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Chris Kaba, 24, shot dead by police in Streatham, Mon 5th Sept 2022

The quote says

Jefferson Bosela, Kaba’s cousin who was also at the meeting, said: “It was hard, but the family just wants justice. For now, the family are going to take a break and take a step back.”


There are several ways to read or interpret this.

They’re taking a step back because they now see that the copper was in some way justified in his actions. They can understand why this terrible thing happened and they are willing to reduce their insistence that the police acted wrongfully.


or

They‘re taking a step back because the bodycam footage makes it clear that sometihg went terribly wrong, Chris Kaba wasn’t a threat, the copper’s act was unwarranted and unjustified. It’s so obvious that they can rest easy knowing that it’s only a matter of time before this is made official. Hurrying the IOPC into making a judgment won’t bring him back so they’ll wait til the investigation is complete. In the meantime they can take the time to rest and grieve.

or

They‘re taking a step back because it’s all very confused and unclear. There are other elements that might help to clarify things, and it will take time for those things to be elucidated. The best thing now is to allow the IOPC to study the story and find out what happened. Six to nine months, time to find strength for what might come next.


They are still calling for justice. That’s a powerful word full of specific meaning. If the film showed that the copper was acting in a reasonable way, would “justice” still be at the top of their list?


No way of knowing. All we can do is take our lead from the family and wait for the ruling.
 
Or maybe they’re taking a step back because they need to grieve and no longer want to be in the public spotlight.

Not only has his mother lost her son, she has had to watch a video of the moment he went from life to death.

There were some news videos of his mother at home which were really tough to watch and felt quite invasive. No amount of interviews or demonstrations will bring her son back.
 
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In recent news the family are backing Inquest in sending this case to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Hardly the actions of a family who are stepping back due to viewing of footage. The implication being is that it shows Kaba was at fault in some way.

Which is how taking a step back is being used.


 
Im getting irritated by some of the posting here.

Some posters like me say what they think.

Others drop in posts that don't say where the poster is coming from but remind me of the way the police deal with controversial events,

That is don't actually say that those critical of how police work in this country are wrong but drop in little drip by drip undermining of those who are critical.

I see this on this thread.
 
I see it on this thread.

Ooh! A seer! :D

Skip back to my posts on the Duggan thread or police brutality thread if you think I’m uncritical of the police.

With the amount of speculation going on here it’s reasonable to point out that we don’t have all that much in the way of clear facts.
 
Ooh! A seer! :D

Skip back to my posts on the Duggan thread or police brutality thread if you think I’m uncritical of the police.

With the amount of speculation going on here it’s reasonable to point out that we don’t have all that much in the way of clear facts.

I have not done much in way of speculation here.

Nor am I a "seer".

I am a regular on Brixton forum so basing this on what I see happens here.
 
I have not done much in way of speculation here.

Nor am I a "seer".

I am a regular on Brixton forum so basing this on what I see happens here.

No, you haven’t done so personally from what I have read (and me pointing fingers will start a bunfight anyhow), but a poster pointing out the degree of speculation is reasonable imo.

It is the Met tbf, and few things would surprise me after Duggan, but we had so much to go on in that case.
 
Inquest website which I regard as reliable says this statement :

So they have "stepped back"

But in my reading want a genuine investigation in a reasonable time period ( urgent accountability} with regular updates which are meaningful.

I take this as meaning they are prepared to give a chance for justice to take its course. So will step back from public action.

As long as its done in meaningful and urgent way.

Not the usual time wasting long drawn out investigation that gets held up by Met obstinate behaviour. Which goes on for years.

The also want the officer to be questioned under caution. - be interesting to see if this happens.

On behalf of the family of Chris Kaba and in collaboration with their legal representatives at Hickman and Rose, INQUEST are issuing the following statement:

Yesterday, Chris Kaba’s closest family were given the opportunity to view some footage of the incident in which he was fatally shot by a police officer.

The facts of this case demand urgent accountability and the family therefore await regular meaningful updates on the investigation and the progress towards a charging decision.

Speaking on behalf of the family, Jefferson Bosela said: “The family just wants justice. For now, the family are going to take a break and take a step back.”

The family will not make any further comment for the time being, whilst awaiting further regular updates from the IOPC to ensure that the investigation does the job that it needs to do. The family’s demands for the officer to be questioned under caution and for an early charging decision remain unchanged.
 
Im getting irritated by some of the posting here.

Some posters like me say what they think.

Others drop in posts that don't say where the poster is coming from but remind me of the way the police deal with controversial events,

That is don't actually say that those critical of how police work in this country are wrong but drop in little drip by drip undermining of those who are critical.

