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Injustice Film Screening and Police Racism Symposium

Injustice film screening
Sun 23 Jun 2019 7:00pm to 10:00pm
Glasgow Autonomous Space
Unit 11, 53 Kilbirnie Street
Glasgow
G5 8JD

Film screening and panel discussion with Aamer Anwar and Smina Akhtar.

Ken Fero and Tariq Mehmood’s Injustice gives a blow by blow account of the relentless struggle for justice of families bereaving loved ones killed by the police.

In 1969 David Oluwale became the first black person to die in police custody in Britain. Many others have died since then. No police officer has ever been convicted.

Injustice documents the mockery of police self-investigation, police collusion with the legal system and media; and asks why an accused killer in uniform is not judged by the same standards as the rest of society.

Upon its release, The Police Federation threatened legal action against any cinema willing to screen it. At Conway Hall in London, following a police call to cancel the film’s screening, the audience took control of the venue; barricaded the doors and projected the film themselves.

The Guardian calls it “one of the most powerful films ever made in Britain.”

It won best documentary at the BFM International Film Festival in 2002 and the National Social Justice Award in 2003.

As Scotland’s chief prosecutor’s decision to not charge the police responsible for the tragic death of Sheku Bayoh in custody in Kirkcaldy shows (gassed, battoned and cuffed by 9 officers in 2015, despite CCTV footage disproving their claim of his violence); the deaths and repression continue. His family will fight for justice. The courts, the police and the media will cover-up their abuse(s) of human rights.

In a statement, his family wrote: “People said to us that the police are above the law and because Sheku was black, we would never get justice. That is exactly what has happened.”

This occurs midst the everyday human rights abuses of Theresa May’s racist ‘hostile environment’ policy, would-be prime minister Boris Johnson’s calls to extend and strengthen stop-and-search criminalising of working-class communities of colour, to construct a maximum security prison in Lagos, deporting prisoners from the UK to Nigeria, the BBC’s report of endemic racism at Tulliallan’s police training college, and massive, privately-funded prison expansion across Britain.

The pre-film panel will feature:

Smina Akhtar - Activist and PhD researcher into experiences of state racism and community resistance at the University of Glasgow. Smina has written for CommonSpace and The National.

Aamer Anwar - Human Rights & Criminal Defence solicitor, lawyer to Sheku’s family and Rector of the University of Glasgow.

A zero waste community dinner will be provided by Geschmack.

£3 suggested donation. £2 suggested food donation. All funds raised will go directly to the Justice for Sheku Bayoh Campaign.

Free to those unwaged and in asylum system.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/872705953083680/

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/307593702.

Meeting hosted by Extinction Rebellion Glasgow, Geschmack Glasgow, Glasgow Autonomous Space and SACC