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40 Years Ago Today; Death of Blair Peach
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Blair_Peach
Clement Blair Peach (25 March 1946 – 24 April 1979) was a New Zealand-born teacher who died after an anti-racism demonstration in Southall, Middlesex, England. A campaigner and activist against the far right, in April 1979 Peach took part in an Anti-Nazi League demonstration in Southall against a National Front election meeting in the town hall and was hit on the head, probably by a member of the Special Patrol Group, a specialist unit within the Metropolitan Police Service. He died in hospital that night.
An investigation by Commander John Cass of the Metropolitan Police's Complaints Investigation Bureau concluded that Peach had been killed by one of six SPG officers, and others had preserved their silence to obstruct his investigation. The report was not released to the public, but was available to John Burton, the coroner who conducted the inquest; excerpts from a leaked copy were also published in The Leveller and The Sunday Times in early 1980. In May 1980 the jury in the inquest arrived at a verdict of death by misadventure, although press and some pressure groups—notably the National Council for Civil Liberties—expressed concern that no clear answers had been provided, and at the way Burton conducted the inquest.
Celia Stubbs, Peach's partner, campaigned for the Cass report to be released and for a full public inquiry. An inquiry was rejected, but in 1989 the Metropolitan Police paid £75,000 compensation to Peach's family. In 2009 Ian Tomlinson died after he was struck from behind by a member of the Territorial Support Group, the SPG's successor organisation. The Metropolitan Police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, released Cass's report and supporting documentation. He also offered an official apology to Peach's family.
The policing of the demonstration in Southall damaged community relations in the area. Since Peach's death the Metropolitan Police have been involved in a series of incidents and poorly conducted investigations—the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence, the death of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005, the botched 2006 Forest Gate raid and the death of Tomlinson—all of which tarnished the image of the service. Peach's death has been remembered in the music of The Pop Group, Ralph McTell and Linton Kwesi Johnson; the National Union of Teachers set up the Blair Peach Award for work for equality and diversity issues and a school in Ealing is named after the protestor.
23 April 1979
In the run-up to the 1979 general election, the National Front announced that they would hold a meeting at Southall town hall on 23 April 1979, St George's Day. Southall was to be one of 300 parliamentary seats for which they put up candidates. Prior to the Southall meeting, similar events had resulted in clashes with anti-racist protestors, including in Islington, North London on 22 April, and in Leicester the following day. At both events, police had been injured trying to keep the two sides separate.
A petition of 10,000 residents was raised to cancel the meeting, but to no effect. Ealing Council had blocked previous meetings by the National Front, but, under the Representation of the People Act 1969, they allowed them to use the meeting hall. The day before the meeting a march by the IWA was planned from central Southall, past the town hall, and ending at Ealing town hall. Approximately 1,200 police officers were on duty along the five-mile (eight-kilometre) route, at which 19 people were arrested. Two counter-demonstrations for the day of the meeting were planned: a picket on the pavement opposite the hall, and a seated demonstration outside it. To deal with the potential violence, 2,876 police officers were drafted in, 94 of whom were on horseback; they arrived at 11:30 am and demonstrators began gathering at 1:00 pm in preparation for the 7:30 pm National Front meeting.
The old Southall town hall, where the National Front rally took place
As the number of demonstrators at the town hall rose, the crowd contained what the police considered militant elements. There were some clashes between police and protestors and a small number of arrests ensued. The police decided to make a sterile cordon around the town hall, although they still allowed a small, contained demonstration in the High Street. The cordons were set up on Lady Margaret Road, the Broadway, High Street and South Road. Between 2:30 and 3:15 pm, at the High Street cordon, missiles were thrown at the police, who used riot shields to contain the crowd.
According to the official police report, between 5:30 and 6:30 pm violence rose as the crowd at the High Street cordon again began to throw missiles and at about 6:20 pm between 500 and 2,000 protestors tried to breach the police lines. In response, mounted officers were brought in to disperse the crowd.[38][39] The author Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, who was present at the demonstration, thought the mood changed when the police tactics changed from containment to disbursement, which triggered the reaction from the crowd.