I see this on this thread.

I have no criticism of how the Justice for Chris Kaba campaign has been conducted, nor of any other aspect of the civilian response to the killing of Chris Kaba.

For the record, from the start and still, I strongly suspect the police are at fault here. I strongly suspect that the police acted illegally, and very probably that was rooted in personal racism of the individual officer, historic racism of local relations, and systemic racism of the Met.

I’m saying “strongly suspect” and “very probably“ rather than “believe“ and “know” because we haven’t seen the results of the enquiry and there’s been no court case yet.

.
 
I have no criticism of how the Justice for Chris Kaba campaign has been conducted, nor of any other aspect of the civilian response to the killing of Chris Kaba.

For the record, from the start and still, I strongly suspect the police are at fault here. I strongly suspect that the police acted illegally, and very probably that was rooted in personal racism of the individual officer, historic racism of local relations, and systemic racism of the Met.

I’m saying “strongly suspect” and “very probably“ rather than “believe“ and “know” because we haven’t seen the results of the enquiry and there’s been no court case yet.

.
that seems like a very sensible way to proceed
 
I strongly suspect that the police acted illegally.
Ever since I read that the officer fired only one shot, which hit Chris Kaba in the head, I've been certain that it was murder. The officer must have been very close to him. Close enough to see that he wasn't armed. If the officer thought he was at risk of being run over, he should have got out of the way and not fired his gun. The shooting was avoidable and unjustified. The officer's intent was to kill. Which makes it murder.

I suspect the police will argue that the officer was forced to shoot, to save his own life. But there was no need for him to endanger himself by standing in front of the car. If Kaba was panicking and smashing his car into police cars, they could have just let him carry on. He couldn't drive past them. So why kill him just to stop him damaging a couple of cars?

It reminds me of the shooting of Mark Saunders in 2008 Death of Mark Saunders - Wikipedia. The police could have waited and kept their heads down. They weren't at risk. Eventually the guy would have given up or killed himself.
 
Ever since I read that the officer fired only one shot, which hit Chris Kaba in the head, I've been certain that it was murder. The officer must have been very close to him. Close enough to see that he wasn't armed. If the officer thought he was at risk of being run over, he should have got out of the way and not fired his gun. The shooting was avoidable and unjustified. The officer's intent was to kill. Which makes it murder.

I suspect the police will argue that the officer was forced to shoot, to save his own life. But there was no need for him to endanger himself by standing in front of the car. If Kaba was panicking and smashing his car into police cars, they could have just let him carry on. He couldn't drive past them. So why kill him just to stop him damaging a couple of cars?

It reminds me of the shooting of Mark Saunders in 2008 Death of Mark Saunders - Wikipedia. The police could have waited and kept their heads down. They weren't at risk. Eventually the guy would have given up or killed himself.

I don’t disagree with any of this.


When I heard that it was a single shot through the windscreen and the car was blocked in, it immediately reminded me of something that happened on the street I used to live on.

This was back in…. maybe the early 2000’s

There was a commotion, and a helicopter. Our bedroom was at the front of the house, first floor. We opened the blinds and watched from the bed.

The helicopter fucked off pretty quickly, it later transpired that this was because it was obvious there was no gun involved.

A burglar had been interrupted and he’d gone up inside the house, into the attic and out onto the roof. The police were on the street, two cars, cops standing around on the street. He was trapped up on the roof. He roamed about looking for a way down and quickly realised that even if he found a way down he would immediately be caught. He sat on the roof ridge for a while, maybe 40-60 minutes. Judging the way he was moving he was having a pretty intense conversation with himself about what to do and how stupid he felt. Cops didn’t even bother talking to him with loudhailers, just waited. A fire engine was called and was idling nearby. We half expected that they’d use the ladder to get a cop up to the roof but they didn’t even do that, they just waited.

It was club turn out time and people were walking past, cops didn’t even tell them to walk on one side of the street. cops knew it was just a waiting game, and they’d win. They’d change shifts if they had to and just keep waiting.

Eventually the fella came down the pitch of the roof and stood near the edge indicated that he was ready to come down. They sent the ladder up with a fire officer and brought him down, he turned to get cuffed and went off in the cop car. The fire officer went back up onto the roof to check the gutters, I guess for contraband, anything he might have dumped, then they left. The homeowner was out and didn’t even know anything had happened til he heard the story from another neighbour the following evening,

We kept saying to each other, and afterwards to everyone we told the story to “If this had happened in America or if the British police were armed that kid would be dead, they would have shot him. No doubt.”


