UK POLICE LINKED TO183 BAME DEAD

A SHOCKING 183 people from ethnic minorities have died following contact with police in Britain in the last 30 years, a charity has revealed.

Shattered families demanded action last night as it emerged none of the deaths had led to a single officer being convicted of murder or manslaughter.

Research found cops were twice as likely to have used force or restraint in deaths of those from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups.

And BAME people who died were almost twice as likely to have had mental health issues as their white counterparts.

The findings came from justice charity Inquest, which charted deaths through contact with the police between January 1990 and March this year.

Aji Lewis, whose 23-yearold son Olaseni was one of the victims, said: “We need accountability. This is not something which just happens in America.”

Olaseni, known as Seni, was pinned down by 11 officers after being sectioned at Bethlem Royal Hospital in Beckenham, South London, in 2010.

In a chilling echo of the George Floyd case, he told officers: “I can’t breathe.”

Horrifyingly, Aji only learned what had happened to her son when a journalist called to say he’d been contacted by a whistleblower while Olaseni was still on life support.

The IT student died a few days later, having been starved of oxygen.

It took seven years for an inquest jury to rule that cops used “excessive force” but none has faced a criminal probe.

Mum-of-three Aji, 70, added: “I can’t watch the George Floyd video, because he is saying the same thing as Seni said, ‘I can’t breathe’.

“The visit from the journalist was the beginning of a 10-year nightmare, which we are still walking through. How do you imagine that made me feel?

“The fact police can kill and get away with it speaks volumes. They held Seni face down, shackled his hands with two sets of handcuffs and put his legs in two sets of restraints. They held him down over 45 minutes until he went limp.

“Then, instead of treating him as a medical emergency, they simply walked away. They believed he was faking it. They left our son on the floor of a locked room, all but dead.

“We struggle to comprehend that our son died as he did, simply because police officers and medical staff alike failed in their duty to treat him with the respect that he deserved as a human being.

“It might be more of a deterrent if police were genuinely concerned about facing criminal charges.

“They pretend there isn’t institutional racism within the police, but we all know it’s there. The police need to admit they have made mistakes, and officers need to be prosecuted.”

The story is all too familiar to the family of Sean Rigg.

The 40-year-old musician, who was suffering from a psychotic episode, was held face down by officers for seven minutes in 2008.

He died of a cardiac arrest at the entrance of the police station he was taken to in Brixton, South London.

Four years later an inquest jury ruled the force used was “unsuitable” but five officers were cleared of misconduct last year.

Sean’s sister Marcia, 56, said: “After the misconduct case, I said, ‘Police have a licence to kill’.

“No family should ever have to fight to find out why their loved one died at the hands of the state.”

Some 99 of the 183 cases took place in London. Twenty people were shot, including Mark Duggan, whose 2011 death sparked riots across the country.

Police in Tottenham, North London, claimed they were trying to arrest the 29-year-old, who they said had a handgun and was planning an attack.

The dad of six was not holding the weapon when he was shot. A jury later ruled the killing was lawful, but police have paid damages to his family.

Deborah Coles, director of Inquest, said: “It’s important people recognise this is not just an issue in the US but an issue on our doorstep.”