‘Who else has to die because of the lack of inaction?’

• I AM getting in touch to express my deep concern and grief for Chris Kaba and his family.

I am writing on behalf of them and members of the black community who have been harmed by police brutality. This harm isn’t individualised; it affects each and every one of us, whether we’re black, racialised or white.

Chris Kaba was just 24 years old when his life was brutally taken by police. He was due to be married in five months and was about to become a father for the first time.

Chris had so many ambitions and an incredibly promising life ahead of him. He was studying to become an architect, which the media has failed to recognise instead focusing on his career as a rapper. He had already achieved so much, having been part of the MOBO-nominated group 67.

On Monday September 5 two police cars collided into Chris’s car on a residential street and one round was fired into the car by police. Shortly after, Chris was taken to hospital where he later died from his injuries.

Chris was unarmed. The Met police have released a statement alleging that they stopped the car and shot Chris because an automatic number plate recognition camera identified it as part of a previous “firearms incident”. They have refused to provide any further details.

I, like many others, have watched in abject horror the violence being used against members of the black community at the hands of the police.

Ever since the Black Lives Matter movement was reignited in 2020, I have been hoping that the government would strive for real positive change; change that demonstrates that black lives do indeed matter and change that calls for accountability and true justice, where police officers are finally held to account for their actions.

I find it frustrating that following the murder of George Floyd nothing has changed, matters seem to have worsened.

We are still reeling off the backs of the murder of Sarah Everard by ex-police officer Wayne Couzens, the officers who took inappropriate pictures of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry and ridiculed their deaths, and the deaths of Mohamud Hassan and Moyied Bashir following police contact.

What else has got to happen for politicians to stand up and speak for us? Who else has to die because of the lack of inaction?

I hope this letter makes you realise that you have the power to stand up and say something, you have the power to speak up when no one else is and to use that power to inspire real change.

Please use your platform to pressure politicians into action, as per the family’s demands:
Please write to the Met police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, asking him to give clarification on whether officers knew whether it was Chris in the car or were they simply following a suspect vehicle?

Please write to Michael Lockwood, director general of the Independent Office for Police Conduct, demanding that the suspended officer be interviewed under caution without delay and for the family to be kept informeds.

Call on the government to put pressure on the Met police and the IOPC to give a charging decision within weeks and not months.

ISABELLA STEPHENSON