CASES REBELLES : Would you like to introduce yourself? ?
SAMANTHA PATTERSON : My name is Samatha Patterson. My brother, Jason McPherson died in Notting Hill police station. He was killed on the 18th of January 2007.
KEN FERO : I am Ken Fero. I founded the UFFC (United Families & Friends Campaign) 30 years ago and I've instigated the Tribunal with the families.
CR : What inspired the People's Tribunal and which families are involved in its organisation?
S. P. : All of the families are involved; so we've got hundreds of families that have come together to speak at the Tribunal but more importantly to help us prepare for the Tribunal. I’ve been inspired by other family members and listening to their stories of their loved ones being killed. But I’am also inspired by the panel that we have, the international panel and just to hear their ideas, use their knowledge and ultimately their judgement on these police killings in the UK.
K. F. : Basically, I was in Paris in the early 90’s and I was working with a group called Agence IM’media on a film called “Douce France” and the film was about the killings and the murders of the youth in the banlieue, the “beur”. So I discovered the Marche pour l'égalité and the whole history. And then we went to the Place Vendôme where we met with the mother of Wahid Hachichi and others: I was very inspired by that organization. And I know they were inspired by the mothers of the disappeared in Argentina. There is a history of groups coming together usually led by the women by the mothers. So this was an inspiration that we brought back to London. So this is the very beginning of this. In the past 40 years in this country, we had around 3000 killings and only 4 successful prosecutions. I know for a fact that even in France more police officers go to jail. I mean it’s very little, it's not enough but we have less here and that’s a fact. I mean we believe all police officers should go to jail when they're involved in a killing. We decided to organize the Tribunal because people are fed up asking the government for justice, people are fed up asking for reforms, people are fed up working with liberal organizations who don't do anything apart from make an excuse for the state. And so the tribunal is for the families to take control of the struggle and to attack the state and not negotiate.
What's the programme for Saturday and Sunday?
K. F. : So we have two days. For the past one and half year, we have already made an investigation and we have a big document with all the evidence from the families : what we’re looking at is what the state has excluded. What is the evidence which they have stocked going into the cold case? What are the things that people have not talked about ? So these are the important things and then we're looking at what the families have done, what’s the resistance and how can we organize a resistance in a new way which is collective not individual. And so for day two we’ll have the oral evidence of the families. And we have a Tribunal panel who are from outside the UK because we don’t have any faith and trust in anyone in the UK. So the panel are people from Palestine, France, French Martinique, Black America so they can have a look at this with an international perspective, anticolonial and anti-imperialist perspective. They are going to listen to the families. We have 5 themes that the government here won’t be happy with but which have to be addressed.
We're calling this police killings not "death in custody" because this phrase "death in custody" is a soft version. So we're looking at five areas :
Police Terror - Torture - Language of collusion - State cover-up - Resistance
And these are the 5 themes around the two days. The families will come and give their evidence. The panel will discuss and come to a judgemental conclusion. And we’re going to take some legal and political actions for the next ten years . We’re going to try to prosecute every single police officer and every single person involved in this chain of command. Yeah... so we’re going for everybody.
S. P. : Just the fact that no police officer has ever being charged or held accountable in any way for any of these killings that have happened over many and many years it’s disgusting, it’s terrible. So we need to consider that as well and it’s a chance for the families to have a voice and to say this is what happened to our loved ones. Not be told what we can and can’t say like we are in the legal proceedings in this country. So it’s a chance to bring the families together so we can say our stories how we want the stories to be told. In Jason’s case for example, it wouldn’t be just what happened on the night Jason died. I also want to talk about the impact that this has had on my family, on my brother, on my mom on every person that was left behind after Jason’s killing and the fact that we were silenced and we never had the opportunity to speak about all this things before.
How difficult it is to gather all these families?
S. P. : It’s not being difficult in a negative sense. It's been difficult to see the amount of families this has happened to. That’s being the difficult part for me and the families are all behind us and they are seeing this as their opportunity to have their voices heard. They kind of believe in the Tribunal, believe in what the objectives of the tribunal are because nothing has ever been done like this before and the families never had the chance to say what's happened before. We have always been silenced.
What has been the reaction since the announcement of the People's Tribunal?
S. P. : It's been a really positive reactions and as I say all the families are behind us. Families have all has a say in what we do and how we do it and how they just the logistics of it, the planning of the day, the planning of the event but more importantly, the planning of what the intentions are for afterwards as well.
We haven’t had much media reactions just yet. But another reaction that we need to consider is... So we put a message out a couple of years ago - 2 years, maybe 18 months - of volunteers. And these volunteers, young people, have been with us over the years and they've been researching into the cases. And just by having people like that involved, it shows me and all the other families that this is something a message that needs to be said that needs to be heard ; because that team of researchers, investigators that we have they’re kind of leading this with the families as well.
Will the Tribunal be recorded ?
K. F. : We’re going to livestream the Tribunal so we can send you the link after the conversation. We're documenting the Tribunal but the Tribunal is part of a history of struggle. It’s part of a big plan for the next ten years to run many Tribunals on police, prison, secure medical units and immigration ; not just at the UK level but in terms of the international as well. So the people coming over want to now work with us to do more international Tribunals and focusing on the issues of race and class.
What are your expectations and what's the next step?
K. F.: The next step is forward, the next step is to keep moving, the next step is to keep attacking the state and not asking for justice but taking it. The next step is mobilizing people and the most important thing is always to have hope.
We have many actions planned in terms of taking legal and political actions against the police, in terms of prosecution for example, compensation. We’re looking at international jurisdiction. We’re setting up a police prosecution fund to raise public support for the prosecution of police officers by the people. For the past 40, 50, 60 years the government, state has not prosecuted the police so it’s time for the police to prosecute because the government won't do it and this is what the Tribunal is about.
S. P. : We need to also think about the fact that this things have been going on for many years now and the number of killings by the police is increasing, it’s getting more and more. And although we have reforms and we have these so-called changes, nothing is really changed : the number is still going up, they're not going down, something is wrong.
Interview conducted on 25 March 2025.
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Follow the People's Tribunal :
Instagram: @thepeoplestribunal
Links to watch the livestream :
- Day 1 of The People's Tribunal on Police Killings - London 5th April 2025 de 9h à 18h : https://www.youtube.com/live/rVzkVcSjGcc
- Day 2 of The People's Tribunal on Police Killings - London 6th April 2025 de 9h à 18h : https://youtube.com/live/ZC1rrIn4iIU
