands Police said a video compilation was published on social media which “infers that one of the stills included shows a man having his turban forcibly removed and stamped on” while in custody. Both the force and the IOPC have said the footage is inaccurate.
Expanding further, a statement from West Midlands Police said:
The author has used an image from elsewhere giving an entirely misleading version of the events. The CCTV featured in this video is not connected to this incident.
We can confirm that a man in custody was asked to remove his patka to be searched. It was removed by an officer in a private room to search for anything that could be harmful to the man or our custody officers. The head covering fell to the floor at one point, but was immediately retrieved and at no point was it stamped on.
It added all CCTV footage of the officer’s interactions with the man is being examined further, and that it understands the religious significance of head coverings in the Sikh faith.
“Understandable unrest”
IOPC regional director Derrick Campbell said:
This incident has caused understandable unrest within the local community and I want to reassure everyone that this will be thoroughly and independently investigated.
We are now in possession of all the CCTV footage from the custody suite, which I have viewed myself. Our investigation will look at the actions of police during the incident to determine the facts.
What I can say with absolute certainty at this stage, in direct response to questions I have received from members of the local community, is that the head covering was not stamped on at any stage.
A false video shared on social media has caused significant concern for many and I am appealing for calm while this is investigated. Rest assured we will be working hard to ensure the facts of what happened are brought to light and this matter is dealt with appropriately.
Content warning: the video below contains footage some readers may find distressing
An Asda security guard is under police investigation after footage emerged of him assaulting a young Black man entering an outlet in Shoeburyness, Essex. The guard claims he was ‘just doing his job’ and alleges he believed the young person was carrying a knife and that he had threatened both himself and other customers.
However, anti-racist campaigners have accused the guard of racially profiling the young customer.
Another case of racial profiling
The footage shows a security guard punching a young Black man. The guard then proceeds to drag the young person’s limp body out of the shop, and dump him on the pavement outside. A second clip shows another person handing the young man his phone, which dropped out of his pocket during the assault. Another person helps the young man up, and he stumbles away, unsteady on his feet.
Outraged by the security guard’s actions, the African Diaspora Public Affairs Committee (ADPAC) tweeted:
This ASDA security guard needs to be identified and charged with common assault by the @metpoliceuk
In the first instance, he should be fired by @asda and in the second instance, he should be reported to the police and all video evidence turned over#WeMatterhttps://t.co/teHTJynxmO
56 Black Men and Black British Network founder Cephas Williams added:
What @Asda store is this? @Asda, what are you going to do about this? In a world where Black boys and men can get knocked unconscious due to suspicion of carrying a weapon. When will the narrative change? When it’s ingrained in our society. pic.twitter.com/s9f6zRrwBD
Meanwhile, the responses from the likes of right wing culture warrior Laurence Fox to “give the Asda security guard a medal, and the knife coward a lengthy stretch” reflect the toxic way in which mainstream society seeks to surveil, control, and criminalise young Black men who are considered ‘guilty until proven innocent’.
It is these narratives that lead to the police’s excessive and disproportionate use of stop and search powers against young Black men, as well as their overrepresentation in the ‘Gangs Matrix’, joint enterprise doctrine convictions, and the youth and criminal justice systems.
Outrage
Campaign group Black and Asian Lawyers for Justice (BAME Lawyers for Justice) tweeted:
How Shoebryness @asda treats black boys. We think an assault may have been commited. Who is the guard and who does he work for? https://t.co/UKfsLUnHfj
— Black and Asian Lawyers For Justice (@BameFor) October 28, 2021
The violent attack on this young man is shocking and horrific and really upsetting and distressing to watch the footage let alone to be the person who went through this. No security guard has any right to do that to anyone, he could have killed him. The young man could have sustained a serious head injury. He was bleeding and unable to stabilise himself to stand or walk properly.
She added:
Asda have a duty of care towards customers and should not be tolerating or directing such treatment, irrespective of the reason behind it. They need to he held accountable for the security guard’s actions and the security guard needs to be punished for their crime. It seems that organisations and individuals feel they can violently attack black people with impunity but we are not going to tolerate violent attacks on our young people.
Under investigation
Essex Police are now investigating the incident. An Asda spokesperson told The Canary:
We do not tolerate violence in our stores and are investigating the incident in our Shoeburyness store as well as supporting the police fully with their enquiries. As this is an ongoing police investigation we cannot provide any further comment at this time.
BAME Lawyers for Justice is urging the young man and his family to get in touch if they require support.
A team of researchers published a study on Thursday confirming what Indigenous people already knew: The colonization of North America resulted in near-total land loss for the continent’s original inhabitants.
One of the most detailed reckonings of tribal land loss to date, the study compiles a massive set of data on the lands that were taken from tribes and the migrations many tribes were forced to make. In the continental U.S., Indigenous tribes lost close to 99 percent of their combined historical land bases through European colonization and the expansion of the United States.
Justin Farrell, a sociology professor at Yale University and the lead author of the paper, said that not only were tribal lands stolen, shrunken or wiped off the map completely, but that tribes’ present-day lands face “increased exposure to climate change risks and hazards, especially extreme heat and less precipitation.”
Like the displacement of pre-American peoples, the disproportionate impact of climate change on tribal lands is not a novel discovery. But Farrell said the aim of the research was to create the foundation of a publicly accessible database on land-loss that could be expanded by others and used to inform future research and policy-making.
“In some ways, we’re looking at an issue that everyone already knows about,” Farrell said. “But we’re trying to start a research project where we’re really zooming out and looking at the full scope of change.”
Ruins and a petroglyph along a rock face in southeastern Utah, within Bears Ears National Monument. Mountain Girl Photography / Aurora Photos / Getty Images
To determine the extent of land loss and the impacts of forced relocation, the team first had to map the historical territories of tribes in the continental U.S. The researchers pulled information from a broad set of historical sources, including land cession treaties and judicial records, as well as tribal publications and archives. After estimating the historical territories of hundreds of federally- and state-recognized tribes, they compared the total area to the tribes’ present-day lands.
According to their analysis, Indigenous people had a documented presence in more than 2.7 million square miles of what is now the contiguous U.S. The government-recognized tribal land base of today is 93 percent smaller, at roughly 165,000 square miles. Because many areas historically contained multiple tribes, the team also computed a cumulative sum for the ancestral lands of all the tribes in their study. They estimated that tribes held sway over a combined total of more than 21 million square miles — an area that was subsequently reduced by 98.9 percent.
Roughly 42 percent of the Indigenous groups from the historical period have no federally- or state-recognized land base, such as a reservation. Of the tribes that still have a land base, their territories are an average of 2.6 percent the size of their ancestral lands.
Kyle Whyte, who is an author on the paper and an environmental justice professor at the University of Michigan, said the history of land reduction and forced migration has resulted in unintended environmental consequences for tribes. The study found that present-day tribal lands experience more extreme-heat days — those with a maximum temperature over 100 degrees Fahrenheit — and nearly 23 percent less precipitation annually, compared to the historical period.
A member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Whyte said studies like this are a critical step toward a fuller understanding of the indirect impacts that centuries of displacement have had on Native populations.
“Whether it’s within the U.S. context or in other parts of the world, Indigenous people are calling for recognition that the reason why they are often facing more severe climate threats than other populations is because of the impact of land dispossession,” Whyte said.
The team also concluded that tribes’ present-day lands are less economically valuable in that they are less likely to contain subsurface oil and gas resources. Although Indigenous rights advocates have rallied widespread opposition to extractive fossil fuel projects in recent years — from Standing Rock to Line 3 to a proposed gas pipeline in North Carolina — Whyte said it was important to note that tribes have been largely excluded from a highly profitable energy industry that was built on stolen land.
“While we don’t support extractive fossil fuel industries, the study demonstrates that tribes were never part of the game plan to build the U.S. energy system,” Whyte said.
Cross-checking their information with crowdsourced data compiled by Native Land Digital, an Indigenous-led organization that maps tribal territories, the researchers amassed hundreds of thousands of records over the course of the project.
“When you think about Indian removal and displacement to reservations, it is so complex and covers such a long period of time that, to take all that evidence and put it into one dataset is almost inconceivable,” said Donald L. Fixico, a regents professor of history at Arizona State University who was not involved in the study. The ethnohistorian, who is a member of the Shawnee, Sac and Fox, Muscogee and Seminole tribes, wrote an analysis piece that accompanies the article in Science.
While the research team hopes to build on the dataset for future projects, the authors acknowledge the limitations of their records and the need to gather more information from Indigenous people themselves, as opposed to relying on settler-colonial records. They plan on incorporating oral histories, tribal documents and archaeological records in future analyses.
Noting the historical exclusion of Indigenous voices in scientific literature, Whyte said the study’s importance extends beyond its findings on land loss and climate impacts.
“I think it’s important to tell stories in a lot of different ways,” he said. “And by telling this story in a scientifically rigorous way, I really think this study can empower further Native scholars and others to see how some of these methods we’ve been excluded from can actually be used to support our sovereignty and self-determination.”
Hoping to step up the federal government’s response to long-standing water issues facing Native American communities, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released an “action plan” earlier this month that will seek solutions to the many barriers tribes have to running water and wastewater services.
The plan will guide the EPA Office of Water as it works with federally recognized tribes to implement the plan, which was prepared with input from the National Tribal Water Council, an EPA-funded advisory group. Priorities include the creation of federal baseline water-quality standards under the Clean Water Act.
