INQUIRY CALLS: Patrick Vernon, chief executive of The Afiya Trust, is backing a public investigation into the root causes of the recent UK riots
A LEADING charity for black mental health said the Government must launch an inquiry into the “deep rooted social and economic inequalities” which he claims was a catalyst for the riots.
Patrick Vernon, chief executive of The Afiya Trust, made the call today ahead of Prime Minister’s battle cry against street gangs and the breakdown of the family.
The Trust said an independent inquiry like the Scarman Report, commissioned by the Government in the wake of the 1981 Brixton riots, would be able to shed light on impact social exclusion had on young people’s wellbeing.
Vernon said: “The riots across the country are the biggest crisis in race relations and social exclusion since the Scarman Inquiry.
“The coalition government needs to appoint an independent inquiry to analyse and gather evidence from a range of stakeholders. The work needs to start now so key recommendations can be implemented and taken forward.”
A report published by the charity in 2011, entitled Enjoy, Achieve and Be Healthy, found the needs of black and minority ethnic young people, aged between 11 and 25, were being overlooked by health services.
It noted that young people felt unable to express their concerns relating to areas including education, lack of employment and identity.
Author of the report Mhemooda Malek said: “One of the most striking features in the first few days since the unrest started is the absence of young people’s views in the mainstream media. It is almost exclusively adults who have been asked for their views about why they think young people are behaving in the destructive way being broadcast on our screens and in printed media.
“Unless effective action is taken to support and engage the effective participation of young people, their families and communities in identifying problems and solutions there is a great risk that the cycle will continue and possible repeat itself in the future.”
The Scarman report led to changes within policing in London such as more sensitive stop and search and an emphasis on ‘soft’ policing including building relationships with the community.
Labour party leader Ed Miliband is also backing calls for an inquiry which he has dubbed the National Conversation.
Speaking today, Miliband said: “After every major disturbance, from Brixton to Oldham, we have had a commission to look at the causes.
“We must have one this time. A genuine national conversation. Not a group of MPs, simply focussed on policing and criminal justice. Not a review of government policy, conducted by civil servants in Whitehall. Not a standard judicial inquiry, made up of elites, such as we have with hacking.
“We need an answer which comes from the people themselves, that listens to the victims, that builds on their own experiences.”
Your Voice
CommentsRiots need a Scarman inquiry
He has got one thing right for sure and that their are root causes for the riots primarily, but the bigger issue is, is their a cure for what ails these youths and what is it and how can it best be administered?
I'm reading about so many fixes for the problem of the youths and some are great ideas, but I am reminded of an old Jamaican saying, it's hard to catch the cow once it's gotten out the gates. It will be hard to turn these wayward youth around and get them to be the hardworking law abiding citizen we hope they would be. This will truly be an uphill battle. The focus needs to be on disciplining the much younger kids because possibly 85% of the current wayward youths will spend the rest of their lives in and out of prison. They don't care for an education, they don't want to work hard so how are they to prosper and succeed in life.
It's truly sad to see young black kids having no respect whatsoever for teachers, parents, police, you name it. They are interested in the latest trends, technology, music, video game, etc. Their future look dimmer and dimmer every passing day if they remain on this path to life. They also don't listen to good counseling and advice. God help them is all I can ask.
Why these people are looters
Why these people are looters nothing more nothing less.
When are we going to stand up for ourselves and not be showing the world as all blacks are thugs gangsters and we need guidance from outside agency's to sort our problems when we should stand up and sort them ourselves first instead of going with the begging bowl over and over again.
We need to get back our morals and backbone and show there is more to us than what is regularly shown in the media and show the gangsters looters and drugs gangs they cant hid behind the community any longer as we the majority are no longer going to tolerate it.
The £64m question
I am too young to know what was in Scarman enquiry, but I can bet dem tings was still not sorted..and swept under the carpet..and the dust have made them grow roots and turned into trees and have now borne fruit..again.
