11 September 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Azelle inquiry must answer tough questions

by: Helen Shaw
published: 4 September 2012

The public inquiry into the fatal shooting by Metropolitan police of Azelle Rodney opened on Monday.

This is the first time a public inquiry under the 2005 Inquiries Act has been commissioned to examine a death involving police use of lethal force – such deaths are normally scrutinised at an inquest in front of a jury.

Susan Alexander, Rodney’s mother, together with the other members of his family, have already waited more than seven years for answers to their questions. Rodney was shot six times at point blank range while sitting in a car that had been stopped by officers.

27 August 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Lawrence killers lose appeal to challenge conviction

all credits: The Voice
published: 23 August 2012

The two men found guilty of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 have lost their first round of their attempt to challenge their convictions.

Gary Dobson and David Norris were jailed for life in January for the murdering the black teenager near a bus stop in Eltham, south-east London.

Dobson is serving a minimum of 15 years and two months, and David Norris 14 years and three months. Their applications for permission to appeal were rejected by a single Court of Appeal judge, who considered the papers from the case.

19 June 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Rodney King, key figure in L.A. riots, dead at 47

originally by: Detroit Free Press
published: 17 June 2012

Rodney King, the black motorist whose 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers was the touchstone for one of the most destructive race riots in the nation’s history, has died, his publicist said today. King was 47. His death was confirmed to the Associated Press by Suzanne Wickham of Harper Collins, who published King’s 2012 book ‘The Riot Within .My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption.’

The 1992 riots, set off by the acquittals of the officers, lasted three days and left 55 people dead, more than 2,000 injured and swaths of Los Angeles on fire. At the height of the violence, King pleaded on television: “Can we all get along?”