One house on Park View Road was used as a first aid post; the building was also the headquarters of Peoples Unite. The official police report states that the residents were "a group of mainly Rastafarians" who were squatting at the premises, and that these occupants threw missiles from the house at police in the street. SPG officers entered the house and an altercation broke out in which two officers were stabbed. Those in the house—including those manning the first aid post and those receiving treatment—were beaten with truncheons, and an estimated £10,000 of damage was done to the contents of the house, including the equipment for the band Misty in Roots; the group's manager, Clarence Baker, went into a coma for five months after his skull was fractured by a police truncheon. All those inside were removed from the property, regardless of what they were doing, and there were subsequent complaints of racist and sexist abuse by the police. 70 people were arrested either at or near the address. At the trial of one of those arrested, one of the SPG officers involved reported "there was no overall direction of the police forces at this time" and the situation was "a free for all".
National Front members began arriving from 7:00 pm. At its scheduled time their meeting took place. During the assembly, one of the organisation's speakers called for "the bulldozing of Southall and its replacement by a 'peaceful English hamlet'". Four members of the public were allowed into the hall to fulfil the requirements of the Representation of the People's Act, but the journalist from the Daily Mirror was stopped from entering because the newspaper was "nigger loving". When the meeting ended at about 10:00 pm, some of the attendees gave Nazi salutes on the steps of the town hall before being escorted to safety by the police.
Police making arrests as the rioting is in progress
Once the meeting was underway, the police decided to clear the area of demonstrators and allowed them to pass along the Broadway towards the crossroads with Northcote Avenue and Beachcroft Avenue. At about 7:30 pm Peach, along with four friends decided that they would return to their cars and moved along towards the junction. The group had been on the Broadway since they arrived in the area at 4:45 pm. At around the same time a flare or petrol bomb was thrown either at or over a police coach on the Broadway. The driver—with a policeman standing next to him—drove the coach through the crowd; no-one was injured, but eyewitnesses said that the mood of the crowd changed at that point. Two SPG vans drove westwards along the Broadway and collected two crates of bricks and bottles that the crowd left behind as they retreated. Items were thrown at the two vehicles and a police inspector on a building roof radioed to the central control that there was a riot in progress.
Peach and his friends turned off the Broadway down Beachcroft Avenue, thinking they were heading out of the area, but not realising the road only connected to Orchard Avenue, which led back to South Road and the heavy police cordon there.[50] There were a group of 100 to 150 protestors on the corner of the Broadway and Beachcroft Avenue and as the SPG vans of Unit 3 drove to the junction of the Broadway with Northcote Avenue and Beachcroft Avenue to face them. As the officers deployed out of the vehicles they were hit by missiles from the crowd. One officer was hit in the face by a brick which fractured his jaw in three places. The inspector leading the unit radioed "Immediate assistance required".
The official investigation into Peach's death states that the events leading up to this point, while difficult, were relatively straightforward, but that "further description of what happened" is hampered by "conflicting accounts [that] have been given by private persons and also by police". The radio call from Unit 3 was picked up by SPG Unit 1, two of whose vans drove into Beachcroft Avenue from the Broadway entrance and stopped at the corner with Orchard Avenue. They deployed while under bombardment from bricks and stones. The first person to exit the van was Inspector Alan Murray, who had charge of the first van of Unit 1 (called Unit 1-1), and he was followed by constables Bint, White, Freestone, Richardson and Scottow. He and his men were using riot shields and had their truncheons drawn and worked to disperse the crowd. During this action Peach received a blow on the head. Fourteen witnesses state that they saw it happen and say that it was a police officer. One resident told the inquest that she:
Peach was taken into a nearby house—71 Orchard Avenue—after one of the residents saw him being hit. He was given a glass of water, but could not hold it. His eyes were rolled up to the top of his head and he had difficulty speaking. The residents soon called an ambulance, which was logged at 8:12 pm; it arrived within ten minutes, and Peach was taken to Ealing Hospital. He was rapidly operated on because of a large extradural haematoma but his conditioned worsened through the procedure. He died at 12:10 am on 24 April.
There were 3,000 protesters in Southall on 23 April. The police arrested 345 people. 97 police were injured, as were 39 of the prisoners. 25 members of the public were also injured, of which Peach was one.[61] A member of the National Front was found near Southall train station, badly beaten. He spent two days in intensive care before being released.
