On Friday 5 August, Black Lives Matter protests blocked roads and shut down traffic in London, Nottingham and Birmingham. The protests were called on the 5th anniversary of the killing of Mark Duggan and Black Lives Matter UK say they were protesting against the deaths in police custody of black and minority ethnic (BAME) people.
BAME people are more likely to die in police custody or jail in the UK. Since 1990, 1,500 people have died in custody, 500 of them were BAME despite only 14% of the UK population being BAME.
Protestors in London chained themselves together across the M4 on the way to Heathrow airport, significant as the airport where Jimmy Mubenga died in handcuffs whilst immigration police were attempting to deport him. In the evening a protest was held in Altab Ali park in east London and traffic was briefly stopped on Whitechapel road. Protestors in Nottingham and Birmingham also chained themselves together across roads and unfurled banners.
In the UK, the key issues are not so much regular police shootings of black people (as in the US), but deaths in custody, stop and search, immigration raids and deportation. But all add up to systematic harassment, abuse, and murder of BAME people.
