By Gabriel Princewill
The family of Mark Duggan deserve compensation for police practise over his death in 2011.
The hour-long documentary aired on BBC I on Monday gave a surreal insight into just how easily it is for police to act with impunity.
The brilliant documentary chronicled the events that followed the brutal killing of Mark Duggan – a mixed race Londoner –
brutally shot by armed cops who were following a cab which Duggan had hired to proceed on his journey.
Police say they received intelligence that Duggan had a gun, so they trailed the cab he was in, eventually shooting him because they reportedly felt threatened.
None of the police claimed to have seen Duggan with the gun in his hand, and none of them saw him throw it over a fence- yards away from the scene where a gun was eventually found.
Forensic tests on the gun yielded no trace connecting Duggan to the gun found. Unless police provided evidence that Duggan had gloves, it suggests he did not, in fact, have a gun.
An expert used in the investigation gave an alternative hypothesis of how the gun may have ended on the field. He told the documentary that either the gun was thrown there by Duggan before he got out of the cab, immediately he got out of the cab, or it was planted there by police.
However, with no plausible level of certainty explaining how the gun got there, investigators till this day remain mystified about its eventual discovery on the field. Nearby residents who reached to their mobile phone to film the limited segments of the event they could capture were evidently too late to offer any definitive account of how the gun got there.
One female resident claimed to have clearly seen an officer pull the gun out of the cab, but her account was dismissed because of alleged conflicting and contradictory statements. She claimed to have seen an officer come out of the cab with a gun after searching it but did not see him throw it anywhere. Arguably, it could have been the officer’s own gun she saw.
Duggan Officers Gave Erroneous Information
Yet, the most disturbing fact that emerged from a sober judgement of this harrowing and distressing incident was the fact police deliberately released
erroneous information to the press pertaining to an exchange of gunfire between Duggan and the Police.
Channel 4 newscasters confirmed they had been told Duggan had shot a police officer, and this misinformation was slowly circulating to other news outlets. Compounding the erroneous information was the failure of police to promptly rectify the error, or should we say the misleading information or blatant lie.
This misleading information was then denied to have been made in the first instance despite the broadcaster’s assertion that they had been given that information. And the press had no reason to lie about that, did they An apology eventually given by senior police was quite late. It did little to redress the error made by the police.
Making matters worse to an already terrible and horrendous situation was the long delay of the police in delivering the news of Duggan’s killing to the family. The police professionally and traditionally have the remit to deliver the news of death to family members. On this occasion, they conveniently abdicated their responsibility. And got away with it too!
The poor family members recounted their pain in attending the police station and being subjected to a three-hour wait, only to be asked to fill a complaint form. What the grieving family wanted was answers, not a condescending response from an insensitive and somewhat callous police force.
Riot Over Duggan Shooting
The killing led to one of the worst riots ever seen in British history.Shops were looted, cars were set on fire, and Ealing broadway tube station was partly set on fire too. The community was angry, and many seized the opportunity to exercise their deplorable criminal tendencies, stealing goods in mass quantities without restraint.
At the time, I was asked by the then Sunday Mirror news editor, the brilliant James Saville, to attend the riot with a hood, infiltrate the youths and find out their mindsets, discretely recording their words. I did just that. My dictaphone was full of angry expletives from disaffected youths, many basically saying that ”if the police can act as they wish, so can we”. Their actions were by no stretch of the imagination justified, but it was their own deviant language of protest.
Verdict
The eventual verdict of lawful killing was palpably a kick in the teeth to Duggan’s family. After all that malpractise and maltreatment, no evidence Duggan had a gun, the police killing is deemed lawful? Can’t be right. Notwithstanding, all the shameful and reprehensible conduct of the police, the objective question is whether the officer who fired and killed felt his life was in danger.
This is a subjective question that only he knows the true answer. He should be compelled to take a lie detector test. If when Duggan emerged from the car, the officer even for a split second, thought he may have a gun, and may use it, then he arguably couldn’t take a chance.
However, armed marksmen should be well trained enough to shoot the legs, and give their man a chance to live. They shouldn’t easily go for the kill, but adrenaline and fear may be working simultaneously in such potentially lie changing situations. When armed police are on right on your tail in their car behind you, the safest and prudent thing to do is to stay where you are.
It is better to go to jail than be dead. You can’t afford to try and hide anything or move anything when armed police are about. This is something everyone must learn. Armed police can be very lethal as we can see.
Duggan’s family deserve huge compensation for the appalling way they were treated by police on that fateful day and the subsequent months and years. They went through too much. Listening to his brother, sister, mother, and partner on television was heart rendering.
Huge compensation is the least the police can do.
And a big thumbs up to the BBC for putting this first class detailed and transparent documentary for all to see.