According to a 2019 report from the U.S. Water Alliance, Native American households are 19 times more likely than white households to lack indoor plumbing. The lack of a clean, reliable water source can make handwashing and hygiene difficult for Native households—inequities that were further exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The infrastructure for safe drinking water and basic sanitation needs are core concerns for any tribal nation,” said NTWC chairman Ken Norton, who is a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, whose lands are in Northern California.
Norton said the NTWC made a series of recommendations on ways to improve tribal water infrastructure, including a survey of the lead pipes that are still in service on many reservations. Many of the council’s recommendations were incorporated in the action plan, Norton said, adding that the need for infrastructure funding “far outweighs the allocations that come from federal agencies.”
In the coming months, the EPA will distribute $22.5 million in grant funding for improving tribal drinking water systems, and $32.8 million for wastewater infrastructure, according to the plan. Another goal is to foster tribal self-governance on certain water issues while maintaining the U.S. government’s federal trust responsibility to protect tribal rights and resources. The EPA is also expected to consider reinstituting protections for streams that run intermittently throughout the year, reversing a Trump-era change that removed protections for “ephemeral streams.”
Although it remains to be seen what kind of progress the EPA makes within the plan’s three-year framework, Norton said he is confident the plan will have “immediate positive outcomes for tribal drinking water and sanitation,” especially given the Biden administration’s willingness to engage in tribal consultation.
“We are committed to strengthening our partnership with Tribes and Alaska Native Villages to better understand the water challenges they face and what is needed to make progress,” said EPA spokesperson Tim Carroll in an email.
Over the next three years, the agency plans to launch a website to bolster tribal outreach, expand tribal authority to administer water-quality programs, and provide focused support to address threats from lead and other contaminants.
The stated goals align with an executive order issued by President Joe Biden shortly after his inauguration that directs federal agencies to engage in “regular, meaningful, and robust consultation” with tribes on policies with tribal implications.
“Under this plan, the Office of Water intends to play a significant role in delivering on the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to Tribal nations,” said Radhika Fox, assistant administrator for Water, in a statement. “This action plan provides a blueprint for EPA to better understand the water challenges facing our Tribal partners and to identify the best tools to make progress.”
Content warning: the article below contains details of deaths in police custody that readers may find distressing
Preparations are underway for the United Families & Friends Campaign’s (UFFC) annual rally and remembrance procession. The campaign group is made up of bereaved families and others affected by deaths at the hands of UK police, in prisons, in immigration systems, and psychiatric custody. Since 1999, UFFC has organised an annual procession and rally to remember their loved ones and to demand justice for those killed by police and in custody. This year’s rally will take place in central London on 30 October 2021.
Still fighting for justice
Bereaved families of people killed at the hands of the state established UFFC in 1997 to demand accountability and systemic change. This was originally a Black-led organisation, given the disproportionate number of Black people killed in custody. Today, the group supports and campaigns on behalf of all families who has lost a loved one to state violence.
There have been at least 1,797 deaths in police custody or following police contact since 1990. But prior to the conviction of PC Benjamin Monk for the killing of Dalian Atkinson in June 2021, no officer had been convicted of manslaughter following a death in police contact or custody for 35 years. In the wake of then-serving police officer Wayne Couzens’ false arrest, kidnapping, rape, and murder of Sarah Everard, the Met has announced that it’s launching a review of professional standards and internal culture within the force.
Justice and accountability
Regarding the announcement of an inquiry, UFFC campaigner Marcia Rigg said:
I believe that the scope of the inquiry should be widened to look at other deaths and the way that those investigations are carried out or put to bed, so to speak
Rigg’s brother Sean Rigg died in custody in 2008 following prone restraint by officers while he was experiencing a mental health crisis. The 2012 inquest found that Rigg died of a cardiac arrest following “unnecessary” and “unsuitable” restraint. However, only one officer was subjected to criminal investigation in relation to the case – sergeant Paul White. White was charged with perjury, but was later acquitted. All misconduct charges against the five Met Police officers in relation to Rigg’s death were dropped in 2019.
Highlighting the need for justice and accountability for every death at the hands of police, UFFC campaigner and Ultraviolence director Ken Fero told The Canary:
The United Families & Friends Campaign welcomes the recent public attention that has been brought on the issue of lethal police violence following the successful prosecutions of serving police officers for the killings of Dalian Atkinson and Sarah Everard.
He added:
We march this year, as we have done since 1999, so that public attention is brought to the many hundreds of other cases of deaths at the hands of the police over the years. These deaths also need justice and we gather to remember our loved ones and demand political action on these cases.
State violence in the UK
The 2017 Angiolini review set out over 100 recommendations on how institutions could minimise the risk of death in custody and better support bereaved families seeking justice. The government has implemented some, but not all of these recommendations.The number of deaths in or following police custody slightly increased between 2018/19 and 2019/20. However, even now, bereaved families are still fighting for justice and struggling to have their voices heard.
Rather than instituting rigorous changes that could see the number of deaths in custody drop, the government now seeks to strengthen the authority and legitimacy of oppressive state forces. If passed, the draconian Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill would further increase police powers and impunity, and it will expand the carceral state in the UK. Meanwhile, the proposed Nationality and Borders Bill would further intensify the cruel hostile environment which has already claimed lives. These changes would likely disproportionately impact Black and other racially minoritised communities, working class communities, neurodiverse people, and people experiencing mental health crises – people who are already over-policed, under-protected, and who bear the brunt of state violence.
Joy Gardner, a Jamaican woman who died after police shackled, bound, and gagged her with 13 feet of surgical tape during a deportation raid on her home in 1993.
Ibrahim Sey, who died in 1996 after officers sprayed him with CS gas and restrained him for 15 minutes during a mental health crisis.
Christopher Alder, who choked to death in 1998 while handcuffed, lying face down and unconscious in a pool of his own blood while South Yorkshire Police officers made monkey noises.
Roger Sylvester, who died in 1999 after restraint by police in a psychiatric hospital. The High Court overturned the jury’s unanimous verdict that officers unlawfully killed him.
Mikey Powell, who died in 2003 after West Midlands Police officers hit him with their car, beat him, CS sprayed him, restrained him, then arrested him.
Paul Coker, who died having been detained by 15 officers in 2005.
Seni Lewis, who died in 2010 three days after officers restrained him with “excessive force” when he attempted to leave a hospital (where he was a voluntary patient).
Adrian McDonald, who died in a police van in 2014 having been “arrested, restrained, bitten by a police dog”, tasered, and left alone while struggling to breathe.
Jack Susianta, who drowned in 2015 aged 17 during a police chase.
Sheku Bayoh, who died in 2015 having been CS sprayed, hit with batons, handcuffed, and restrained by nine officers while he was experiencing a mental health crisis.
Darren Cumberbatch, who died in 2017, nine days after officers restrained him while he was experiencing a mental health crisis.
Rashan Charles, who died in 2017 after restraint by an officer who followed him into a shop.
Cameron Whelan, who was found dead in the river Avon days after a police pursuit in 2018.
Their bereaved families – and many, many more – are yet to see justice or accountability.
UFFC’s remembrance procession begins at midday on 30 October. Anyone looking to take part can join them at Trafalgar Square. The group will lead a silent procession through Whitehall. This will be followed by a “noisy protest” outside Downing Street. The Northern Police Monitoring Project (NPMP) has organised a coach from Manchester for people looking to join from the Northwest. UFFC is also urging people to bolster the campaign by donating to the National Mikey Powell Memorial Family Fund, which supports the families of people killed in custody.
The fact that families and campaigners are still fighting the same battles decades later underlines the legitimacy of calls to abolish prisons and policing. In these distressing times, it’s important that we raise our collective voice in solidarity with bereaved families to demand justice, accountability, and an end to the potentially lethal expansion of police powers, prisons, and immigration detention sites.
When Crystal Cavalier-Keck heard in 2018 that an energy developer was planning to build a natural-gas pipeline near her hometown of Mebane, North Carolina, she was immediately concerned. Cavalier-Keck, who is a member of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, knew about the violence against Indigenous women that often takes place when so-called “man camps” are assembled in areas where pipeline projects cut through Native communities.
“I immediately thought about the man camps it would bring, and I was thinking we need to alert the people,” said Cavalier-Keck, who at the time was serving on the leadership council of the state-recognized tribe.
She began researching the project, which is known as the Mountain Valley Pipeline Southgate Extension. The planned line, she found, would carry natural gas roughly 75 miles from Pittsylvania County, Virginia, to a delivery point in Alamance County, North Carolina, ending roughly five miles from her home.
Crystal-Cavalier Keck, who is a member of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, attends a protest in Washington DC. Photo by Nedahness Rose Greene
The 42-inch-diameter pipeline would receive gas from the Mountain Valley mainline, a 300-mile line that originates in the gas-rich shales of West Virginia. Designed to transport 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, the multi-billion-dollar mainline has been under construction since 2018 and is nearly complete, according to Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC, a joint venture that includes Equitrans Midstream Corp.
MVP’s developers have amassed more than 300 violations of environmental laws, and — with the blessing of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC — have forced landowners along the pipeline to sell chunks of their property.
When Cavalier-Keck learned the developers were planning to condemn properties in North Carolina so they could build on the ancestral lands of the Occaneechi, the Monacan Indian Nation and other tribes, she decided to take action. In late 2018, she resigned from her position on the tribal council so she could speak out against the project without impeding the tribe’s efforts to consult with the government on the project.
