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UK: Officer suspended after Brixton riots

01 August 2001

A police officer drafted into Brixton to deal with disturbances that followed the police shooting of Derek Bennett has been suspended after CCTV footage allegedly showed him attacking a young black male and a couple who came to his aid. Hundreds of people had taken to Brixton's streets on 20 July after it emerged that Bennett, a 29-year-old black man killed four days earlier after waving a fake gun and taking a hostage on the Angell Town housing estate, may have been shot in the back (see Statewatch vol 11 no 3 & 4). CCTV recordings reportedly show two or three officers in riot gear chasing and kicking the black youth. A man and woman who intervened were then also allegedly assaulted, with the man suffering a dislocated wrist. Eight other officers involved have been put on "restricted duties". Prior to the disciplinary action, the Metropolitan police had said that they were unable to identify the officers involved from the camera footage. Paul Twyman, a member of Lambeth's Community Police Consultative Group, said that people who had in the past called on police officers to be more clearly identifiable had been "fobbed off". He said that if the Met had listened there would be "whacking great numbers on these people, rather than shoulder-flashes which you can't read".

South London Press 5 & 23.10.01.