</snip>
Clement Blair Peach (25 March 1946 – 24 April 1979) was a New Zealand-born teacher who died after an anti-racism demonstration in Southall, Middlesex, England. A campaigner and activist against the far right, in April 1979 Peach took part in an Anti-Nazi League demonstration in Southall against a National Front election meeting in the town hall and was hit on the head, probably by a member of the Special Patrol Group, a specialist unit within the Metropolitan Police Service. He died in hospital that night.
An investigation by Commander John Cass of the Metropolitan Police's Complaints Investigation Bureau concluded that Peach had been killed by one of six SPG officers, and others had preserved their silence to obstruct his investigation. The report was not released to the public, but was available to John Burton, the coroner who conducted the inquest; excerpts from a leaked copy were also published in The Leveller and The Sunday Times in early 1980. In May 1980 the jury in the inquest arrived at a verdict of death by misadventure, although press and some pressure groups—notably the National Council for Civil Liberties—expressed concern that no clear answers had been provided, and at the way Burton conducted the inquest.
Celia Stubbs, Peach's partner, campaigned for the Cass report to be released and for a full public inquiry. An inquiry was rejected, but in 1989 the Metropolitan Police paid £75,000 compensation to Peach's family. In 2009 Ian Tomlinson died after he was struck from behind by a member of the Territorial Support Group, the SPG's successor organisation. The Metropolitan Police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, released Cass's report and supporting documentation. He also offered an official apology to Peach's family.
The policing of the demonstration in Southall damaged community relations in the area. Since Peach's death the Metropolitan Police have been involved in a series of incidents and poorly conducted investigations—the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence, the death of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005, the botched 2006 Forest Gate raid and the death of Tomlinson—all of which tarnished the image of the service. Peach's death has been remembered in the music of The Pop Group, Ralph McTell and Linton Kwesi Johnson; the National Union of Teachers set up the Blair Peach Award for work for equality and diversity issues and a school in Ealing is named after the protestor.
23 April 1979
In the run-up to the 1979 general election, the National Front announced that they would hold a meeting at Southall town hall on 23 April 1979, St George's Day. Southall was to be one of 300 parliamentary seats for which they put up candidates. Prior to the Southall meeting, similar events had resulted in clashes with anti-racist protestors, including in Islington, North London on 22 April, and in Leicester the following day. At both events, police had been injured trying to keep the two sides separate.
A petition of 10,000 residents was raised to cancel the meeting, but to no effect. Ealing Council had blocked previous meetings by the National Front, but, under the Representation of the People Act 1969, they allowed them to use the meeting hall. The day before the meeting a march by the IWA was planned from central Southall, past the town hall, and ending at Ealing town hall. Approximately 1,200 police officers were on duty along the five-mile (eight-kilometre) route, at which 19 people were arrested. Two counter-demonstrations for the day of the meeting were planned: a picket on the pavement opposite the hall, and a seated demonstration outside it. To deal with the potential violence, 2,876 police officers were drafted in, 94 of whom were on horseback; they arrived at 11:30 am and demonstrators began gathering at 1:00 pm in preparation for the 7:30 pm National Front meeting.
The old Southall town hall, where the National Front rally took place
As the number of demonstrators at the town hall rose, the crowd contained what the police considered militant elements. There were some clashes between police and protestors and a small number of arrests ensued. The police decided to make a sterile cordon around the town hall, although they still allowed a small, contained demonstration in the High Street. The cordons were set up on Lady Margaret Road, the Broadway, High Street and South Road. Between 2:30 and 3:15 pm, at the High Street cordon, missiles were thrown at the police, who used riot shields to contain the crowd.
According to the official police report, between 5:30 and 6:30 pm violence rose as the crowd at the High Street cordon again began to throw missiles and at about 6:20 pm between 500 and 2,000 protestors tried to breach the police lines. In response, mounted officers were brought in to disperse the crowd.[38][39] The author Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, who was present at the demonstration, thought the mood changed when the police tactics changed from containment to disbursement, which triggered the reaction from the crowd.
One house on Park View Road was used as a first aid post; the building was also the headquarters of Peoples Unite. The official police report states that the residents were "a group of mainly Rastafarians" who were squatting at the premises, and that these occupants threw missiles from the house at police in the street. SPG officers entered the house and an altercation broke out in which two officers were stabbed. Those in the house—including those manning the first aid post and those receiving treatment—were beaten with truncheons, and an estimated £10,000 of damage was done to the contents of the house, including the equipment for the band Misty in Roots; the group's manager, Clarence Baker, went into a coma for five months after his skull was fractured by a police truncheon. All those inside were removed from the property, regardless of what they were doing, and there were subsequent complaints of racist and sexist abuse by the police. 70 people were arrested either at or near the address. At the trial of one of those arrested, one of the SPG officers involved reported "there was no overall direction of the police forces at this time" and the situation was "a free for all".