Cavalier-Keck has helped lead a grassroots resistance movement over the past three years, organizing protests and marches partly to embolden Occaneechi residents, she said. Owing to the tribe’s history of displacement and forced relocation, she said, members are often afraid to speak out against government-sanctioned actions.
“We know we can’t have a Standing Rock, but we want to bring people together and let them know that it’s OK to fight back and speak out against these things,” said Cavalier-Keck, who is a member of the Native Organizers Alliance.
An aerial photo shows the Mountain Valley Pipeline being constructed in Montgomery County, Virginia. Courtesy of Mountain Valley Watch
Compared to national media coverage of other fracked-gas pipelines — like the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which was canceled last year, and the recently scuttled PennEast Pipeline — MVP has largely flown under the radar, said Gillian Giannetti, an attorney with the National Resources Defense Council. That may be because it runs through largely rural, relatively low-income areas that are likely unfamiliar to many residents of the region’s urban areas, she said.
“There is no doubt that folks who are environmentally and economically disadvantaged would bear the brunt of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and would not reap the benefits,” Giannetti said. The attorney contends that FERC should have rejected the project on a number of grounds, ranging from a general lack of need to water-quality and climate impacts.
Proponents of natural gas development often tout it as a clean-burning alternative to other fossil fuels. But environmental groups have estimated that the MVP mainline could contribute nearly 90 million metric tons in greenhouse gas emissions annually from both the combustion of the gas and methane leaks. Although methane stays in the atmosphere for a much shorter timespan than CO2, it is a far more powerful greenhouse gas, accounting for about 30 percent of the warming the world has experienced since the pre-industrial era.
Over the past three years, Desiree Shelley (Monacan) has seen the mainline project carve through the steep, rocky terrain of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Roanoke County, Virginia. The mother of three said the pipeline has created landslide risks and wreaked havoc on riparian ecosystems. In areas where the project crosses a stream, dredging activities can send large volumes of sediment downstream, causing fish die-offs and impacting drinking water quality in cities like Roanoke.
“Sedimentation of the water can damage waterways irreparably and impact aquatic wildlife” such as the endangered Roanoke logperch, said Shelley, who is a climate justice organizer with Mothers Out Front.
The mainline project, which has been mired in litigation and regulatory setbacks, is currently on hold as MVP seeks federal and state permits that would allow it to cross certain waterways in Virginia and West Virginia. In North Carolina, the proposed extension has stalled after the state’s Department of Environmental Quality denied a key water quality permit—twice.
Workers conduct an archaeological survey to look for Native American artifacts and other cultural resources on a property in Virginia. Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post via Getty Images
Shelley has been working alongside Cavalier-Keck to raise awareness about the projects’ potential impacts on local residents, particularly Indigenous groups and predominantly Black communities.
In Pittsylvania County, Virginia, Anderson Jones lives on farmland that his great uncle purchased in the 1920s. Over the past several decades, the rolling hills that surround the property have become a hub for gas infrastructure. A compressor station for the Transco pipeline, built in the 1950s, rises a quarter-mile from the farm. Two years ago, MVP moved into the neighborhood; the developers built part of the mainline a few hundred yards away from Jones’ home, taking several acres owned by members of his family in the process. The Southgate Extension, if approved, would begin at a compressor station about 400 feet from the property.
Jones and his wife, Elizabeth, have voiced their opposition to the project at public meetings, drawing attention to the toxic air pollutants emitted by compressor stations. Elizabeth Jones, who is chair of the Pittsylvania County NAACP’s environmental justice committee, said the siting of pipelines in predominantly Black communities — such as the “majority-minority” district in which the Andersons reside — leads to increased risk of cancer and other diseases in those communities.
“African Americans are being targeted for the placement of gas plants, and we want the regulatory commissions to end this,” Elizabeth Jones said. “We are breathing in toxic emissions and, as a result, we’re dying.”
Anderson Jones identified as African American for most of his life until, several years ago, genetic testing revealed that he is part Native American. He has since learned more about the local tribes with the help of Cavalier-Keck, whose ancestry also includes African heritage. Anderson Jones said his recent ancestors probably concealed their Indigenous heritage to prevent being forced to live on a reservation, which they referred to as a “death camp.”
“They didn’t want to go there, so they left the land and lived among the Blacks,” he said.
Over the years, Anderson Jones has found dozens of arrow points and stone tools throughout the area, including on the strip of his family’s land where the mainline was constructed. MVP surveyors have identified hundreds of artifacts along the path of construction, though opponents have accused the project team of skirting laws intended to protect cultural resources.
A landowner in Bent Mountain, Virginia, filed multiple complaints with FERC claiming that MVP surveyors had ignored the presence of an Indigenous burial mound. In a letter to the agency, the landowner said multiple tribal historic preservation officers confirmed that the arrangement of stones was consistent with traditional burial mounds built by certain Siouan-speaking tribes, a group that includes the Monacan and Occaneechi tribes.
MVP described the mound in reports as a “pile of rocks” that resulted from modern agricultural activity. Nevertheless, MVP agreed to alter the route slightly to avoid the mound.
Mara Robbins, a local writer and environmentalist who knows the landowner, watched as construction workers clear-cut the trees that surrounded the 15-foot-long mound, which was encircled by flimsy construction fencing. Robbins said the surrounding area contained “several smaller structures that were unfortunately destroyed.”
Crystal Cavalier-Keck participates in a ceremonial water walk alongside her husband, Jason Crazy Bear Keck. Courtesy of Crystal Cavalier-Keck
Across the state line in North Carolina, the Occaneechi Band is one of many Indigenous cultures that have occupied or moved through the region over time. Archaeologists have recorded hundreds of culturally significant sites in the county, including stone fishing weirs and documented burial grounds.
Cavalier-Keck and other opponents of the extension are afraid the pipeline would endanger those sites. In an email, a spokesperson with MVP said the company “has performed extensive cultural survey work along the proposed route to identify eligible cultural sites,” and that “no known Native American burial grounds have been found to date.”
Surveyors hired by the company have identified at least 61 archaeological resources within the project area in North Carolina. MVP would avoid some of those areas, but the company deemed the majority of them to be ineligible for listing as a protected historic site.
Tony Hayes, who is the chairman of Occaneechi Band, said he is not aware of any culturally significant Occaneechi sites that lie directly in the proposed path of the project. He said the tribe is gathering information and has sought additional consultation with federal regulators, a process that can be difficult for a tribe that isn’t federally recognized.
“FERC doesn’t really take state-recognized tribes seriously,” Hayes said.
Cavalier-Keck, meanwhile, continues to fight the pipeline. In the coming months, she and other Indigenous women will lead a ceremonial “water walk,” from Alamance County to the North Carolina coast, during which women will carry a vessel of water in relay. She worked with Shelley to translate the phrase “water is life” — a common refrain among Indigenous water protectors — into their shared ancestral language. Written as “mani:en:ise,” the phrase is closer in meaning to “water is alive.”
MVP is now seeking new water-quality certifications in Virginia and West Virginia that would allow the project team to cross hundreds of waterways in those states. In North Carolina, the Southgate project is currently prohibited from crossing a single waterway.
Every October, we mark Black History Month in the UK. It’s a time in which we’re encouraged to reflect on the Black presence in Britain, and to celebrate the contributions Black people have made and continue to make to our society. However, for many institutions and individuals, this month appears to have been business as usual.
So far, we’ve seen a school banning pupils from speaking Black British English, the mainstream media blaming drill music for knife crime and a racist attack on the Windrush memorial. Meanwhile disgraced former health secretary Matt Hancock has been appointed as the United Nation’s special envoy to support coronavirus (Covid-19) recovery across the African continent.
Criminalising the language
Ark All Saints Academy, a secondary school in south London has banned pupils from speaking in Black British English (BBE) – framed as ‘slang’ – in “formal learning settings”. Black British English is a language in its own right, with a rich history of migration and resistance.
Grassroots organisation Black Learning Achievement and Mental Health (BLAM UK) responded to the school’s ban by saying:
By banning Black British English within a classroom setting, they are failing their legal duties to provide children with a broad and balanced education they are instead providing Black British Language speakers with a language education void of their culture and history.
The organisation sent an open letter urging school leaders to reverse the ban. The group highlights the ban is harmful for Black students’ “racial esteem” and ‘reproduces anti-Black linguistic racism’. They add that it isn’t in line with the 2010 Equality Act which states that public sector bodies must seek to “eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation”, or the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which protects children’s right to speak their own language. They also highlighted it’s in breach of the 2002 Education Act. This Act states a curriculum should ‘promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils’ and ‘prepare pupils for later life’.
In a press release, the charity’s founding director Ife Thompson said:
The implementation of this policy reinforces the ideology of the inferiority of Black languages linking to the historically racist and imperialist view of Black people as ‘less than.’ BLAM rejects the guise of ‘professionalism and preparation for the future’ as explanations provided by the school for the ban… We also need to think deeply about the historical implications of what we deem to be ‘proper’ English.
