UK: Racism and fascism
01 January 1991
UK: Racism and fascism
artdoc April=1995
Black woman killed in east London
There has been criticism of the police investigation of an arson
attack on a flat on an east London tower block that led an Afro-
Caribbean woman to jump to her death.
On 17 July, a party in Donna O'Dwyer's flat was fire-bombed by
a balaclava-clad white man. Police, however, ignored the
statements of eye-witnesses and gave briefings to the press in
which they said they were looking for a black man. A 34-year-old
white resident from the estate has been arrested. The Leyton
Race Attacks Support Group, which claims that the fire-bombing
was racially motivated, has since been formed. It says that the
white man arrested for the attack has been the subject of
complaints about his racist behaviour but Waltham forest council
are refusing to release the file of complaints about him to the
police (CARF no 23, Waltham Forest Yellow Advertiser 29.7.94 ).
Courts round up
Youth convicted for brutal racist attack
A white youth who was part of a gang who attacked Mukhtar Ahmed,
an Asian youth, and left him unrecognisable in a savage racist
attack in east London has been convicted because a former
girlfriend and her mother reported him to the police. However,
the 17-year-old youth was immediately released from custody
because he had already spent six months in jail on remand and
could not be made to serve any further time even if the maximum
12-month sentence were imposed. The other members of the gang
have yet to be found (Guardian 27.10.94).
Prosecution of Asian brothers criticised
The acquittal of an Asian man, Lakhbir Deol, for manslaughter of
a white youth who was part of a gang which had carried out a
campaign of racial harassment against his post office on an all-
white council estate in Stoke-on-Trent has brought renewed
criticisms of the criminal justice system. Although lawyers for
Lakhbir Deol and his brother Davinder had tried to get the trial
transferred away from the local area a High Court judge refused
the request, despite the warning of the stipendiary magistrate,
who committed the case for trial. The case should be transferred
because of its racial sensitivity and Stafford's almost entirely
white population, the stipendiary magistrate had argued..
During the trial itself, lawyers for the crown argued that race
had nothing to do with the confrontation, to which the judge
replied by saying that the racial element was `as obvious as the
noses on our collective faces.' On 3 July 1993, a 30-strong mob
had attacked the Deol's store. Kevin Copeland was run over and
died as the Deol's attempted to flee the scene in a van (Observer
18.9.94, 30.10.94).
Fascist round-up
BNP fortunes wane
The Town Planning Committee of Bexley council in south-east
London has ordered the neo-nazi BNP to vacate its premises in a
building in the borough (Bexleyheath + Welling Mercury 8.9.94).
The BNP's electoral fortunes also seem to be on the wane. In
a recent by-election in Tower Hamlets (the borough in which a
year ago they won a council seat) they scored just 305 votes (12
per cent of the vote), (Guardian 17.9.94, CARF no23).
West Yorkshire police investigate Combat 18 attacks
A special intelligence unit has been set up to investigate a
spate of arson attacks and violent assaults that west Yorkshire
police believe to be the work of Combat 18. A hit-list of targets
was published earlier this year of MP's, councillors, lawyers and
even a children's nursery, under the headline "Death to Reds'.
In one attack, a crossbow bolt smashed through the window of
a flat and embedded itself in a wall while a young child and his
child were in the room (Yorkshire Evening Post 20.9.94, Guardian
24.9.94).
Meanwhile, a TV documentary has repeated the claim that the BNP
is still deeply involved with C18. In the `Dispatches'
documentary broadcast on Channel 4, C18 activists are seen on BNP
marc