Monthly Archives: February 2012
Website – MASSOBS: mass observation movement
A new website has been launched which contains speeches and interviews with those who took part in the 2011 United Families and Friends Campaign and its thirteenth annual march.
Massobs.co.uk is a site that postgraduate students are involoved with. The material and projects have been influenced, both in approach and spirit, by the mass observation movement formed by Harrison, Madge and Jennings, in their initial projects in “Worktown”. Their aim was to create “an anthropology of ourselves”.
The website was developed with the support and assistance of Ken Fero (Migrant Media), co-producer of the film INJUSTICE.
UFFC discuss custody deaths on BBC radio show
Tippa Naphtali of the United Families & Friends Campaign spoke on behalf of families all over the country when he was invited onto the Joe Aldred Show.
You can listen to the show again (or if you missed it live) for a limited period. Click here to listen to the programme (Forward to 1.hr 11.min 24secs).
Tippa is also the founder of 4WardEver UK and a cousin of Mikey Powell who was killed in the custody of West Midlands police in September 2003.
The United Families & Friends Campaign (UFFC) is a coalition of families and friends of those that have died in the custody of police and prison officers as well as those who died in psychiatric and immigration detention. It also has members and supporters from campaign groups and advocacy organisations from across the UK.
United families launch 100,000 No:10 petition
The United Families & Friends Campaign (UFFC) have launched an ambitious petition appeal that calls for an independent judicial inquiry into all suspicious deaths in custody.
The United Families & Friends Campaign (UFFC) is a coalition of families and friends of those that have died in the custody of police and prison officers as well as those who died in psychiatric and immigration detention. It also has members and supporters from campaign groups and advocacy organisations from across the UK.
The Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody report published in 2011 states: in total, there were 5,998 deaths recorded for the 11 years from 2000 to 2010.
This is an average of 545 deaths per year. Despite the fact there have been 11 unlawful killing verdicts since 1990 there has never been a successful prosecution.
Unproven science used to ‘explain’ custody deaths
A controversial unproven syndrome with roots in the US is being used in British coroners’ courts to explain why people die after police restraint.
‘Excited delirium’ or ‘sudden-in-custody-death-syndrome’ is a niche diagnosis not yet recognised by the World Health Organisation or any international authority.
A number of leading pathologists have expressed concern about the use of the term in inquests. Listen to Programme >
Individuals in the throes of ‘excited delirium’ are described as aggressive, agitated, displaying bizarre behaviour, insensitive to pain and with superhuman strength until they collapse and die
But research by the Bureau has found that the ‘condition’ has been used by coroners to explain 10 restraint-related deaths that occurred in police custody in England and Wales since the late 1990s.
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