Criminalising the culture
The stigmatisation of Black British culture didn’t end there. On 11 October, the Independent published a headline reading:
This was based on a report by right-wing think tank Policy Exchange, which also points to the Met Police’s “unusual and unjustified” policing strategy. Clarifying the report’s claims, the Network for Police monitoring (Netpol) shared:
This is a misleading summary of what the Policy Exchange actually claims: it downplays emphasising disproportionate stop & search within black communities and in classic moral panic territory, blames knife crime on Adidas, drill music and social media https://t.co/kbhigbxnM7
Pointing to the structural issues that are linked to rising knife crime, one Twitter user shared:
Ok but "gangland" murders are not linked to poverty, austerity, underfunding public services, structural & institutional racism, lack of opportunity etc Like drill music magically appeared out of nowhere… https://t.co/FLQXSB0JMz
Indeed, 40 years of cuts and privatisation, an increasingly fascist state, and a devastating pandemic have resulted in a frustrated, volatile population with very little to lose. In the last decade, the Tories have cut funding to youth services by an astonishing 73%. On top of this, young Black working-class people face persistent marginalisation through disproportionate racist school exclusions, stop and search, and policing on and off school grounds. As set out by United Borders – a charity that supports at-risk young people – drill music is very much a ‘symptom‘ of this depressing state of affairs, rather than a cause.
No justice for Windrush victims
On 12 October, the Voice reported that the Tilbury Bridge Walkway of Memories has been vandalised in a suspected race hate attack. The memorial was created as a tribute to the Windrush generation who arrived in the UK from the Caribbean. It features images of those who arrived at Tilbury Docks aboard the Empire Windrush in 1948. In an act of vandalism, a number of these panels have been smashed.
This act of hostility came as the UK Home Office continues to delay sending compensation to the victims of the Windrush scandal. The Windrush scandal refers to the Home Office‘s unlawful detention, deportation and denial of hundreds of Commonwealth citizens’ rights, having destroyed thousands of immigration records. At least 21 people have died before receiving the compensation they applied for. Speaking to the ongoing injustice, Black and Asian Lawyers for Justice tweeted:
The @ukhomeoffice Windrush compo scheme is a cruel and unusual punishment. Black people are being treated with hostility, malign neglect and contempt despite the crocodile tears, grand promises and apologies from @pritipatel There is still no justice. https://t.co/uQCVrEHCsm
— Black and Asian Lawyers For Justice (@BameFor) October 12, 2021
Adding further insult to injury, one of prime minister Boris Johnson’s special advisers turned Windrush justice activists away from the Tory Party conference. Julia Davidson and Anthony Brown had paid for their tickets and sought to engage delegates, but were turned away. Expressing her disbelief, Windrush lawyer Jacquelin McKenzie shared:
When the Home Secretary announced earlier she'd be cracking down on protestors, no one expected the first ever victims to be #Windrush activists, ejected today from the Tory party conference to which they were accredited, in case they protested. Shameful! https://t.co/7NuvLT8Il6
— Jacqueline (Jacqui) Mckenzie (@JacquiMckenzie6) October 5, 2021
Exporting British incompetence
On 12 October, former health secretary Matt Hancock announced his appointment as UN special envoy to support Covid-19 recovery efforts across the African continent. His announcement came after a Commons inquiry found the Tory government was responsible for one of the worst public health failures in UK history. At the time of writing, the UK’s Covid death toll is over 137,000, one of the highest in the world. The report also noted significant racial disproportionality in UK Covid deaths.
Responding to the news, journalist and anti-racist organiser Roger McKenzie tweeted:
Hancock also presided over Black people being disproportionately affected by the pandemic in the UK. Obviously in the eyes of racist Johnson this means you put him forward for a post to do with Africa.
Lawyer and activist Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu shared:
Matt Hancock announcement of top United Nations job at a time his ineptitude & depraved indifference to life is reported to have caused Covid deaths makes me sick.
These bastards lied & killed with their incompetence but suffer zero consequence.
Shedding light on the gravity of the situation, Streatham MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy shared:
Just 4.4% of people in Africa have been fully vaccinated.
Matt Hancock belonged to a Government that has consistently blocked attempts to increase vaccine supplies to poor countries in order to protect pharmaceutical profits.
So far, Black History Month has been another month of British institutions doing what they do best – making life considerably worse for Black people everywhere.
London’s Tube map has been reimagined to celebrate the contribution Black people have made to British life throughout history.
Black history
The 272 station names have been replaced by notable Black figures from pre-Tudor times to the present day. They include the first Black woman to serve in the Royal Navy, who disguised herself as a man called William Brown.
Putting London's Black history on the map.
Great to be back in Brixton to launch the first-ever Black History Tube map – a tribute to London’s Black leaders – from community organisers, to physicians and LGBTQ+ trailblazers.#BlackHistoryMonth#BHMpic.twitter.com/GfTWBIOWNg
Other people featured are Victorian circus owner Pablo Fanque; composer and poet Cecile Nobrega, who led a 15-year campaign to establish England’s first permanent public monument to Black women in Stockwell, south London; and Jamaican-born settler to Edinburgh John Edmonstone, who taught naturalist Charles Darwin taxidermy.
The map was produced by Transport for London in partnership with Black Cultural Archives, a cultural centre in Brixton, south London.
London mayor Sadiq Khan said:
Black history is London’s history and this reimagination of the iconic Tube map celebrates the enormous contribution black people have made, and continue to make, to the success of our city. I’m determined to create a more equal city where black lives truly matter.
This starts with education and that’s why this new black history Tube map is so important.
It gives us all the chance to acknowledge, celebrate and learn about some of the incredible black trailblazers, artists, physicians, journalists and civil rights campaigners who have made such significant contributions to life in the capital, as well as our country as a whole.
Black Cultural Archives managing director Arike Oke said:
London’s black history is deeply embedded in its streets and neighbourhoods. We’re delighted, as part of our 40th anniversary celebrations, to use this opportunity to share new and old stories about black history with Londoners and visitors to London.
We hope that the map will be an invitation to find out more and to explore.
When Hurricane Ida hit New York City on September 16, it dumped more than three inches of rain an hour. Sewers overflowed, streets turned into rivers, and thousands of homes and basements across the city’s five boroughs flooded. Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas saw the devastation firsthand when she toured her constituent neighborhoods of Corona, East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Woodside in Queens. Family after family, mostly low-income immigrants, told her they’d lost almost all of their possessions in the storm. But as González-Rojas encouraged residents to seek help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, she learned that those who were undocumented were ineligible for aid.
Other elected officials, including state representative Catalina Cruz and city council member Darma Diaz, discovered the same thing. Cruz’s office fielded dozens of phone calls from undocumented immigrants struggling to recover from the flooding, with no place to turn for help. As pressure mounted, Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a $27 million fund to help undocumented survivors of Ida in the city — the first initiative of its kind in the country. The fund will provide up to $72,000 to about 1,200 households with undocumented members to pay for things like repairing homes and replacing essential items.
“We have been fighting for this kind of disaster relief in our communities,” said Lucas Zucker, policy and communications director at the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, or CAUSE, in California. “The fact that New York is taking this step is historic.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a tour of neighborhoods affected by Hurricane Ida in Queens on September 7.
Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images
Despite the growing impacts of climate-related disasters from coast to coast, the New York program is the first time a state or the federal government has invested in supporting undocumented immigrants after a disaster. This reality has left millions of people across the U.S. in a state of “hyper-marginalization,” explains Michael Méndez, an environmental justice and public health researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. “The way that we have set up our disaster infrastructure — at the federal, state, and local levels — are rendering invisible undocumented migrants because of cultural and racial norms of who is considered a worthy disaster victim.”
An estimated 10 million people live in the U.S. without legal authorization, according to the Pew Research Center. Most of them — around 61 percent — are concentrated in fewer than 20 metro areas located in some of the most vulnerable states to climate change, places like New York City, Miami, and Houston. Research has found that low-income, racial, and ethnic minorities, as well as the elderly, renters, non-native English speakers, and those with mobility challenges, are disproportionately affected by flooding. The legacy of racist urban planning practices like redlining also relegated Black, Latino, and other racial and ethnic minorities to flooding-prone neighborhoods in some major metro areas.
In the best-case scenarios, local authorities are jumping through hoops trying to help undocumented immigrants access federal aid only authorized for U.S. citizens or those with immigration papers, said Katy Atkiss, disaster equity manager at Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative, or HILSC. In the worst, they’re simply doing nothing.
“One of the biggest barriers to climate resilience in our society is that millions of people in this country are almost completely excluded from the safety net due to their immigration status,” Zucker said.
Typically, after a disaster strikes, the federal government sets up a network of programs to support survivors: Homeowners who don’t have insurance or are underinsured can ask FEMA for funds to repair their houses. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, provides federally-backed insurance and loans to cities, counties, and states to meet recovery needs in low-income communities. Families can apply for supplemental, short-term food stamps, as well as disaster unemployment assistance for up to 26 weeks. States can also tunnel federal funds from other programs to support survivors.
In theory, families with undocumented residents that have one or more U.S. citizens can apply for federal help. But many in this position are wary of asking for aid. FEMA is under the Department of Homeland Security, and its forms state that other Homeland Security agencies — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in charge of deportations — could access the information, explained Mendez. Additionally, if the undocumented members eventually become eligible for citizenship, receiving federal funds while undocumented can play against them during their application. As a result, Mendez said, they avoid applying for disaster aid.
Unauthorized immigrants often find themselves particularly vulnerable even before disaster strikes.
During the Thomas Fire, Mendez found, immigrants from different Mixtec Indigenous communities living in Southern California were unable to read the English and Spanish evacuation orders and recommendations.
In some cases, their migratory status keeps people away from shelters out of fear of being asked for ID, said Cesar Espinoza, executive director at FIEL, a grassroots group working in the greater Houston area. Espinoza recalls that when Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in 2017, Department of Homeland Security trucks were parked outside of the largest shelter in Houston to help secure the building. Many undocumented immigrants didn’t go because they were afraid of being asked for their papers. “They wondered, ‘Are we going to be safe there?’” he said. “So a lot of people were in eight, nine feet of water” during the disaster.
