On July 22, Rashan Charles, a 20-year-old Black man, died in a hospital in east London after being chased into a shop and confronted by a police officer, who attempted to remove an unnamed object from his mouth. A video subsequently emerged online allegedly showing the confrontation, in which the police officer tried to restrain Mr. Charles. While the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) launched an immediate inquiry into the death (as required for all deaths in police custody), this did little to quell the anger that was building in the local community. It was just a month earlier that Edson Da Costa, another young Black man, died in hospital, several days after being detained by police, after swallowing a “number of packages”.

While many took to social media to protest, others took to the streets in Hackney in east London, at one point blocking off sections and damaging buildings, while police officers were subjected to abuse and violence. During a peaceful rally last Saturday, at which demonstrators carried ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Justice for Rash’ placards, Charles’s family appealed for calm, though they warned they would continue to push for answers. “We want the officers involved in these cases suspended rather than simply being used as witnesses so we can have a transparent process of justice,” said the pressure group ‘Stand Up To Racism’. So high were tensions last week that Cindy Butts, an IPCC commissioner, met with young people from the local area to talk about Rashan’s death and other issues.

Police treatment of young Black men has been a difficult and sensitive issue in Britain despite the existence of an independent regulator to monitor the conduct of the police. The death of Mark Duggan, who said he had been in possession of a handgun and was shot and killed by police in August 2011, had triggered protests that turned into riots, leading then-Prime Minister David Cameron to recall Parliament for an emergency session. While a court ruled subsequently that Duggan’s shooting had not been unlawful, many in the community continue to believe it was an instance of miscarriage of justice.

No convictions yet

According to a report published by the Institute of Race Relations in 2015, 509 people from Black, minority, refugee or migrant communities died in “suspicious circumstances” between 1991 and 2014. These were the cases in which police, prison authorities or immigration offices were implicated. Though some had been deemed unlawful, not a single person has been convicted for their part in these deaths. “A large proportion of these deaths have involved undue force and many more a culpable lack of care... Despite critical narrative verdicts warning of dangerous procedures and the proliferation of guidelines, lessons are not being learnt. People die in similar ways year on year,” the report concluded.

Acknowledging the need for scrutiny of deaths or serious incidents that took place while a victim was in police custody, the government commissioned an independent review in 2015, though it is yet to be published. INQUEST, a charity that works on cases relating to death in custody, noted in a report earlier this year that a “disproportionate number of those who die in or following police custody are from Black and minority ethnic communities”. “INQUEST is concerned that institutional racism has been a contributory factor”.

While authorities may be working hard to show that they are doing their best to tackle the issue, mistrust is unlikely to go away any time soon. This week, the video of an Asia-British man being hit by a baton by a police officer went viral, triggering an investigation into the excessive use of force.

(Vidya Ram works for The Hindu and is based in London)