THE UK PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Posted on July 28, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged abolition, altcourse, BLM, david guake, defund, featured, G4S, IAS, IAS UK, immigration, immigration detention, incarceration, ministry of justice, price fosu, prison industrial complex, profit, public safety, racism, Serco, sodexo.

by Michael Noone for IAS UK

In March 2018, the then Justice Secretary David Guake delivered a speech on the topic of prison reform. He kicked off proceedings by detailing his perception of the prison system and its modus operandi. Describing it as three-fold, Guake explained the aims as follows:

First, protection of the public – prison protects the public from the most dangerous and violent individuals. Second, punishment – prison deprives offenders of their liberty and certain freedoms enjoyed by the rest of society and acts as a deterrent. It is not the only sanction available, but it is an important one. And third, rehabilitation – prison provides offenders with the opportunity to reflect on, and take responsibility for, their crimes and prepare them for a law-abiding life when they are released.

EXTINCTION REBELLION’S STATEMENT ON POLICE WILL NOT VINDICATE THEM

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged 1312, abolition, anthropocene, anti black, BAME, black, black lives matter, climate change, climate crisis, education, Extinction Rebellion, featured, government, mark maslin, police, police brutality, prison, race, racism, simon lewis, uk.

by Lisa Insansa Woods

In early July, Extinction Rebellion UK released a statement discussing their “relationship with the police.” They explained how they now recognise that their tactics of civil disobedience and mass arrests have been insensitive to and “have excluded Black people, other communities racialised as non-white, and other marginalised groups and contributed to narratives that have put those communities at risk.” They also apologise that this recognition has come so late.Continue Reading

NOT A TEAM: HOW THE POLICE OBSTRUCT OTHER EMERGENCY SERVICES (AND TAKE CREDIT)

Posted on June 27, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged 1312, abolition, ambulance, black, black lives matter, defunding, derek chauvin, emergency service, featured, firefighter, jengba, NHS, police brutality, police violence, policing, poverty, prison, race, racism, recruitment, system, uk.

by Kasper Hassett

CW: police brutality, racism

We tend to think of them as a trio: the police; the firefighters; the paramedics. They all answer the same phone line; they all blare the same siren on their way to the scene. Not all three, however, exist to support civilians, nor do they operate in unison, and this façade is what enables the police to be revered no matter how much they tear communities apart and instil fear.Continue Reading

STATUES ARE COMING DOWN BUT RACISM REMAINS

Posted on June 22, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged #SayHerName, 1312, abolition, ahmaud arbery, anti black, anti-asian, BAME, belly mujinga, black, black lives matter, breonna taylor, british history, Cecil Rhodes, Churchill, colston, desecration, education, empire, featured, george floyd, government, jas assman, Kenya, lockdown, mary seacole, mau mau, munira mirza, olaudah equiano, race, racism, Rhodes Must Fall, Rodney King, say their name, South Africa, statue, Steven Lawrence, system, tony mcdade, uk, war memorial.

by Lisa Insansa Woods

Colston is in the river. Winston Churchill is quivering. Cecil Rhodes glares brazenly at the Oxford University governors threatening to tear him down, his maniacal eyes finding flickers of solace in the realisation that whether he remains or not, the society he served over a century ago still slithers in its self-made pool of white supremacy (enough to still make his cold hard mouth turn into a grin).

The taking down of statues is a powerful display of justice. Every day, the Black community has had to endure looking up at its oppressors whilst simultaneously being battered by the system that those same glorified figures acted to perpetuate. Each statue that falls is a nod of recognition to the Black experience – an experience which has been subdued for hundreds of years as something that is not worthy of our knowledge. However, whilst pulling down a statue is a strong gesture, it does not annihilate the insidious manifestation of racism that courses through every part of our society. We need to do more.Continue Reading

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE RIOTING AND THE LOOTING

Posted on June 10, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged #SayHerName, abolition, ahmaud arbery, Akala, anti black, BAME, belly mujinga, black, black lives matter, breonna taylor, CHAZ, coronavirus, derek chauvin, featured, george floyd, judah adunbi, loot, macpherson, mustafa dikec, neoliberal, paulo freire, police brutality, police violence, policing, poverty, prison, race, racism, reparations, say their name, Seattle, Stephen Lawrence, system, tony mcdade, uk, zygmunt bauman.

by Sarah Edgcumbe

CW: racism, violence, police brutality

We need to talk about the rioting. And the looting. And the destruction of statues during recent Black Lives Matter protests. We really do. The failure to recognise the entrenched nature of historical and enduring structural violence in both the US and the UK speaks volumes in terms of the normalization of oppression, enforced poverty, racism and discrimination in contemporary society. Whilst there are certainly white victims of structural violence, it is an irrefutable fact that Black or minority ethnic communities experience the most severe intersecting consequences – not as uncomfortable rarities, but as a grinding, every day, relentless struggle, which as we have seen in the case of George Floyd along with so many other black men, women and youth, can too often have fatal results.Continue Reading

THE ONLY WAY TO END POLICE BRUTALITY IS TO ABOLISH THE POLICE

Posted on June 8, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged #SayHerName, 1312, abolition, ahmaud arbery, anti black, anti-asian, BAME, Belly Mujnga, black, black lives matter, breonna taylor, coronavirus, derek chauvin, featured, george floyd, government, J m moore, jengba, lockdown, NHS, norwich, police brutality, police violence, policing, poverty, prison, race, racism, Rodney King, say their name, Steven Lawrence, system, tony mcdade, uk.

by Lisa Insansa Woods

CW: racism, violence, police brutality

A tide of anguish currently sweeps our world, hammering at the white supremacist order. On the evening of May 25th, George Floyd was mercilessly killed by a white US policeman. The world watched from their homes as Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, ignoring his screams as he called out that he couldn’t breathe. George Floyd was suffocated of his last breath. Three other policemen stood and watched. The state brutally murdered a Black man. The people decided to revolt.

Right now, we are seeing mass protests from the US to the UK to the rest of the world, both on the streets and online, physically and mentally. Police brutality pervades our society and the recent piling up of Black bodies such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery has become just too much. We need change. The only way to achieve this change is to abolish the police.Continue Reading

abolition

THE UK PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

by Michael Noone for IAS UK

EXTINCTION REBELLION’S STATEMENT ON POLICE WILL NOT VINDICATE THEM

NOT A TEAM: HOW THE POLICE OBSTRUCT OTHER EMERGENCY SERVICES (AND TAKE CREDIT)

STATUES ARE COMING DOWN BUT RACISM REMAINS

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE RIOTING AND THE LOOTING

THE ONLY WAY TO END POLICE BRUTALITY IS TO ABOLISH THE POLICE

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by Michael Noone for IAS UK

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