A woman mops up floodwater in her bedroom in Houston, Texas following Hurricane Harvey in September 2017.
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
The unavailability of federal funds has left many nonprofits as the only sources of assistance for unauthorized immigrants in the wake of natural disasters. But these too are often hard for the undocumented community to access. In the aftermath of Harvey, many undocumented people in Texas not only lost their homes, they lost their cars and work-related tools as well, particularly those who worked in construction, Espinoza said. When they reached out to non-governmental organizations for help — those that didn’t exclude unauthorized residents from their funds — the fact that they couldn’t prove their identity, didn’t have proof of income, or didn’t have a bank account for the electronic transfer left them ineligible for support. So FIEL raised $300,000 that they distributed hand-to-hand in the community.
In California, these organizations have struggled to deploy the infrastructure needed to assist so many people after fires, said Zucker. After the Sonoma Complex Fire scorched 87,000 acres of Sonoma County in 2017, the grassroots organization Community Foundation Sonoma County launched the first private disaster relief fund in the United States specifically for undocumented migrants. Others followed: After the Thomas Fire, the Ventura County Community Foundation raised $2 million to assist more than 1,400 families who were impacted by both the fire and the mudslides that followed.
Yet it soon became obvious that the needs exceeded the organizations’ capabilities.“Our waiting list was over 1000 families long for months and months and months. People were lining up out the doors early in the morning. Our cellphones were just ringing off the hook. It took us over a year to get the relief for a lot of those families,” Zucker said. “As proud as I am of everything we’ve done, it does not make up for the lack of support and policy.”
Things remained pretty much the same until last year when COVID-19 hit. Low-income people — with or without documents — were disproportionately suffering from the virus. “[The pandemic] really accelerated our learning and evolved how we’re dealing with disaster preparedness, response, and recovery,” Atkiss, of the Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative, said.
In early 2020, California, Oregon, and several cities and counties, including New York City and Harris County, Texas, launched funds for those who lost their jobs because of the pandemic, including undocumented immigrants. But it was Washington’s $40 million in COVID-19 relief funds that changed the game, Atkiss said. Besides state dollars, Washington used money from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act. The state took advantage of a loophole in 1996 welfare reform, which limits cash help to authorized immigrants — except for one-time emergency disaster relief. Washington leaders argued that since COVID-19 is an emergency, they were allowed to give undocumented immigrants a one-time disaster relief payment, explained Atkiss.
“Other places have used that loophole but not been so brazen about it for fear of lawsuits,” she said. “And as far as I know, Washington was not sued.” Now, she and other advocate groups in Texas are working to convince Harris County leaders to use the same legal argument to extend the eligibility of one of the county’s COVID-19 relief funds, which also uses federal dollars. A similar push is taking place in Iowa.
Advocates believe the “one-time emergency” framework used during the pandemic opens the door for exploring similar strategies for natural disaster aid.
“Whether it’s a fire, whether it’s COVID, whatever kind of crisis comes, when you’re excluded from the safety net, you have nothing to put a roof over your kid’s head and food on the plate,” Zucker said. “That is a truly horrific and immoral thing.”
7 October 2021 marks the first anniversary of the death of Lamont Roper, a young Black man who died during a police pursuit in Tottenham, London. He was found dead in a canal having been pursued by officers. And on the anniversary, Roper’s family speak out for the first time, saying he wouldn’t have jumped in of his own accord because he was “terrified of water”.
Another death following police contact
Roper, a 23-year-old Black man, fell into the Tottenham’s River Lea after a police chase on 7 October 2020. He was found dead in the water the next day. Speaking out for the first time on the first anniversary of his death, Roper’s family told INQUEST:
We do not believe that he would have entered the water voluntarily as he could not swim and was terrified of water.
On 7 October 2020, plain-clothes Metropolitan Police officers approached Roper and a group of friends. Officer PC Collins proceeded to pursue Roper along the River Lea towpath. Both Collins and Roper were riding electric bikes. It remains unclear how Roper came off his bike. But according to INQUEST, Roper fell into the water following Collins’ use of force.
The Met Police Marine Unit and London Fire Brigade searched the river that night, but called it off around midnight. On 8 October, a Met Police diver found Roper “within a couple of minutes”. He was pronounced dead at the scene. An inquest into Roper’s death opened in 2020, with the final hearing due to take place between 22 and 30 November 2021.
Still searching for answers
Some of the officers present during the pursuit activated their body worn video cameras. But Collins did not. One year on from Roper’s death, his bereaved family is still seeking access to the existing footage.
Roper’s family released a statement on the first anniversary of his death. They told INQUEST:
We still have so many unanswered questions about how Lamont lost his life… We hope that the inquest into his death will robustly explore the circumstances of his death and in particular how he came to be in the water. We miss him every day and will not give up the fight for the truth.
Towards abolitionist alternatives
Sadly, Roper’s case is not an anomaly. On 6 April, 17-year-old Ronaldo Johnson died as a result of injuries sustained during a pursuit by Greater Manchester Police officers. Kids of Colour and the Northern Police Monitoring Project campaigners joined Johnson’s bereaved family and friends on 6 October to remember the young man’s life and demand justice for his untimely death:
Today marks six months since his passing, and his family and friends are left without answers, and an IOPC who seems to forget their job is to independently hold the police to account.
This afternoon we walked the route of the police pursuit, stopping at the site of the crash.
There have been at least 432 deaths during or following police pursuits in England and Wales since 1990. In spite of these figures and recent tragedies, the government’s draconian Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill proposes to further increase officers’ powers when pursuing people.
We have seen an increase in anti-police sentiment following then serving police officer Wayne Couzens’ false arrest, kidnapping, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, and the heavy-handed policing of her vigil in Clapham.
Deaths during or following some sort of police contact are tragically familiar. Since 1990, there have been at least 1,797 deaths in police custody or following police contact in England and Wales. Racially minoritised people are overrepresented in these numbers. In spite of these significant figures, the June 2021 conviction of PC Benjamin Monk for the killing of Dalian Atkinson was the first time in 35 years that a UK police officer had been found guilty of manslaughter following a death in police contact or custody.
Stressing the importance of remembering all victims of state violence, one Twitter user said:
Whilst some people are now suddenly outraged at the state of policing, let's remember those who have been continually harassed, abused and k*lled by the police since their inception. Lamont Roper, 23, was pulled out from the River Lea after a police chase a year ago… RIP https://t.co/De5Ti85Sfe
Drawing attention to the under-reported inquest into Shane Bryant’s death at the hands of police, another Twitter user shared:
Shane Bryant, a Black man was murdered by police in Leicester in 2017, restrained for 17 minutes and put in a headlock. The inquest is going on this week. Have seen hardly any solidarity for him, even though right now people are critiquing British police. #justiceforshanebryantpic.twitter.com/UXh8OZwAY6
While bereaved families and friends continue to seek answers, communities and campaigners continue to seek ways to resist state violence. For example, direct action feminist group Sisters Uncut recently announced plans to launch a network of CopWatch patrols to intervene in policing on the streets, and prevent more deaths in police custody. Anyone looking to get involved in the group’s police intervention training can sign up here.
These recent tragedies and the government’s plans to further increase police powers demonstrate just how vital it is that we continue to resist state violence, which preys on the most vulnerable and marginalised in society. It’s time to maximise current anti-police sentiment and build a sustainable, broad-based movement towards accountability and abolitionist alternatives.
Wall-to-wall coverage of the case of Gabby Petito — a 22-year-old white woman and blogger who went missing while traveling with her fiancé Brian Laundrie and whose remains were found in a national park in Wyoming — has renewed attention on what some call “missing white woman syndrome,” the media’s inordinate focus on white female victims and the disparity in coverage for women of color. We host a roundtable discussion with Amara Cofer, host and executive producer of the podcast “Black Girl Gone”; Mary Kathryn Nagle, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and lawyer focused on tribal sovereignty; and Melissa Jeltsen, a freelance reporter who covers violence against women. “There is an underrepresentation of Black women, of women of color in these stories,” says Cofer.
Campaign group No More Exclusions has reignited calls for a moratorium on school exclusions following prime minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle. In an open letter to new education secretary Nadhim Zahawi, the group urge the government to implement a temporary legal ban on exclusions to give vulnerable and marginalised children returning to school a chance to adjust to the ‘new normal’.
Excessive and disproportionate school exclusions
A school exclusion occurs when a pupil is removed from the school roll and barred from the school premises. Only a headteacher has the power to exclude a pupil for a fixed period of time, or permanently for disciplinary reasons. According to government guidance, exclusions must be in line with the law, rational, reasonable, fair and proportionate. But in 2020, an alliance of 90 children’s charities raised concerns that discriminatory school exclusions continue to infringe on children’s rights.
Research by No More Exclusions found that schools continued to exclude pupils excessively and disproportionately in the wake of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Racially minoritised children are still overrepresented in school exclusions, particularly Black Caribbean and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children. Schools also disproportionately exclude pupils who are eligible for free school meals, and children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The group also found that in spite of the trauma caused by the pandemic, some schools introduced new reasons for exclusion such as “failure to follow COVID rules”. And on 23 September, Agenda published data revealing that schools are more than twice as likely to exclude Black and racially minoritised girls in England than their white counterparts. The group’s research also shows that the rate at which schools are excluding girls is rapidly increasing.
