One of the most notorious cases was that of David Oluwale, a black homeless man living in Leeds, hounded by police, who drowned in 1969 and was last seen fleeing two policemen. See Gus John and Derek Humphry, Police Power and Black People (London: Panther, 1972). The book was written ‘In memory of David Oluwale’.
2.
Following the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in London in 1993, and the obvious failings and inadequacy of the Metropolitan Police investigation, a public inquiry was set up under Sir William Macpherson, which reported in 1999, concluding that the investigation was ‘marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership’. The finding of institutional racism was unprecedented.
3.
Blair Peach was a New Zealand schoolteacher at an anti-National Front demonstration in Southall, who a number of witnesses said had been struck on the head by police. He subsequently died in hospital. The contemporary police report into the circumstances immediately surrounding his death was not released till 2010.
