Star date: 2nd March 2014

`WE'RE SLEEP WALKING INTO A POLICE STATE'

Carole Duggan, aunt of Mark Duggan whose shooting by police officers led to the UK riots of 2011, said today that "We're just sleep walking into a police state… as the police, with the support of the government, think they have the right to go out and kill".

She was speaking at a Piccadilly Gardens vigil for Anthony Grainger, two years after the Salford man was shot by an officer of Greater Manchester Police.

Full details here…

Today at a vigil for Salford man Anthony Grainger, shot dead by police on 3rd March 2012, Carole Duggan, aunt of Mark Duggan, gave a passionate speech calling for working class unity in support of campaigns around deaths in police custody.

"Without the support of the people we will never ever be able to win" she told the crowd at Piccadilly Garden in Manchester "Without the people we cannot challenge them, this is why you have to come out and support campaigns.

"Since 1969 over 1,500 people have been murdered in police custody and not one officer has been held accountable and that is a real sad state of affairs" she added "Mark Duggan was murdered in Tottenham by the Metropolitan Police, and the reason why we have such a high profile surrounding Mark's death is the uprising around the whole country…Without that uprising Mark's death would probably have been swept under the carpet along with the thousands of others over the years."

Explaining that the justice system "works for some and not for others", she argued that working class people, poor people and ethnic minorities "do not stand a chance against the few who hold the power in the country", and added that "We're just sleep walking into a police state... What are the police offering? A service? No. Force...The police, with the support of the government, think they have the right to go out and kill."

Carole Duggan's points were echoed by Janet Alder, sister of Christopher Alder, the ex paratrooper who died in police custody with cctv footage showing officers making monkey noises over his dying body…

"It would be more humane if they turned around to us as ordinary people and said `We do not prosecute police officers for killing ordinary people', but what they do is compound your grief…and make you wait two, three, four years before your case gets to an inquest or before it gets to a trial, if it does" she explained "The CPS [Crown Prosecution Service], the IPCC [Independent Police Complaints Commission] and the police are all in cahoots with each other but you can't give up, you've got to fight and you've got to lose the fear factor."

Janet told how she herself had been put under police surveillance since she started investigating her brother's death, and, in a nod to the Barton Moss campaigners who were at Piccadilly Gardens showing support, added that "If you say something out of line [to the police] they will manipulate the situation and arrest you…

"I want people to wake up to what's really going on" she concluded "I didn't think it was going to be me, so please don't think that it's not going to be you and yours."

Wesley Ahmed from the Justice4Grainger campaign underlined both speakers' points when he referred to the Anthony Grainger case (for full details see previous Salford Star articles – click here and click here and click here)…

"We're living in a system where you'll never get justice" he said "You've got the IPCC, they're the first people you meet and they are there just to bury the truth, then you've got the Crown Prosecution Service who are another layer of protection.

"The CPS have decided to charge Sir Peter Fahy [Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable] with the lowest, most watered down charge they could possibly get away with" he added "Which means, if he gets found guilty the tax payer pay the fine and the money goes straight into the justice system which you can't get justice from…"

Speaking for the first time on a public platform was Joanne, the mother of 19 year old epileptic, Billy Salton, who died after collapsing in a cell at Stockport Magistrates Court…

"Billy didn't get any medication for 17 hours, he had two seizures in the police station" said Joanne "At the inquest, GMP blamed Medacs - the private company who go to prisons and police stations - and Medacs blamed GMP, and it went around in circles. 

"No-one took the inquest seriously" she added "It was a whitewash from the start, they just covered up the tracks. The coroner said that there was neglect on all three sides but the bar wasn't high enough to blame one particular person for neglect, so she put it down to natural causes. They said I couldn't take it any further..."