A coalition of local organisations and residents from Newham’s diverse communities will be uniting to protest at the way the anti-terrorism raid in Lansdown Rd., Forest Gate, London was conducted by the police. A protest march will take place at 12 noon at Plashet Park, on Sunday 18th of June.
On June 2nd two neighbouring families had their lives devastated by a violent and massive anti-terrorism raid on their homes in Forest Gate. One of two brothers in one home was shot. Both brothers were later arrested and held under anti-terrorism laws. In the neighbouring home, a male member of that family was assaulted with a potentially lethal blow to his head by a police rifle. Other members of this family were taken to Plaistow Police Station and held for 12 hours, despite the fact that they were not under arrest. A week later the two brothers who had been arrested were released without charge. A search of both homes over a subsequent week did not yield any evidence to support the claims of ‘specific intelligence’ made by the police.
During the course of their investigations the police provided no explanation as to why local families were treated in a violent manner during the raids. There has been misinformation concerning the circumstances of the shooting of one of the two brothers originally arrested. Initially the media reported police sources saying that another family member had caused the accident in a scuffle, a further police claim was that an a police officer from the CO19 unit accidentally fired a shot because his gloves were too thick. An Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation is on going, but local communities have legitimate grounds to demand answers from the police.
If there was specific intelligence that led to the raids, why were two properties raided? Why were the families subjected to such brutal police tactics? Where was the duty of care towards the residents in the surrounding area by the borough police, the critical local bodies that provided cooperation in the antiterrorism raid? Why were residents on several roads in Forest Gate placed under an enforced cordon, restricting entry and exits from their own homes, even while the police claimed that a potential chemical bomb threat posed a danger to public safety? There were children playing in cordoned streets and no one was evacuated in light of a chemical bomb threat. Whose public safety and whose rights were the police taking care of?
The police have stated yet again that they will ‘learn from their mistakes’, but local communities have heard this before after each death in custody, each act of institutional racism and after numerous complaints about excessive police force in the borough. Police violence against Newham’s black communities, asian, African and Caribbean, is not new is not new. But increasingly it is Newham’s Muslim community, who comprise over a quarter of the borough’s population, that is under particular scrutiny, under cover of draconian anti-terrorism measures. A police apology for the disruption and nuisance caused is not good enough. There are many more unanswered questions.
Newham communities do not want a recurrence of the tragedy of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent man who was killed during an anti-terrorism operation. On Sunday June 18th local communities can participate in a peaceful protest against the alarming disregard for the human rights and civil liberties of our friends, families and neighbours.