Lawyer likens Marikana shooting to apartheid massacre

Shooting Deathsource: The Guardian
published: 6 January 2013

When South Africa’s apartheid police massacred 69 people in Sharpeville in 1960, the revulsion spread as far as northern England. James Nichol, then 15, took part in his first street protest.

“I remember there were about 20 of us and I think we marched in single file with a placard each around Newcastle because there wasn’t really enough for a demonstration,” he said.

More than 50 years later, Nichol, a criminal lawyer, has travelled to South Africa to stand up for the victims of another state-sponsored massacre of protesters.

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Hillsborough inquest verdicts quashed by High Court

The Royal Courts of Justiceoriginally by: BBC News  
published: 19 December 2012

The High Court has quashed the original inquest verdicts returned on 96 Liverpool football fans who died in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. The Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge ordered fresh inquests following an application by the Attorney General.

Trevor Hicks of the Hillsborough Family Support Group said it was “a huge step for the families”.

The home secretary has also announced a new police inquiry into the disaster. Theresa May said the new inquiry would re-examine what happened in April 1989.

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Another handcuffed young man manages to shoot himself?

US Police - Gun & Cuffsoriginally by: SALON  
published: 6 December 2012

A perturbing trend is emerging in the South. Twice in six months, young men have managed to shoot themselves in the head while in handcuffs in the back of police cars, after having been searched for weapons. For many critical observers, the circumstances beggar belief.

In August of this year, police in Jonesboro, Ark. claimed that Chavis Carter, 21, committed suicide while in the back of a patrol car. He was handcuffed at the time and had already been searched for weapons.

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