According to several imperialist media reports and an official article on the Met Police website, a man (identified by the press as from Ghana, but now living in Forrest Hill) was tasered before being shot by SO19 marksmen on the morning of Sunday 19th February.

It is believed that of the 5-6 rounds fired, three of these struck the victim's torso, but it has not yet been reported whether all rounds were fired from the same gun.

Fortunately for him, and perhaps unfortunately for the police involved in this shooting, this particular African victim survived the attack and remains in a condition described by police as "critical, but stable."

The Metro Police's story is that this 25-year-old young African confronted police with a "large bladed article," which has also been described as a "knife" and a "Sword" in these same articles.

If the shooting of Mark Duggan in August last year is anything to go by, we will no doubt hear the story continue to change in the press with no question from the press as to its validity.

Mark was initially claimed to have fired at police triggering a shoot-out and after numerous changes in the account from the IPCC and media, it emerged that a gun was found some feet away from his body in a sock and was not fired.

Things that have so far not been mentioned in any of the allegedly "impartial" British news media so far several days after this incident are:

Independent reports that this situation actually occurred right outside the victim's home

Independent reports that the car that is referred to in the first instance belonged to his next door neighbor

Witness reports that the victim was lying semi-nude in the street surrounded by at least eight armed policemen with around 14 police vehicles at the scene.

The victim was taken to Kings College Hospital (4.1 miles and 15 minutes away) as opposed to the local Lewisham Hospital, which is a mile and a half down the road and only takes four minutes to get to by car.

The lack of information being made public around this shooting by the police has given rise to outlandish and dangerous speculation, ranging from immediate slander and criminalization of the victim himself to disgustingly offensive white nationalist postings on the comments sections underneath the articles on the internet.
Police shootings are part of government's public policy of police containment of the Black community

InPDUM recognizes that the attack on this particular African, and the immediate slanderous response to it by the national and local imperialist press which has been used to whip up white nationalist and anti-African sentiment is nothing new to the African community.

In our community we are all too familiar with the public policy of police containment, which maintains its presence unchallenged through the British State's outright lie of a "war on drugs, knives and guns" that never seems to lessen no matter how many dawn raids are carried out on our homes in the housing estates all over this city as well as up and down the length and breadth of the country.

The so-called "war on drugs, knives and guns" is nothing but code for what is really an ongoing war on the African community here in the UK, just as the so-called "war on terror" has been nothing but a failed exercise in an attempt to recolonize and impose the will of European and U.S. white power on oppressed people in Afghanistan.

The same inflammatory slander has been used time and time again against our community to criminalize us whenever it looks likely that the true nature of our relationship to the State could be exposed.

We are in fact not the criminals, but the victims of police terrorism! This is no less true now than it was when Ricky Bishop and Derek Bennet were killed by Lambeth police in 2001 under the watch of the Borough Commander and now London Mayoral hopeful Brian Paddick, or when Demetre Fraser was killed by West Midlands Police last May, or when Mark Duggan was killed by these same SO19 marksmen in what appear to be extraordinarily similar circumstances.

Just like the case with Mark Duggan, the police shot this brother when there was no need to. Reports from witnesses indicate that there were at least eight policemen surrounding the victim and around 14 police vehicles at the scene! All of this for an alleged attempted car break-in by one individual, supposedly carrying knives?
The government uses police terror to solve its crisis at our expense

With the deepening of the British government's financial crisis and an increasing loss of confidence from the general population in its institutions, the government's policies against the black community intensify. Despite the announcement last year by Boris Johnson of a freeze on recruitment for the Met, opting for a voluntary service approach to police terror, the mayor of London has recently announced the deployment of 70,000 extra police troops over this summer for the controversial and much anticipated 2012 Olympics.

Aside from the fact that the Olympics themselves are an excessive waste of money (£24bn) that should be put into housing and other services that have been taken away from the people, the resources raised from the Olympics essentially benefit the interests of the white ruling class. The police merely serve as foot soldiers to protect the smooth extraction of wealth. Very often created by Africans ourselves. Are people clamoring round their TV sets to watch the British archery team or Usain Bolt? We all know the answer.
The relationship between the African community and the State

This is a historical and material reality. Our relationship to the British State was born parasitic. That is to say that Great Britain found greatness through sucking the life blood of Africa. Slavery, colonialism and worldwide terror were the tools used to build this nation and the same tools were used to destroy African identity and memory of self-determination from our collective consciousness.

The sad fact of the matter is we could name many more that the Police let alone the Government has never and will never be held to account for by an "independent" Police Complaints Commission, which has no more independence than a hand from the arm it belongs to!

Nor will the police or the government be forced to pay for this particular crime or any of the other ongoing attacks we experience by the same old slick talking, white power in black face puppet politicians, preachers and careerist activists that the imperialist media wheels out as representative of some kind of leadership in our community. These forces are as redundant and bankrupt as the system that has given them their legitimacy.

We hold no faith in their courts which are used to reinforce the oppression we experience by upholding the legality of it and criminalizing resistance to oppression. Remember, slavery was legal too.
Call to join InPDUM for organized mass resistance!

In August of last year, in the "Black August Rebellions," we saw the spark of resistance from young African workers in London in response to decades of oppressive government policies that our community has suffered. It was an inspiration to others oppressed by the State and also latched onto by certain opportunist elements, but the reality is that consciously or not, Africans like Chelsea Ives who was pictured hurling a brick at a police car took a righteous stance against oppression in the only way they could see how to at that time.

They took that stance in the absence of seeing any honest organizational leadership on the ground in our community to enable them to resist beyond spontaneous actions.

We say it is correct to resist oppression! It is logical to resist oppression! It is completely illogical to continue to experience constant pain and act like this is a perfectly normal state to be in just because someone tells you it is normal.

It is not normal. Look around the world and it is clear: where there is oppression there is also resistance. In Palestine, there is oppression, and there is resistance, in Egypt, there is oppression, and there is also resistance. In Congo and Senegal right now there is oppression, and there is also resistance.

We are calling on all Africans who want to see an end to these vicious attacks on our communities to join and support InPDUM to build its capacity and be the functioning mass organization of the African community that it needs to be.

We are also calling on all freedom loving, honest and progressive forces regardless of National identity, religious or political belief to be on the right side of history and unite with the following demands:

· End the code of silence: Reveal identities and dismiss all police officers involved in the shooting

· An end to military style occupation: Removal of SO19 armed police from the black community

· Statements of apology be published by all local and national media who have actively participated in slandering and fueling the inflammatory anti-African sentiments being made about this victim in particular

· Reparations to this victim of organized police terror imposed on the African community

Defeat the public policy of police containment!

Africans have a right to resist!