National Front members began arriving from 7:00 pm. At its scheduled time their meeting took place. During the assembly, one of the organisation's speakers called for "the bulldozing of Southall and its replacement by a 'peaceful English hamlet'". Four members of the public were allowed into the hall to fulfil the requirements of the Representation of the People's Act, but the journalist from the Daily Mirror was stopped from entering because the newspaper was "nigger loving". When the meeting ended at about 10:00 pm, some of the attendees gave Nazi salutes on the steps of the town hall before being escorted to safety by the police.
Police making arrests as the rioting is in progress
Once the meeting was underway, the police decided to clear the area of demonstrators and allowed them to pass along the Broadway towards the crossroads with Northcote Avenue and Beachcroft Avenue. At about 7:30 pm Peach, along with four friends decided that they would return to their cars and moved along towards the junction. The group had been on the Broadway since they arrived in the area at 4:45 pm. At around the same time a flare or petrol bomb was thrown either at or over a police coach on the Broadway. The driver—with a policeman standing next to him—drove the coach through the crowd; no-one was injured, but eyewitnesses said that the mood of the crowd changed at that point. Two SPG vans drove westwards along the Broadway and collected two crates of bricks and bottles that the crowd left behind as they retreated. Items were thrown at the two vehicles and a police inspector on a building roof radioed to the central control that there was a riot in progress.
Peach and his friends turned off the Broadway down Beachcroft Avenue, thinking they were heading out of the area, but not realising the road only connected to Orchard Avenue, which led back to South Road and the heavy police cordon there.[50] There were a group of 100 to 150 protestors on the corner of the Broadway and Beachcroft Avenue and as the SPG vans of Unit 3 drove to the junction of the Broadway with Northcote Avenue and Beachcroft Avenue to face them. As the officers deployed out of the vehicles they were hit by missiles from the crowd. One officer was hit in the face by a brick which fractured his jaw in three places. The inspector leading the unit radioed "Immediate assistance required".
The official investigation into Peach's death states that the events leading up to this point, while difficult, were relatively straightforward, but that "further description of what happened" is hampered by "conflicting accounts [that] have been given by private persons and also by police". The radio call from Unit 3 was picked up by SPG Unit 1, two of whose vans drove into Beachcroft Avenue from the Broadway entrance and stopped at the corner with Orchard Avenue. They deployed while under bombardment from bricks and stones. The first person to exit the van was Inspector Alan Murray, who had charge of the first van of Unit 1 (called Unit 1-1), and he was followed by constables Bint, White, Freestone, Richardson and Scottow. He and his men were using riot shields and had their truncheons drawn and worked to disperse the crowd. During this action Peach received a blow on the head. Fourteen witnesses state that they saw it happen and say that it was a police officer. One resident told the inquest that she:
saw blue vans coming down Beachcroft Avenue. They were coming very fast ? as they came round Beachcroft Avenue, they stopped. I saw policemen with shields come out ? people started running and the police tried to disperse them. I saw police hitting. I saw a white man standing there ... The police were hitting everybody. People started running, some in the alley, some in my house ... I saw Peach, I then saw the policeman with the shield attack Peach.
Peach was taken into a nearby house—71 Orchard Avenue—after one of the residents saw him being hit. He was given a glass of water, but could not hold it. His eyes were rolled up to the top of his head and he had difficulty speaking. The residents soon called an ambulance, which was logged at 8:12 pm; it arrived within ten minutes, and Peach was taken to Ealing Hospital. He was rapidly operated on because of a large extradural haematoma but his conditioned worsened through the procedure. He died at 12:10 am on 24 April.
There were 3,000 protesters in Southall on 23 April. The police arrested 345 people. 97 police were injured, as were 39 of the prisoners. 25 members of the public were also injured, of which Peach was one.[61] A member of the National Front was found near Southall train station, badly beaten. He spent two days in intensive care before being released.
</snip>
I'd not heard of Blair Peach and this incident until this morning. It's relevant today given the rise of neo-fascism.
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
