In September 2022, Chris Kaba was shot and killed by a Metropolitan police officer, Martyn Blake. At the start of this week, a jury deemed Martyn Blake not guilty of murder.
The jury’s decision marked the end of an embargo on information about Chris Kaba’s life and media outlets jumped at the opportunity to brand Chris as a ‘violent criminal’, quickly abandoning his previous identity as a 24-year-old father to be and deeply beloved family member. This new narrative suggested that Chris deserved to be shot because of his past, despite police not knowing who Chris was until after he was killed.
Chris Kaba’s past does not mean he deserved to be killed. The purpose of the police is not to kill.
Trying to rationalise the police violence that ended his life only serves to exacerbate the racialised violence that Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage communities experience every single day.
Narratives, especially those driven by the media, can perpetuate racism and further traumatise Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage people. In the summer, we witnessed first-hand what happens when a government and media consistently promote racist narratives as serious violent actions were carried out against migrants and racially minoritised people.
This week marks yet another crossroads for the Government, policing, and media: they can either further entrench institutional racism and continue the systematic harm against Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage people, or seriously commit to ending institutional racism.
Action for Race Equality encourages the new government to break the cycle and take the necessary steps to eradicate racism and reform policing.
Author: Meka Beresford, Head of Policy