Questioning of Garner protesters renews concerns about police practices

Police vs People source: NYTimes.com
published: 28 April 2015

Last December, as people arrested during protests related to the death of Eric Garner waited to be released from Police Headquarters in Manhattan, an officer removed a 28-year-old woman from a holding cell there.

The woman, Leighann Starkey, a doctoral student who lives in Harlem, said recently that she was escorted to a separate area where she was asked by two detectives how she knew about the demonstrations, what social media she used to keep track of them and whether she was part of a protest group. One detective, she said, asked whether she had ties to terrorists.

9 April 201520 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Kingsley Burrell inquest: ‘A naughty policeman hit daddy’

source: The Voice Online
published: 7 April 2015

An inquest into the death of Kingsley Burrell, who died following contact with police in March 2011, heard how his four-year-old son told his family “a naughty black policeman hit daddy in the back of the ambulance.”

Little Kayden Burrell was with his 29-year-old father when he was taken by ambulance to a Birmingham mental health unit. Kingsley had called 999 for help because he feared he was about to be shot as he visited a local shop with his little boy.

27 March 201520 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Police not to blame for Wolverhampton woman’s custody death

source: Express & Star
published: 26 March 2015

Sharmila Ullah, of Fourth Avenue, Wolverhampton, was held at Bloxwich Police Station in July last year after being arrested for shoplifting. Smethwick Coroners Court was told the mother-of-four, better known as Millie, had been taken to Walsall Manor Hospital after suffering abdominal pain and vomiting on July 9.

Senior coroner Zafar Siddique was told she was assessed and given medication before being discharged back to custody. She was also examined by a nurse at the custody suite on July 10.