Fury grows over suspicious death during police raid
IMC'er | 12.02.2006 16:50 | Migration | Repression
On January 10th West Yorkshire Police raided a house in Plumstead, South East London, looking for a suspect in connection with the shooting of Pc Sharon Beshenivsky. Allegedly the robbers who shot the Pc have links to the Somali community in the Woolwich/Plumstead area. When the police raided the house, alone inside was Nuur Saeed who was unconnected to the accused but later found outside seriously injured. It seems he fell head first from a second story balcony. He died on January 22nd from a massive brain injury.
Back in August another young black man died In Bradford in unclear circumstances. Paul Coker died on the floor of a cell in Plumstead nick. His mother and sister attended a large demonstration at the police station where several hundred people gathered to express their anger over Nuur Saeed's death. "They are experiencing the same unaccountable wall of silence that the de Menezes family are so angry about. The family of Nuur Saeed have all this to come." Right now they are still coming to terms with the death of a loved one. His friends and the local community are furious.
Article with photos and report of the demonstration
Links: Police network tracks vehicles [in Beshenivsky case] | Justice for Nuur Saeed | Family wants truth about how Nuur Saeed died | Justice for Nuur Saeed Campaign launched
Other Media: Somalis protest over death during police raid | Somali community demands justice for Nuur Saeed | Scores protest at police station | Protesters demand truth after fatal fall
Related events: Pig Brother Live Show UK Tour - a survey of police violence, weapons, their effects and why they usually get away with it. Live multimedia show pus speakers Ken Fero and Brenda Weinberg, Chris Alexander of the Azelle Rodney Campaign and people from the Jean Charles Campaign. 1st date: 17th Feb 7.30pm 15 rampart street E1 2LA
From previous article about demonstration:
Last Saturday the corporate media were going into an racist feeding frenzy at the Danish Embassy. Meanwhile a bigger (and just as angry) demonstration by Somali Muslims was taking place at Plumstead Police Station. It went unreported except for here, a left paper and a Somali youth magazine. It seems that the death of an innocent young man in suspicious circumstances is just not newsworthy if he is black.
The robbers who shot dead the WPC in Bradford allegedly have links to the Somali community in the Woolwich/Plumstead area. The local youths have accused the cops of being out for revenge and running a racist vendetta against them. On January 10th Police raided a house in Plumstead looking for a suspect. Alone inside was Nuur Saeed who was unconnected to the accused but later found outside seriously injured. It seems he fell head first from a second story balcony. He died on January 22nd from a massive brain injury.
Back in August another young black man died here in unclear circumstances. Paul Coker died on the floor of a cell in Plumstead nick. His mother and sister are at the demo and address the crowd, which are several hundred people. They are experiencing the same unaccountable wall of silence that the de Menezes family are so angry about. The family of Nuur Saeed have all this to come. Right now they are still coming to terms with the death of a loved one. His friends and the local community are furious.
Several hundred people join the demo over the course of the afternoon. Dozens more who are not prepared to stand in a pen hang out in the vicinity. The Police have clearly been told to be on their best behavior. They keep their distance politely negotiating with the organizers throughout the event. At one point local youths block the road, which is one of the main routes into London. Five van loads of TSG (goon squad) cops show up and are seen jogging into the back of the station with their kit bags of riot gear. In the end they don’t get deployed as the demonstrators unblock the road voluntarily as the demo draws to a close.
I get talking to some of the demonstrators about the general situation. Many of them were on the regents park demo the day before. They are angry and insulted by the Danish cartoons. However they are equally unhappy that the media gave all the attention on that demo to a tiny group of extremists from Al-Majihiroune. Today the media are again camped out at the embassy waiting for the Jihadists to provide them with some easy scaremonger headlines. The death of Nuur is ignored, sending a clear signal that Muslim lives are just not important. Hardly surprising that these kids feel angry and alienated?
IMC'er
Additions
Somalian Asylum in Ireland
17.02.2006 11:29
39mb 4min broadcast quality video at http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/01/259.shtml
zcat
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