The PRU-to-prison pipeline
Campaigners have highlighted the central role that school exclusions play in the creation of the UK’s two-tier education system in which ‘deserving’ students are encouraged to thrive in the academy sector, while those deemed ‘undeserving’ are relegated to pupil-referral units (PRUs) and alternative provision (AP). Schools’ segregation of pupils is overwhelmingly drawn along racial and class lines. This system feeds the UK’s expanding PRU-to-prison pipeline – the direction of marginalised children and young people towards incarceration through educational exclusion and criminalisation. This is a product of harsh disciplinary policies which confront routine school-based misbehaviour with ‘zero tolerance’, and the increasing presence of police security, and surveillance in schools. These factors contribute to greater suspensions, expulsions, referrals to law enforcement, and arrests for violations of school rules.
Studies demonstrate a clear correlation between harsh zero-tolerance and push-out policies in schools and low academic achievement, entry into the youth and criminal justice systems, low-paid job opportunities, unemployment, and other negative outcomes. Research by youth justice charity Just for Kids Law found that children outside of mainstream education are more vulnerable to childhood criminal exploitation. This is exemplified in the tragic cases of 14-year-old Jaden Moodie and 15-year-oldTashaun Aired, both Black children who were killed while being exploited by criminal gangs. Serious case reviews into both deaths suggest that exclusion from school played a major role in their exploitation, thus their subsequent deaths.
Seeking a moratorium
On 22 September, No More Exclusions sent an open letter to the new education secretary, highlighting the serious harm that exclusions cause, and urging him to implement a moratorium on school exclusions in the wake of the pandemic. This was in response to Zahawi’s open letter to education and care professionals, in which he expressed a commitment to ‘transforming the lives of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged’.
This will take investment in schools and a willingness to seek nurturing pathways that heal, develop and instill hope as well as skills within an inclusive model of mainstream schooling”.
They added:
Segregated and profit-driven pupil referral units (PRUs), alternative provision (AP) and youth detention sites can never be the solution to supporting vulnerable young people. This punitive and shortsighted approach fuels the ‘PRU-to-prison’ pipeline and will make a mockery of any efforts to help the vulnerable as you purport to want to do.
The coalition argues that a moratorium on school exclusions will give vulnerable, disadvantaged and marginalised children “time to adjust to the ‘new normal’”, and ensure that they are kept out of harm’s way.
Join the campaign
No More Exclusions is urging members of the public to get involved in the campaign to end persistent race disparities in school exclusions, and build an education system that works for all children and young people. Those looking to join the campaign can do so by writing to their MP, local education authority or school.
Members of the public can also submit a question to the Department for Education. People looking for something more hands on can apply to be a school governor and intervene with exclusions. The group is also calling on people to support the Jaden Moodie Foundation, and sign the organisation’s petition to halt schools exclusions.
Content warning: the video below contains footage some readers may find distressing
On 20 September, footage emerged of Metropolitan Police officers allegedly brutalising 13-year-old Benjamin Olajive during a stop and search in Streatham, south London. This is the latest in a number of incidents in September which have intensified calls from campaigners to scrap the practice, which police continue to use disproportionately and excessively against Black people.
Nothing but an afro comb
On 20 September, a mob of Metropolitan Police officers stopped 13-year-old Olajive while searching for a Black person carrying a knife. Olajive, who has ADHD and PTSD, was wearing his school uniform at the time. In distressing footage, he can be heard crying out: “my hands, my hands” as officers forcefully handcuff him. Members of the local community soon rushed to support Olajive, and demand that officers answer for their actions.
Sharing some footage of the incident, one person tweeted:
13 year old school boy, with an Afro comb; reported to be a knife, strangled and brutalised. Left bloodied and traumatised. #Streathampic.twitter.com/oJCexRCE2I
After a 45 minute search, the ‘offensive’ item officers found turned out to be an afro comb. Criminal defence lawyer Aamer Anwar shared:
13yr old black schoolboy with ADHD & PTSD was allegedly choked by @metpoliceuk during a stop-and-search in London. On his way to McDonalds he was swarmed by police responding to a report of a black person with a knife – he had an Afro comb https://t.co/2xPvH7Rymv
Olajive’s mother Zeyna Kada has accused the Metropolitan Police of using excessive force against her son. She states that officers “manhandled”, “strangled” and “scratched” him, and failed to take his ADHD and PTSD into account. Photos allegedly show blood on the sleeves of Olajive’s school shirt from where officers handcuffed the boy.
Another photo shows the 13-year-old with a swollen eye following the incident. Kada maintains that her son is traumatised as a result of his distressing encounter with police. According to the Metropolitan Police, the complaint regarding the incident is under investigation.
Outrage
Expressing her dismay at the incident, Streatham MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy shared:
Really appalled to hear that 13 year old boy who goes to school in my constituency came away from a recent stop & search with a swollen eye and bleeding wrists.
Highlighting the historic criminalisation of afro combs in Britain, Black and Asian Lawyers for Justice shared:
How long have we been subject to arrest for possessing an Afro Comb? Back in the day, the police used to say they were offensive weapons. Afro hair was always offensive to some largely because it was usually attached to black bodies. #Streatham#StopAndSearchpic.twitter.com/v5HzqjsTm5
Calling on the Met to provide Olajive with compensation and mental health support following the traumatic ordeal, children and young people’s mental health lead at the Centre for Mental Health Kadra Abdinasir said:
13 y/o Black boy walking in Streatham choked by police because they believed his Afro comb was a knife
Benjamin, who has ADHD & PTSD, was handcuffed by 5 police officers…no words!
The incident came just two weeks after footage emerged of a school-based police officer assaulting an autistic 10-year-old pupil. And on 13 September, a Metropolitan Police officer injured a 70-year-old Black man during a stop and search in Bromley, south east London.
Meanwhile, an Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) report published in September found that police racially profiled school support worker Dwayne Francis in a stop and search. These incidents reflect the reality that police continue to use stop and search powers disproportionately against Black people, with most searches not leading to an arrest.
Highlighting the police’s excessive and disproportionate use of stop and search powers against Black people, Black Lives Matter UK shared:
Stop and search disproportionately affects Black people. We are 9 times more likely to be stopped by the police.
Stop and search is a racist practice that is violent and ineffective. The intention is not to curb crime but to terrorise black communities.#abolishthepolice
Calling for an end to harmful stop and search practices once and for all, Manchester-based campaigner Deej Malik-Johnson tweeted:
A young boy with ADHD and PTSD bloodied, cuffed, assaulted, choked, traumatised and humiliated his crime? Carrying an Afro comb on his way to McDonald’s. Some are saying stop and search needs to be reviewed, it doesn’t, it needs to be scrapped. https://t.co/guiy7hsJ6Y
Citing the incident as further evidence of the harm that investing the police with more powers could cause (as set out in the government’s proposed draconian Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill) John O’Connell said:
Benjamin Olajive, 13, special needs, ‘strangled and left bleeding and bruised’ in #Streatham#London after cops jumped him, mistaking his afro comb for a knife.
This is why we fight excessive police force and brutality. This is why they don’t need MORE powers.
Decades of evidence point to the fact that stop and search practices don’t work to curb crime, and only serve to control and traumatise marginalised people and communities. It’s time to scrap the harmful practice once and for all.
Stacey Branscumb didn’t know anything was wrong with the water in his Benton Harbor, Michigan home until a local faith leader, Reverend Edward Pinkney, alerted him that several families in his neighborhood had found dangerous levels of lead coming out of their taps. After that, Branscumb began to wonder if his home had been affected too — it would explain his pets getting sick and in some cases, dying unexpectedly.
Branscumb got his water tested in 2019 and found high levels of lead. The next year, his water tested high again. Then this June, the tests came back showing a lead concentration of 469 parts per billion (ppb) — almost 32 times higher than the federal limit of 15 ppb.
“Every year he always had high lead levels, but this time it was ridiculous,” Pinkney said. “Just by looking at Stacey’s water, we knew right away that there was a major problem.”
For at least three years, Benton Harbor residents have had high levels of lead in their drinking water. Yet still nothing has been done to fix the problem. The water in Branscumb and his neighbors’ homes remains undrinkable today, with levels of lead rivaling those found in Flint, Michigan, seven years ago.
To force action on the issue, 20 environmental and advocacy groups filed a petition earlier this month to the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, citing an “imminent and substantial endangerment of public health.” Lead exposure for kids can result in long-term health effects, from brain and nervous system damage to learning and behavioral problems. In adults, it can cause high blood pressure, joint and abdominal pain, and miscarriage.
Water sampling test results in Benton Harbor, Michigan this year. Resident Stacey Branscumb’s home, highlighted in yellow, has lead levels 32 times the federal limit.
Courtesy of Edward Pinkney
The petition calls on the federal government to provide clean water for Benton Harbor’s 10,000 residents and for the removal of 6,000 lead pipes. Signatories of the petition — which range from local groups like the Benton Harbor Community Water Council to national organizations like the Natural Resources Defense Council — say the situation has become a clear environmental and racial justice issue: The EPA took swift action this summer to fix lead contamination in the drinking water of a majority white city in West Virginia. But it hasn’t acted yet for Benton Harbor, where 90 percent of residents are people of color, and 45 percent live below the federal poverty line.
“It’s a simple matter of law and justice that the people of Benton Harbor deserve safe water, regardless of their race or income,” Nick Leonard, executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and one of the petition’s organizers, said in a press release.“It is time for the federal government to step in to protect this low-income community of color from toxic water.”
