Inquest Due on Police Custody Death

By Tom Whitehead, PA News

An inquest will be held today (Monday) into the death of a man shortly after police attempted to detain him for suspected drugs offences.

Kebba Dobo Jobe, 42, was in the process of being arrested by the Metropolitan Police in Camden, north-west London, on Saturday when he died.

He was named by the new Independent Police Complaints Commission which will manage an investigation in to his death to be conducted by a separate police force.

Laurence Lustgarten, IPCC Commissioner for North West London, said: “It is a terrible tragedy to lose a member of one’s family in circumstances such as these.”

The IPCC replaced the Police Complaints Authority last month.

The inquest will be held at St Pancras coroners court.

I saw the police filth last night in Kentish Town, with an irate Rasta cuffed in the back of a speeding van, sireens and lights blaring, with about six white officers switching on him. And again today, another Rasta (pure coincidence) was cuffed and struggling with two white officers in NW5. It's an alarming racist trend and they are getting away with murder.

I agree this is a terrible injustice but in reply to 'Who's Next's comment, I walk through Camden almost every day and 95% of the people who offer me drugs every time I walk up the high street are African so therefore the police are likely to be arresting Africans.

> I agree this is a terrible injustice but in reply to 'Who's Next's comment, I walk
> through Camden almost every day and 95% of the people who offer me drugs every time I
> walk up the high street are African so therefore the police are likely to be arresting
> Africans.

Is "African" now a new code word for n*gger here?

Not all black people are 'African' - there was a comment above that two Rastas were being mistreated by the cops. Do you count them as 'African' too? What about black people born in this country - 'Africans'? There's some sort of false politeness with this word 'African' - it's like calling people 'Coloured'.

Anyway, even if "95% of the people who offer [you] drugs" are black, have you ever thought why that might be the case? I'll give you a small clue: black people do *not* have a natural affinity towards drugs. Now take things from there...

And regardless of whether this figure of "95%" is even true, which I very much doubt, we do *not* have the death penalty in this country - even for nasty 'African' drug dealers. It is not clear if Kebba Jobe was selling drugs from the above story but even if he was knocking out a bit of blow, this is not a capital offence - in fact, I can't even remember if it's supposed to be illegal, decriminalised or what (especially in Camden of all places). To actually break a man's spine in the course of arresting him for just smoking a spliff is using a level of excessive force which defies belief.

This is a shocking and tragic story that an asylum seeker with a young daughter born in this country can be treated this way - especially in view of the fact that Jobe's cousin appears to have also died in police custody in 1996:

 http://www.ncadc.org.uk/archives/filed%20newszines/news14/kebba.html

Just what the hell is going on here?

I walk through Camden every day too and no-one ever offers me drugs - bummer! BTW - It was an undercover cop who offered "the African" puff, before they arrested and murdered him.

From Colin Roach in 1983 to Chris Alder in 2003 - no officer has been prosecuted or even suspended for the two THOUSAND deaths in police custody.

Whether "African" was a well-chosen word or not, I've been offered smoke many times on that corner. *Maybe* once was by a white guy, but the others were black. In my long experience of Camden, that 95% figure is conservative.

And no, I'm not condoning either profiling or police violence.

Know your stuff before casting doubt, Anti-racist.

this article is seriously innacurate. i'm a close friend of someone who was there and there's no way, ever that they would lie to me about what happened. you're all screaming POLICE BRUTALITY!!! RACISTS!!! BEATING!!! when you don't even have the facts right.

So Emily Bean. What the f*ck, If you're friend was there and there was no way
they would lie to you, what did they say happened? This is supposed to be
INDY media isn't it???? If you know the story put it up.

I don't know what really happened on the towpath that night, but I live across the road from where it happened, and I do know that about 4 hours beforehand I watched a man with a bat chase someone down Chalk Farm Road. He was then jumped on by about 6 policemen, who then kicked him a couple of times. I don't really know what happened straight after that, but I did see them surrounding and beating a teenage boy about 30 seconds later. By the end of this there was around 20-30 policemen, and they'd also taken a guy who'd shouted at them from across the road for beating up the kid. They'd let the original guy go, minus his bat. I don't know if it matters, but all the people involved were white.

As well as this, they did appeal for witnesses to Kebba Jobe's death, but I don't think anyone stepped forward. Make of it what you will.