source: The Fader
published: 29 March 2016

‘1500 And Counting‘ – The abuse of black British people by police is often overlooked, but a new film is set to break the silence.

On 11 January 2016, Sarah Reed, a vulnerable 32-year-old woman suffering with mental health issues, was found dead in her cell in north London’s Holloway prison, where she was on remand awaiting trial.

Throughout her life, she had been a victim of failings by the British state: in October 2012, she reported being sexually assaulted while being detained under the Mental Health Act, and in November 2012 she was ruthlessly beaten up by a police officer, with the attack caught on camera.

On 3 May 2015, Sheku Bayoh, a British-Sierra Leonean man who worked for British Gas and had two young children, died after being arrested by police in Fife, Scotland. He was detained, handcuffed, pepper-sprayed, and put in leg restraints following an alleged altercation with a police officer.

According to the Bayoh family’s lawyer, post-mortem evidence suggests that Bayoh died of positional asphyxia after being pinned to the ground by four officers.

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