After Eric Garner’s killer, Jimmy Mubenga’s killers get impunity

This video from the USA says about itself:

Entire College Team Wears ‘I Can’t Breathe’ Shirts

13 December 2014

“Many high-profile NBA players have shown their sympathy for the late Eric Garner by wearing “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts prior to recent games.

On Wednesday night, the Georgetown Hoyas became the first college team to join the movement by wearing “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts prior to their home game against Kansas.

It’s fitting that Georgetown is the first college team to join the “I Can’t Breathe” movement because for much of the ’80s and early 90s, the Hoyas were a strong symbol of urban culture among the African-American community. Head coach John Thompson Jr., still an iconic figure in the Washington, D.C., area, was the first African-American coach to win a national championship, doing so in 1984.

The Young Turks hosts John Iadarola (TYT University), Ana Kasparian and Ben Mankiewicz break it down.

In New York City in the USA, Eric Garner, after saying: ‘I can’t breathe’ was killed by police. His killer was not indicted.

Now, something similar in Britain. Similar, but not the same. As the British case did not involve police, but the infamous ‘security’ mercenaries of G4S. And there was at least an indictment; but no conviction.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

G4S guards cleared of Jimmy Mubenga killing

Wednesday 17th December 2014

A TRIO of G4S guards accused of the 2010 manslaughter of deportee Jimmy Mubenga walked free yesterday after being cleared by an Old Bailey jury.

Campaigners branded the verdict “disappointing” and said questions remained over the death of the Angolan man on board a plane on the Heathrow tarmac.

Terrence Hughes, Colin Kaler and Stuart Triblenig had all denied they acted improperly towards Mr Mubenga, who had allegedly been pinned to his chair face down for around 30 minutes before he died of a heart attack, with witnesses saying he’d complained that he was unable to breathe.

The father of five’s death in the custody of scandal-dogged security privateer G4S was ruled unlawful at an inquest last year, but his family’s search for a conviction failed yesterday.

Mr Mubenga’s wife Adrienne Makenda Kambana said: “Jimmy’s gone but we need justice for his children.

“My daughter was seven months at the time her father died. It breaks my heart, it makes me more determined to fight again to get justice for Jimmy and for my family.”

The guards’ solicitor Alex Preston said the trio were “delighted to have been found not guilty so quickly.”

But justice charity Inquest codirector Deborah Coles questioned how that verdict squared with the evidence.

“It is difficult to reconcile the verdict with the evidence heard at the trial that over 20 people heard Jimmy Mubenga say ‘I can’t breathe’,” she said.

“There needs to be a mechanism for state institutions and the private companies they employ to be held to account when people die. The lack of state accountability over black deaths in custody is a global issue and one that will not go away until urgently addressed.”

Amnesty International spokesman Oliver Sprague said the verdict was “extremely disappointing given the multiple failings” which led to the death.

Mr Hughes had earlier told the court that he had received no specific training in restraint techniques for use within the close confines of an aircraft.

In June, Immigration Minister James Brokenshire announced new guidelines for cases such as Mr Mubenga’s.

But Mr Sprague demanded a radical overhaul that would place “proper controls” on the firms paid by the Home Office to carry out deportations.

He added that Amnesty had documented “numerous cases of private security companies’ wholly inappropriate conduct over the last few years.

See also here.

Jimmy Mubenga: Judge refused to allow jury to hear about guards’ racist texts. Abusive and racist texts on phones of G4S security guards cleared of manslaughter of Angolan man not seen as relevant to case: here.

A JUDGE’S decision to withhold dozens of racist text messages on the phones of G4S guards acquitted of killing Jimmy Mubenga was condemned as “a shocking act of state racism” yesterday: here.

A DEMONSTRATION of over two hundred people took place on Thursday evening outside the Home Office to protest against the ‘not-guilty’ verdict for the G4S guards over the trial for Jimmy Mubenga: here.

Demonstrators outside the Home Office demanding the prosecution of G4S after the death of Jimmy Mubenga

Jimmy Mubenga verdict: Even terrorist suspects receive better treatment than immigrants in the UK. As well as allowing the use of ‘pain-based removal techniques’, Britain is the only country in the EU to detain immigrants indefinitely: here.

Californian police made 25 arrests on Monday as protesters chained themselves to the doors of the Oakland police headquarters. Demonstrators blocked streets around the building and chained shut four doors to protest against recent grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers who killed unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York: here.

USA: Boston College students are upset with the school administration’s choice to send out letters to demonstrators who participated in a “die-in” at a private campus building last week, threatening possible disciplinary actions for the act of civil disobedience. On December 9, dozens of BC students and faculty congregated inside of the St. Mary’s Hall residence, a place school officials said is privately owned and used for “prayer and solitude” by the Jesuit community, to protest two recent grand juries’ decisions not to indict white police officers in the shooting deaths of unarmed black men. The civil action was one of many that took place around the city in recent weeks in response to the lack of indictments in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York: here.

Lil B has released a new single that takes its name from the protest movement that sprang up in the wake of Eric Garner‘s choking death at the hands of the NYPD: “I Can’t Breathe.” Except instead of just protesting Garner’s death, Lil B also appears to be protesting the oppressive hand of Mark Zuckerberg following his own alleged ban from Facebook. On Tuesday Lil B said he’d been blocked from Facebook for 30 days after going on a rant about rape, slavery, and animal rights. “Facebook has blocked me for 30 days for speaking my mind with no intent of hate or separation,” he tweeted.

Freedom Rider: Ferguson Reverberates Around the World: here.

Canada: I was racially profiled, roughed up, and detained by police for being Indigenous: here.