Benton Harbor is not alone in being left behind. As lead pipes age across the country, communities of color are most often the ones being stuck drinking contaminated water. An analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, last year found that communities of color and low-income neighborhoods are more likely to be in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, and in violation for longer periods of time. In Michigan, Highland Park, Harper Woods, and Eastpointe are all majority communities of color that have also struggled in the last two years with high lead levels. Nationally, cities like Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Chicago, Illinois are being affected.
In July, after sampling in Clarksburg, West Virginia showed high levels of lead in drinking water, the EPA issued an Emergency Administrative Order. The order required the city to identify homes and businesses with lead service lines and provide alternatives for clean drinking water. Clarksburg is the inverse of Benton Harbor — 92 percent of its residents are white. “The situation in Benton Harbor is at least as extreme, and could be more extreme, than the case of Clarksburg, West Virginia,” the new petition argues.
When asked about its action in Clarksburg and inaction in Benton Harbor, Tim Carroll, a spokesperson for the federal EPA told Grist, “[The] EPA has received the petition and is carefully considering the issues and concerns raised by this community. We are closely monitoring lead-related health issues in Benton Harbor.”
The elevated levels of lead in Benton Harbor’s drinking water are being caused by the corrosion of old pipes — a natural process as this infrastructure ages. Residents point out that while nothing has been done to fix Benton Harbor’s lead problem, its mostly white neighboring city, St. Joseph, which also had lead pipes, doesn’t have any issues with lead in its water. St. Joseph’s water plant superintendent says the disparity could be for several reasons, including the chemicals used to treat the water and total water use. Others, like Pickney, say it’s because of St. Joseph’s resources to resolve the issue. The city of St. Joseph has a poverty rate of just 7 percent, compared to more than 45 percent in Benton Harbor.
Cyndi Roper, a senior policy advocate for the NRDC and one of the petition’s signatories, told Grist the groups filed the petition because, “we were increasingly concerned about the lack of urgency with the staff at EGLE.”
EGLE, or the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, is the state agency responsible for regulating issues like water contamination in Michigan. The agency was made aware of the elevated lead levels in water in 2018, during routine water testing. Following that, they advised residents to let their water run first before using it, and to use a lead reducing water filter provided by the county health department. The city also installed corrosion control technology at its water plant in March 2019 and began the process of replacing some of its lead lines.
“The conversation was focused on treatment techniques and how they were going to control corrosion in the water,” Roper said. “That is absolutely important, but we have to be sure that residents aren’t drinking high levels of lead while they experiment with their corrosion control.”
Reverend Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor speaks to a group of people about the city’s lead contamination issue. Courtesy of Edward Pinkney
The Lead and Copper Rule, part of the Safe Drinking Water Act, is a federal regulation that limits the concentration of these metals in drinking water. Michigan has the strongest state-level version of the Lead and Copper Rule in the country, after revisions were made in 2018 following the Flint water crisis: It bans partial lead distribution lines, requires water utilities to pay for the entire length of the pipe being replaced, and uses a more accurate method of testing the water.
“If Michigan’s stronger-than-other-states’ Lead and Copper rule still allowed this to happen, then we have serious problems with the way that we are approaching lead and drinking water,” Roper told Grist.
The federal government is partly to blame as well.
The federal rule only requires cities to test drinking supplies every three years, and only 10 percent of homes need to be tested. Cities aren’t required to notify the public of a lead issue until levels reach the federal limit of 15 ppb, although public health experts stress there is no safe amount of lead in water. And it’s all based on city wide data, so if at least 90 percent of homes test within the limit, a water utility is in compliance. If harmful levels of lead are found, it can trigger a required replacement of lead service lines, but the federal rule allows 33 years for that replacement to happen.
The EPA is currently deciding whether or not to reissue the Lead and Copper Rule, or make revisions to it. Over the summer the federal agency held roundtables across the country to get feedback from communities. Benton Harbor was one of the cities that participated.
Among several changes to the federal Lead and Copper Rule, Roper is advocating for a 10-year limit on replacing infrastructure, and to reduce the action incompliance level of lead in water from 15 ppb to 5 ppb. The EPA is expecting to announce next steps before mid-December.
Earlier in September, Michigan’s Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, proposed spending federal pandemic relief money on replacing lead lines — $20 million of which would go to Benton Harbor to replace all lines within 5 years. The proposal would still need to be passed by the state’s legislature. “That’s a process,” Pinkney said. “We can’t wait six months for [Governor Whitmer] to do something. We can’t even wait another day. We have to start thinking about our children and their future and clean this water up — and do it now.”
At the federal level, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill this month that would provide $15 billion for lead service line replacement across the country. Estimates show the price tag on the project, however, is between $28 and $47 billion. According to a survey conducted by the NRDC, there are up to 12 million lead service lines across the country that are, or might be, lead and will need to be replaced in the coming years.
“Until we get all of these lead pipes out of the ground all the way from the curb to the inside of the home, we’re going to continue having extensive problems with lead in drinking water,” said Roper. “Each community that has these lead pipes is only one mistake away from potentially having their own water crisis.”
Exclusive: Former employee accuses Equality and Human Rights Commission of ‘racial gaslighting’ in letter sent to colleagues
A former employee of Britain’s equality watchdog has accused it of failing to support the human rights of ethnic minorities and colluding in the denial of structural and institutional racism.
In an email sent to colleagues just before she left the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the member of staff also accused the watchdog of “racial gaslighting”.
The US recently admitted that its drone attack in Kabul, perpetrated on 29 August, killed 10 civilians. Seven of them were children. The youngest victim, a toddler named Sumaya, was only two years old.
With this development has come a fresh wave of outrage against US military aggression. But the outrage means little without an outright rejection of the neoliberal system of which these strikes are a feature. It also means little if it comes from people who won’t acknowledge the Islamophobia inherent in the war on terror – and the dehumanisation of Muslim lives that it’s enabled and legitimised.
The US only helps itself
At the start of the 1987 Hollywood film Predator, American soldiers charge into an unidentified forest in Central America and indiscriminately gun down an entire encampment. Their aim was to save hostages, but their policy was to shoot first and ask questions later. More recently, The Suicide Squad similarly depicted US agents accidently gunning down a camp that later turned out to be ‘the good guys’.
The drone attack in question is a real-life example of this approach. The attack has turned on its head the notion that the US is, or ever has been, a benevolent protector of Afghan people. But moreover, this incident is symbolic of US foreign policy for at least half a century. Acts of military aggression instigated on claims of freedom, democracy, and justice are anything but. Whether the bogeyman is communism or terrorism, the objective remains the same: protecting US interests.
And in service of this aim, human life is reduced to collateral damage. Of secondary importance. Its loss is regrettable but necessary. The US attack on 29 August killed 10 people, none of whom were IS agents. Sorry about that, but oh well.
The non-value of Muslim lives
Moreover, a defining feature of drone strikes carried out over nearly two decades is that the targets have been Muslim countries. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya – all attacked in service of US interests. Although the justifications have been varied, they fall broadly under the ‘war on terror’ umbrella. And nothing exemplifies the concept of structural Islamophobia quite like the war on terror.
These strikes have killed as many as 16,901 people so far. And as many as 2,200 are recorded as being “civilians”. These are high estimates – but even if we were to take the lower estimates of these figures, what would that prove? The lives of 910 civilians are as valuable as the lives of 2,200 civilians. 8,858 extra-judicial killings is no better than 16,901.
And even if we consider confirmed non-civilian killings to be ‘justified’ targets, the killing of innocent civilians in pursuit of those targets is never justifiable. These people were not collateral. They were not mere statistics. They were human beings with names, and families, and aspirations. Hundreds of them were children. And regardless of the extent to which the media and Western superpowers may have dehumanised them, their lives mattered.
We need more than outrage
It won’t be long before the news cycle moves on to discuss something else. Drone strikes in Muslim countries, meanwhile, will continue. Nation states will keep chasing their tails, trying to fight ‘Islamist’ groups and radicalisation while refusing to look to their own disastrous policies. Yet the 7/7 bombers had said in no uncertain terms that military aggression against Muslim nations played a role in motivating them. For decades, the wars that benefit our governments have only put the rest of us at risk.
The war on terror killed those 10 civilians in Kabul on 29 August, seven of whom were children. Outrage is no longer enough. Anyone who continues to give credence to the war on terror – and moreover the counter-terror ideology that spawned in its wake – is complicit. Anyone that continues to support politicians who have presided over these drone strikes is complicit. And anyone who supports a neoliberal status quo that tut-tuts at civilian deaths in one breath while celebrating war heroes in the next is complicit.
Reject the system that created the war on terror, and all the senseless wars that may yet be fought in its name. The system that continues to dehumanise Muslims and render their lives worthless. Otherwise, your sympathies are meaningless.
New research published by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) suggests that policing during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic disproportionately targets People of Colour and undermines public safety.
Disproportionate and discriminatory policing
The government expanded police powers to allow for “unprecedented restrictions on social gatherings” in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.’ The report, titled A threat to public safety: policing, racism and the Covid-19 pandemic, was authored by academics from the University of Manchester’s Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE). It argues that lockdown conditions, new police powers, and histories of institutionally racist policing have combined to threaten marginalised and vulnerable communities that already experience over-policing.
Moreover, it highlights that although England saw a drop in crime rates during the first lockdown, stop and search rates more than doubled in May 2020 compared to the year before. Also, between April and June 2020, the use of force increased by 12.5%. And police disproportionately used force against Black people.