INQUIRY
Brothers and siters it is fair time for us as a community to also evaluate our position in this current climate of criminalisation. It must be obvious with the bringing in of US racist cop "to crush gangs" as we are being led to believe .This is nothing more than a vile way of ignoring the true facts on the ground that there was a murder then we find out there was actually three murders by police this fact and can not be changed. So the only gang he needs to address is the police gang that works for him .All these rich statements by the government which is stirring race divisions and classifying youths as thugs and talking about soft policing in response when they knew it was because of the three murders they didnot want to further exaserbate the communitites.This false propoganda tool enlisted by his US freind is nothing less than hog wash a false flag to insure and give his social elites that all is well on the reservation but that is further from the truth; what will happen is the youths without records or gang affiliation being marginalised the PM getting power to impliment his ghettoiasation as the way of the US. What the people of the UK must confront is racialism', where the US is sgregated the UK is not. In Hackney for instance their are buildings areas where their are equal ammounts of black and white so we do not have this vast exclusion of races as we see in the US .The UK has more interacial marriages and unions than the US.so there is a remarkable differnce of lives and behaviours.What this governmnet is doing is passing the buck all their socal policies has been a failure thier growth forecast has been abismalit has been the weakest in centuries.This governmnet needs a scape goat and this is providing a way for them to escape the judgement of all the people.It is important to recognise that a united UK will defeat the neo. cons. in this imperialist governmnet.The communities need the support of the wider communities they must have more young youth involved in the political proces this is one way forward., they should also appeal to the wide community with broadcast on the radios and thru streetcontact with the wider communities being given an explanation of what is being transpired in their inner cities; the racist policies of the police in general nation wide.What also needs to be explained is the wide ammounts of deaths in custody in the nation prior to the explosive actions of the youths. What vast ammounts of people do not know; because of the negeligence of black journalist and black news papers in their highlighting these tremendous injustices and adressing the numerous ammounts of deaths in police custody by soliciting their MPs and really seeking governmnet rulings.These are not agendas to be attacked with complacacy but with voracity ,these are not isolated but a common occurence in the UK.The PM has made a speech of calling all the crimionals to book in order to heal the UK this if he is genuine also means that those responsible for black deaths will be brought to book which will have atremendous healing for the people and the adminsitration.There can not be one sided healing where its only the rich who heal by subsidising thier loss of economic growth while the loss of life still remians fragmented and damaged this has been thje same agenda of governments past and present.This guy cameron is oblivious to the fact that there is 50% unemployment in the black community, what is his super cop going to do to address that. Here we see this governmnet wanting to privatise the security forces farming out to private investors getting a privat prison sytem as in the US. Their superior way of dealing with inequality is to punish the disenfranchised and further marginalise them by criminalising them and forcing imprisonment upon them .One of his great tactics if those who are still ignorant is to tell Social Services to make it more difficult for the black youths to get resources to keep their bellies full.What he is now proposing is toallow3 the further break down of the black communities so he can indeed declare that what he ascribed to criminals and thugs are indeed the youths of th black communities andhe van justift this by looking at statistics.We as intelligent and responsible people must be vigilant and prevent this coccurence we must include all the youhs in political forums we must engage them to be vociferous intheir demands to be treated as equals in a society that finds it easier to condemn them than to put money into theri communities instead of finding funmds for these archaicwars of possible victory and clearly violates the rights of other human beings around the planet we should be morte receptive to the masses.What we need is to be proactive now that we see what this governmnet is intending to do.What he the governmnet is not signaling is what happens in regards to the deaths of the victims of the police violence ; why has there been no accountability for any of the murders going back decades no one has ever been brought to justice why? this government seems to have all the answers.?????Why has there been yet to be an explanation of the deaths with an a apology by the government and why is this govertnment so intent on stigmatising thier youths instead of berating the police for cruel and inhumane peactising not in accordance with police conduct codes???Why after the black communities which up untill the mass revolt their were two murders by police in London and one in Birmingham and because of conflict we lost three brothers from the Asian community, why hasn't there been a stringent apology for the failure of a society that allows for the destruction of family valuse a system that considers the equity of people by the ammounts of monies they possess ,why is their consumer based society which deals with this capitalist ideology that was based on the inhumanity of one to another humanbeing this was fueled by the low cost of goods from lesser developed nations which increased the wealth of the developed world at the desimation of lesser developed countries .We owe it to the people who died and who will also be killed by a police that has no true checks and balances.If this government wants to heal then he must accept that the murders of black people whether on the street by gunfire or the murder of blacks in police custody where you'd expect more than anywhere that in custody a human life is in the hands of the guardian of the state, we expect that the sanctity of govermnet is being protected by those who are sworn to uphold all he foudations and principles of the law. We inded know differntly now, we know from facts as we've seen the forced retirement of the UKs two top policemne for nothing lees han pure unadulterated corruption. As realist the expectation that the rank and file would have higher moral convictions than their senior commanders is ludicruos. For the governmnet to deal with the community as though we are thick and their is no problem with UK policing one that can not be fixed by the US.The PM must also keep in mind that he was not far from the fire that burned thru the heart of his govermnet and what these people who arte senior leaders of a governmnet that has this acknowledged military might and supposedly morall conviction should be very careful how he spoke about his citisens and define