United Friends and Families Protest Custody Deaths in Whitehall march. Mother of Jean Charles de Menezes in tears at Downing St
Several hundred people, including many family members and friends of those who have died in suspicious circumstances in police custody, prison and 'secure' mental health facilities, marched at an appropriately funereal pace through the centre of London this afternoon. It took 44 minutes to cover the 500 metres to Downing St. Over 2500 people who have died in care of police and prison staff either through violence or neglect, were listed on a large banner carried in the demonstration, but there are others whose names were missing or are not known. Despite the publicity achieved by this campaign, and various investigations by the media, inquest verdicts and other inquiries that have made the damning evidence crystal clear, nothing seems to have changed. Racism, the lack of a proper culture of care and an almost complete lack of accountability mean that healthy people, mainly but not all black, continue to die in police and psychiatric custody and in prisons and there is no justice for them. In the past year there were 182 such deaths. The march made its way in silence down Whitehall to Downing Street where, in a surreal manifestation of anti-terrorist paranoia the bouquets were subjected to a police examination, before family members were allowed to come forward and fix them to the gates. Police had agreed they would be allowed to stay until the protest ended. Among those taking part were the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, shot by CO19 armed police at Stockwell Underground station when he was mistaken for a terrorist suspect.
Size: 5040px × 3347px
Location: Westminster, London, England, UK
Photo credit: © Peter Marshall / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: charles, custody, de, deaths, demonstration, downing, famiies, families, friends, health, jean, march, memorial, menezes, mental, mother, parliament, police, prison, prisons, protest, remembrance, square, st, suspicious, tears, trafalgar, united, whitehall