The report draws on conversations with People of Colour living in England. Accounts reveal disproportionate and discriminatory policing over the course of the pandemic. Reflecting on the expansion of police powers and discriminatory policing during the pandemic, one respondent shared:
It’s almost giving like a golden ticket to kind of go out there in Black communities and just ridicule us. You know? To me, there’s like something that triggers the police with Black people […] they manhandle us, they verbally attack us, they treat us like animals
The report’s lead author Dr Scarlet Harris said:
The findings dismantle the myth that the police contribute to public safety. Instead, they demonstrate how policing such a ‘crisis’ has reproduced profound harms for those from racially minoritised groups and communities.
Undermining public health
Participants sharing their experiences of policing during the pandemic highlighted instances of police failing to use personal protective equipment (PPE) or observe social distancing regulations. One woman who was heavily pregnant during an encounter with police told researchers that officers refused to wear masks when she asked them to.
The report comes in the wake of widespread protests against institutionally racist policing and proposals set out in the government’s draconian Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill. Reflecting on the policing of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and 2021 Kill the Bill protests, another respondent said:
it’s just completely illogical that for them, a public health response involves sending like 40 to 100 police officers into an area, kettling people, using PAVA spray and then putting loads of people in police stations and in custody where obviously the risk of transmission is going to be higher…So, it’s just so obvious to us, this has got nothing to do with public health. This is just about the police being able to shut down protests.
The report argues that such practices “completely undermine the public health approach to the pandemic”. During encounters with the public, the police significantly increased the risk of coronavirus transmission.
Threatening public safety for People of Colour
Dr Remi Joseph-Salisbury, one of the report’s authors, said:
The evidence in this report really urges us to question the State’s reliance on the police to solve social and public health problems. Despite being central to the government’s handling of the pandemic, policing too often threatens rather than protects public safety, particularly for people of colour.
IRR director Liz Fekete added:
This research gives a voice to those who have had uncivil, discriminatory or brutal encounters with the police and points to the dangers that the public health model poses for “policing by consent”. The evidence of the over-policed reveals that those who argue that mistrust of the police is based on hearsay, myth-making and a victim mentality, are hopelessly out of touch.
The report’s authors conclude by expressing concern that the draconian measures ushered in at the beginning of the pandemic will remain in place, giving rise to “longer-standing forms of State control”. This is exemplified by the proposed draconian Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill. The bill would further expand police powers and threaten citizens’ civil liberties. The authors argue that our hope for dealing with present and future crises lies in alternative approaches which do not centre policing.
The Institute of Race Relations has released a new report on policing during the pandemic. And it’s raised a number of concerns regarding the police’s attitudes towards BAME communities.
The report was shared on Twitter by Labour MP Apsana Begum as well as police monitoring organisation Netpol:
An important report by @IRR_News says policing during the #covid pandemic has undermined public health measures, disproportionately targeting Black and Brown communities and reproduced profound harms for racially minoritised groups https://t.co/wVrLRW7n4l#PolicingTheCoronaState
The report showed that policing of the pandemic affected “racially minoritised communities” the worst. This took the form of people from these communities being:
Disproportionately stopped by police.
Threatened with or facing police violence.
Falsely accused of breaking lockdown rules and regulations.
Respondents from across England shared with researchers their experiences of policing during the pandemic. Along with the impact on BAME communities, the researchers also found evidence of the police undermining public health. Police were found to be:
consistently failing to use PPE or observe social distancing regulations, with a pregnant woman describing an encounter where officers refused to wear masks when asked.
The authors argue that such actions from the police “highlight how – with regard to the transmission of Covid-19 – the police pose a health risk to members of the public”.
The report’s authors are Dr Scarlet Harris and Remi Joseph-Salisbury from the University of Manchester, Patrick Williams of Manchester Metropolitan University, and Lisa White of Liverpool John Moores University.
Context
The Institute of Race Relations said in a press release:
The report argues that lockdown conditions, new police powers, and histories of institutionally racist policing have combined to pose a threat to already over-policed communities, and the most marginalised and vulnerable sections of society.
The research is published in the context of increased scrutiny around policing, particularly following significant mobilisations under the banner of Black Lives Matter and ‘Kill the Bill’ demonstrations against the government’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill.
Harris, the report’s lead author, said:
The Covid-19 pandemic ushered in a period of extraordinary police powers which arrived in a broader context of racist over-policing and police violence. This report draws on extensive conversations with people from racially minoritised groups and communities living across England over the course of the pandemic. The findings dismantle the myth that the police contribute to public safety. Instead, they demonstrate how policing such a ‘crisis’ has reproduced profound harms for those from racially minoritised groups and communities.
Every morning, I take a three-minute stroll from my apartment on the Northside of Chicago to the closest school, Eugene Field Elementary. The open schoolyard is equipped with everything I need: a running track, turf soccer field, basketball court, jungle gym, and a yard filled with native plants. The public space gives me the opportunity to meet my neighbors, play sports with local youth, and reap the benefits of outdoor exercise.
I’m part of a lucky group of Americans that have access to an open green space within a mile of where they live. Others are not so fortunate: The nonprofit environmental advocacy group The Trust for Public Land, or TPL, estimates that 100 million people in America, including 28 million kids, don’t have a park within a 10-minute walk of their home. Race plays a major role in the divide: The group estimates that, in the 100 largest U.S. cities, communities of color have access to an average of 44 percent less park space than predominantly white neighborhoods.
Without access to green spaces, communities lose out on a multitude of environmental benefits, in addition to losing out on a place to gather, exercise, and play. Grass and plants act as sponges that can help prevent urban flooding, sprawling trees and heat-absorbing soils combat deadly urban heat, and vegetation naturally rids the air of pollution.
But TPL argues that there is an easy way for communities to regain these benefits: opening up all public schoolyards, like the one I utilize, to the broader public — and ensuring that those schoolyards contain vegetation on par with that found in actual parks. According to the organization’s most recent community schoolyard report, which mapped every public K-12 school in the country alongside public parks, renovating and opening up schoolyards would give 20 million more people access to a park within a 10-minute walk of their home. This two-pronged proposal is calling on local school districts and governments to tear down fences and bring greenery to their asphalt schoolyards.
“Schoolyards offer a really powerful and simple opportunity to offer more people park access,” Linda Hwang, director of strategy and innovation at TPL, told Grist. “For many communities, this was never considered before — people thought of school as just school, not realizing its value as a community hub.”
While some cities, such as Atlanta and Oakland, already use an open-access system for schoolyards, implementing this approach nationwide could have an immense impact on public health and climate resilience, TPL argues. Park space provides emotional and academic benefits to young people; reduces stress, depression, and blood pressure in adults; and can even help prevent flooding and disastrous heat for entire communities.
“What we’ve found is that these spaces that are just sitting untapped could be transformed in a way to support the physical, mental, emotional, and in some instances spiritual health for many folks who have historically been denied of these things that allow communities to thrive,” said Ronda Chapman, TPL’s equity director.
The second part of TPL’s proposal — greening schoolyards — is just as important as opening them up for public access: A recent study by the organization found that 36 percent of America’s 51 million public school students attended school in an urban heat island, where temperatures are at least 1.25 degrees Fahrenheit warmer on average than the surrounding city. More than 4 million kids go to school in a severe heat island, where temperatures are more than 7 degrees warmer than their surrounding communities. Studies have shown that the cumulative effects of severe heat can hurt children’s cognitive development.
Replacing school landscapes full of heat-trapping asphalt and concrete with greenery would not only reduce temperatures and potentially improve learning outcomes — it can also help prevent severe flooding caused by climate change. Green schoolyards utilize water-capture strategies, such as engineered soils beneath turf fields and sprawling tree pits that absorb water. In New York City, TPL estimates that open schoolyards capture 19 million gallons of stormwater every year, helping to prevent sewage overflows.
Historically, some public school districts have argued that school campuses should be closed due to fears they’ll become havens for crime and gun violence, but studies have shown that crime rates drastically decline when communities have more access to their outside environment. TPL has seen this firsthand in its work in New York City, where it has helped renovate and open up 200 schoolyards since the early 2000s.
The group is calling on Congress to help make this a national reality by increasing federal funding for community schoolyard initiatives and suggesting states and cities use money from the American Rescue Plan to reinvigorate schoolyards. TPL estimates that it will cost more than $350 billion to renovate and open up more than 500,000 schools across the country.
California has already taken some first steps in this direction. Dozens of Golden State environmental organizations, including the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, or APEN, lobbied for the passage of the state’s newest budget, which includes $3.7 billion for climate resilience projects over the next three years. APEN hopes much of the money will be used to create what they call “community resilience hubs.” The funds could help turn public spaces, such as parks and schoolyards, into hubs where “communities gather, organize, and access social services not only during disasters, but on a daily basis.”
“Investing in both the clean energy infrastructure and green spaces, food, water, waste, and housing at a local level is what our communities need right now,” Miya Yoshitani, APEN’s executive director, told Grist. “Combining our economic needs with climate resilience is how we support the places that have been hardest hit by climate change.”
TPL’s Hwang echoed the community-level benefits of the approach.
“It’s an opportunity for people who live in the same neighborhood who maybe have never had any interaction with each other, to come together and daydream a little bit about what they want their futures to look like,” said Hwang. “It creates a space of co-creation and future-building to contend with overlapping social issues and even build climate resilience.”
(@Union_Roger) 
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