Obviously the circumstances are entirely different but also there were similarities. The suspect being trapped, no one else being at risk, a waiting game can ensue.


They could have even clamped the car ffs. If they can get a whole arse fire engine out they can find and use a wheel clamp.
 
Ever since I read that the officer fired only one shot, which hit Chris Kaba in the head, I've been certain that it was murder. The officer must have been very close to him. Close enough to see that he wasn't armed. If the officer thought he was at risk of being run over, he should have got out of the way and not fired his gun. The shooting was avoidable and unjustified. The officer's intent was to kill. Which makes it murder.

I suspect the police will argue that the officer was forced to shoot, to save his own life. But there was no need for him to endanger himself by standing in front of the car. If Kaba was panicking and smashing his car into police cars, they could have just let him carry on. He couldn't drive past them. So why kill him just to stop him damaging a couple of cars?

It reminds me of the shooting of Mark Saunders in 2008 Death of Mark Saunders - Wikipedia. The police could have waited and kept their heads down. They weren't at risk. Eventually the guy would have given up or killed himself.

The officer does not necessarily need to be in front of the car. If someone is in ram rage mode and is trying to hit other officers, then the shooter could have been very close to the side of the car and shot while the car was stationary (ie. has rammed something and is readying up to reverse for another go). That way, if the car is not going anywhere after one shot you know you have stopped them.
 
Have you read it? As a confirmed old fart I would not dismiss the analysis - but the logical corollary of this is that HMG should - like China - have a censored internet.
Ironic this, as the Epoch Times is Falun Gong symathetic. As I had to sign up to read ir no doubt I will now get weekly invites to demonstrate at the British Museum.

BTW is this BPM info accurate?
Musically, drill songs have an average of 140–150 beats per minute, compared with 100–130 for pop songs and 60–80 for R’n’B.

I guess the text of the "rap" is important too, but Epoch Times don't go into this. My most extreme musical taste is for Wagner - who was of course banned in Britian during WW2 - for being both German and a Hiltler favourite. Still banned in Israel for being an anti semite.

Would it be practical to censor Youtube, Tik Tok etc for agressive lyrics and excessive bpm? Just asking!
 
Regarding the above - I recalled this video feat Bernie Grant MP highly political for its time, and dealing with issues people really needed to complain about, rather than grudges, dissing and murder. Where did it all go wrong?
 
21 September 2022:

Family have decided to "step back" after seeing the footage.

No doubt the Metropolitan Police will be disappointed by this:

"The family of Chris Kaba have said they will not “let up” on their campaign for justice after viewing footage from the night he was shot dead by police ..."

24 September 2022: Chris Kaba's family vow there is no let up in their demands for justice

29 September 2022: Chris Kaba's family demand footage be made public of moment police shot him
 
Inquest starts in a couple of weeks. Maybe we'll learn a bit more.

They’ll certainly have had plenty of time to get their story straight.

All that we are likely to learn from this morning's hearing is the name of the deceased, and the fact that he died of a gunshot wound (ones suspects to the head). The full inquest hearing date will be set for a year to eighteen months' time, by which the State hopes that Mr Kaba's friends and family will have been sufficiently worn down to be unable to continue to seek the truth about the full circumstances of his killing.
 
All that we are likely to learn from this morning's hearing is the name of the deceased, and the fact that he died of a gunshot wound (ones suspects to the head). The full inquest hearing date will be set for a year to eighteen months' time, by which the State hopes that Mr Kaba's friends and family will have been sufficiently worn down to be unable to continue to seek the truth about the full circumstances of his killing.
you never know, the truth often emerges at an inquest - there's been quite a number of times inquest juries have returned verdicts of unlawful killing following police killings. the issue's more with what happens after that.
 
All that we are likely to learn from this morning's hearing is the name of the deceased, and the fact that he died of a gunshot wound (ones suspects to the head). The full inquest hearing date will be set for a year to eighteen months' time, by which the State hopes that Mr Kaba's friends and family will have been sufficiently worn down to be unable to continue to seek the truth about the full circumstances of his killing.
It's always the way. By the time the officer is criticised he'll probably have been promoted and retired. Maybe a huge demo could accelerate the process, but I'm not sure there are enough angry people, or a leader who can run an effective campaign. This won't be the UK's George Floyd moment. There've been so many black men killed by the Met lately....e.g. Ian Taylor and Oladeji Omishore...you'd think there'd be more than enough momentum for large scale disorder. But it just doesn't happen.
 
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