15 September 201016 December 2022 4WardEverUK

How did Michael Jarrett Lowe die?

source : Scepticpeg
published : 9th September 2010

In September 1974, a 17 year old boy was found dead inside a chimney in a disused shop in Islington. The circumstances surrounding the death of Michael (or Jarrett as he was known by friends) remains a mystery but his friend, Bill, is convinced it wasn’t an accident.

Jarrett was born in Kingston, Jamaica on 7th October 1956. After Jarrett’s father left his mother, Jarrett and his mother moved to London in 1961 and settled in Islington before then moving to Kings Cross. His mother eventually remarried in 1966 and Jarrett had a younger brother and sister. He was popular with his peers, enjoyed football, school, attending a local disco and eating ice cream.

Jarrett attended Highbury Grove School in Islington and it was during his final year there he began getting in to trouble. A local playground worker has spoken of how Michael would be locked out of his home for returning late and forced to sleep on the street and had also began getting into trouble with the police. He left school in 1972 and would regularly stay with his friends due to him being locked out of home – sometimes for a week at a time.

By 1973 Jarrett’s life had spiralled further downwards and he was placed in to the care of Islington social services. He was arrested in January for burglary and appeared at Old Street Magistrate’s Court where his residential address was given as Highbury Crescent children’s home.

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24 August 201016 December 2022 4WardEverUK

US cops: armed and dangerous?

originally published by: The Guardian
16th August 2010

When Americans read British newspapers referencing “her Majesty”, “his Highness” or “Lord So-and-So”, we bask in the smug patriotic pride of knowing ours is no nation of aristocrats, but a country based on principles like equality before the law and authority granted by merit.

So we’re told. Yet we do have de facto aristocrats, whose authority over ordinary citizens rivals what English royals gave up with the Magna Carta: power to inflict pain on anyone who treats them disrespectfully, power even to kill with relatively little fuss. If mine were truly a free country, US police wouldn’t wield such immense power or employ such aggressive tactics against their own citizenry – a militarisation of our police forces that started with the war on drugs and intensified after 9/11.

28 July 201016 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Ian Tomlinson: lawyers challenge CPS over decision not to prosecute

originally published by:
The Guardian
22nd July 2010

The Crown Prosecution Service’s decision that no charges will be brought in relation to the death of Ian Tomlinson has been challenged by lawyers, who argue it shows a disparity in how the criminal justice system treats police officers and members of the public.

There are concerns that the CPS’s decision that there is “no realistic prospect” of a conviction against the officer who was filmed during last year’s G20 protests striking the newspaper seller, who later died, reflects a reluctance to charge police officers and demonstrates the impunity of the police.

Today’s findings have been compared with the case of Blair Peach, an anti-facist protester whose death was one of the most controversial events in modern policing history.