clearly what he intends to do about the facts of the uprising and not what he expects the theories to actuate because all he will do is have theories and we know waht theory does it forces them to change the facts and make the theoriies a reality as we now see the PM trying to impliment. Facts ,a less than higher moral conviction led the top hierarchy of the met involved in dubious and spurious dealings to retire.Why is here any doubt that the lower ranks should nt follow in in the lead of their superiors and there is no effective argument to these questions the police force is rotten to the core.This is not the first time in UK history that the police had to be reorganised and be reshuffled from top to bottom but one thing is for sure the most corrupt country on the planet the US can never be the instrument of change.The true concept there is no leadership in the UK that enforces morall convictions there are no ethics in this police force.So now we see the government running to the US to find ansewrs the US at the lead in world instability the US where prisoners are on hunger strikes all in regard to mistreatment and human rights violations.What we are seeing is the governments lack of conviction and as Cameron said earlier on his return from his £10,000" wh=kly holiday how rich is this guy in his refernces to greed criminals and thugs.This govermnet is no clear benificiary to the die and lefty in charge of universal morality when we see them disobeying all the UN resolutions when we watch as they vagrantly dismantle the resolutionhave the work of a truly united nations subcontract this agenda into awestren led NATO alliance a defunct organisation that had its hey days in the thick of WW2 Nthe cold war of the past century.What we also must see is that the world must se that we are also are aware of the peoples of the worlds plight andthat we also see the big corporatiosn taking and using governments for their own agendas thes epoliticians are subject to commands of the R.Murdochs of the planet who have governmenst intheir back pockets they are also subject to the big bankers who have reduced the world economy to bankruptcy we must also see that the cities high rolers who are big criminal enetrprises given ligitamcy by governmenst who llot the worlds econom,ies at wil. We thre people have no direction in which we can stop the carnage of econmies where these poeple whp are the largest of crimelords on the planet.We must make sure that our voices are truly heard and we must politicise our youths we must make them all aware of what is happening on the planet. We must take steps to prevent it filtering into the corrosive disipation of the black familiy.When we hear of how a family man was gunned down ; then the media propogates the police and goverment stance that he was indeed a gangsta < as if that makes a differnce to murder ? then we in the black community give mixed messages.Those who are confused and loyal to the white system they say it is ok to kill black people if you say they are gangsttas then we will sanction those extrajudicial killings how corrupt!!!!There is no evidence that the gun was even the belongings of the victim but blacks of brain washed mentality was quick to sanctify the statements of a" corrupt police" .What we are also seeing is that black people are reading too much sun an mirror papers where the social activities of the black community is being disected and published as a community of criminals they the wise press forgets to mention that there is 50% unemployment in these communities and the gestapo like tactics of the police who patrol communities of presominantly black people as if they ware "brown shirts" of a long time era.Make no mistake alot of these police officers are right wing neo nazis they are also web patrons and you can bet they stay alight of the nazi movement that is gaining momentum in europe this is also something we must defeat if we as a people are to be successful in the west.These are not the times to dither we must again take up the baton and alert our youths as to what is at stake , it is their future that is being threatened What this government intends to do to them solely for their being black !!this is not some wild theory these are the facts on the ground.The argument now is for the police to become more accounatble to all the citisens of the UK this means that the "killings of black people must stop" at all levels and the gestapo policing of the black communities is unacceptable " We are all humans we all are governed by the human rights acords that all civilised nations of the world has signed up to.This country considers itself as a leading democratic and civilised nation" ; although I truly will beg to differ but for those who are caught up on the superiority of whites those who feel inferior belief that all things black is bad its time you are made responsible for the welfare of all comunities. Universal rights today is the hot topic of the generation this means their are no exceptions add their is "no one", "country", or "organisation" who has a monopoly on human rights this or are they those who have immunity to the practising of these rights;this is a right we all acquired when we drew the first breath of life"
A post of that length is a
A post of that length is a sure fire way to ensure that nobody reads it! LOL! Poor fool. U need to sort your own brain out first mate, before u can hope to offer anybody any advice!
stop blaming others for your problems
grow up and wise up black people. do you want to be figures of fund and victims all the time for heaven's sake? stop moaning and do some hard work. WHERE THERE IS NO PRIDE THERE IS NO SHAME. STOP KIDDING YOURSELVES.
Who is going to pay for all
Who is going to pay for all this-will the mandem of the black community fork out. More expense for the taxpayer on top of trident and all the other stuff bruvv!
I agree, there needs to be a
I agree, there needs to be a through look into the state of community relations but there needs to be some real work towards making things better. The Scarman report highlighted the problems but there was little action which followed which is why things are still not better. Look at the video evidence of various stop and search where the police are abusing their power and process, PACE is only worthwhile if the police are actually held accountable for their actions they can't always be seen as right. Institutional Racism has already been established, several times, but what has the outcome been? Culture and diversity training! Among other things yes, but they don't need training they need reprimanding for their disgraceful behaviour, they are not children on a playground, they are grown men and women who know right from wrong.
The day the criminal justice system stops acting like racism is a distant memory and takes it seriously, is the day thing can move forward. We've already seen what certain individuals who are highly regarded in this country think of 'black culture'/'black people, they think everything 'black' is wrong, this is the same thinking in the police, courts and higher up.
I am for a investigation into social inequality and TRUE causes of the riot, but alongside that needs to be an active and powerful movement by the people, all people who are considered lesser and in turn are treated as lesser.