Sean Rigg Memorial – 4 Years – Brixton Tuesday twenty first August 2012
There’s a prolonged piece on Wikipedia concerning the loss of life of Sean Rigg whic states that his “case turned a trigger célèbre for civil rights and justice campaigners in the UK, who referred to as for “enchancment and alter on a nationwide stage” concerning deaths in police custody and the police remedy of suspects with psychological well being points.”
It goes into some element of the circumstances of his loss of life and the assorted enquiries that adopted however fails to correctly symbolize the massive effort investigating and campaigning by his household, notably by his sister Marcia Rigg, which dropped at gentle the various lies and failures of the police.
In 2023, the Unbiased Workplace for Police Conduct (IOPC) made an unprecedented apology in a letter to Marcia Rigg which you’ll be able to learn in full along with her response on the Inquest web site.
The Inquest publish additionally has a transparent transient abstract of Sean’s arrest and the detention that killed him advert the failures of the IPCC investigation, together with a remark by Inquet’s director Deborah Coles, in addition to the background to the case.
I’ve written on quite a lot of events concerning the case – and of different suspicious deaths in police custody, together with others involving Brixton Police Station, particularly the loss of life of Ricky Bishop in 2001. Right here I’ll merely write concerning the occasions in Brixton on the night of Tuesday twenty first August 2012.
Happily I didn’t need a seat within the Meeting Corridor inside Lambeth City Corridor as each one was stuffed for the memorial occasion 4 years to the day after his loss of life. By the point this was over folks had been standing across the aspect of the corridor and others ready outdoors for the vigil.
Round 200 folks lined up behind Mona Donle, Sean Rigg’s mom and his sisters Marcia and Samantha to march with the Sean Rigg banner to the memorial tree outdoors Brixton Police Station. Some held placards and carried flowers along with his sisters carrying a framed portrait of Sean.
Individuals laid flowers and lit candles on the memorial tree and put up Sean’s portrait and there have been some speeches.
Mona Donle, a Brixton resident described a disturbing incident the earlier Sunday in Windrush Sq. when three law enforcement officials violently assaulted a person who was clearly disturbed and performing unpredictably: “One officer choked him by holding his forearm throughout the person’s throat. Then one other officer stamped on him. The foot was on his face after which the person handed out – we stored telling them to name an ambulance.”
As I famous, “The police account reads otherwise, making no point out of the violence and suggesting that the ambulance arrived ‘roughly’ 5 minutes after the arrest.” An eye fixed witness instructed me it was round 20 minutes earlier than the ambulance got here and that the person had solely simply come spherical.
Sean’s mom spoke briefly after which Mona Donle went in to absorb a proper grievance concerning the incident she had seen. At first I watched them from the doorway however when others piled in I joined them.
It was very crowded contained in the police station foyer. The grievance was handed in, and a signed and dated copy was returned to the complainant.
However they demanded to listen to from a senior officer about what had occurred, and after a couple of minutes Superintendent David McLaren got here out, gave a brief assertion and tried to reply a few of the questions, although clearly no-one was happy along with his solutions. The foyer was very crowded and getting scorching and it was quickly time for me to go away.
It didn’t appear probably that there could be far more occurring. Certainly one of two folks had tried to fire up somewhat hassle however the Rigg household had made it clear that they wished this to be an event the place respect was present for Sean and with others had helped to quieten issues down.
Extra footage on My London Diary at Sean Rigg Memorial – 4 Years.
Flickr – Fb – My London Diary – Hull Images – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Images
All pictures on this web page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to purchase prints or licence to breed.
Tags: Brixton, Brixton Police Station, Brixton City Corridor, candles, loss of life, flowers, formal grievance, Lambeth City Corridor, London, march, Marcia Rigg, memorial tree, Mona Donle, peter Marshall, police killing, police violence, protest, Rigg household, Sean Rigg, Superintendent David McLaren, vigil
You’ll be able to depart a response, or trackback from your personal web site.
