Stars speak out in support of the Birmingham Kingsley Burrell March for Justice.

A variety of stars and community campaigners have spoken out in support of the planned march against deaths in custody due to take place in Birmingham on Saturday 2nd July.

The campaign for Justice 4 Kingsley Burrell in unity with Justice 4 Smiley Culture and the family of Demetre Fraser, a 21 year old black man and the most recent family to suffer a tragic death in custody are joining forces to support a major national demonstration. Demetre died in suspicious circumstances on 31st May 2011 after into contact with the West Midland Police force.

All these families have collectively called a national demonstration protesting against deaths in custody and in support of a public inquiry.

Kingsley Burrell Brown, 29, of Hockley, was forcibly arrested after calling the West Midlands Police after he suffered intimidation from a local gang. He was arrested March 27th detained under the Mental Health Act despite having no previous history of mental illness, admitted into the Mary Seacole mental institute. He was later transferred, on March 30, to a mental health facility at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

When he arrived at Mary Seacole, Brown alleged the police had beaten him up. When he arrived at the second hospital he was in a critical condition. His family believes he was beaten en route to the hospital.

Read the full Campaign for Justice For  Kingsley Burrell  - Press Release (24/06/2011) by clicking on Press Release menu.

The Birmingham Racial Attack Monitoring Unit (BRAMU) was established by the Home Office Inter-departmental Report in 1989. BRAMU is an independent community based organisation working with victims of racial harassment. We seek to educate and empower victims of racial attack and harassment through a support system.
The Race Relations Act 1976 (as amended) is the single, most effective tool to combat racism. Racial grounds include, race, colour, nationality, or ethnic or national or religious grounds.
Racial discrimination can arise in many disguises. For example,

* Verbal abuse or physical violence or graffiti;
* Exlusion, bullying or victimisation;
* Harrassment and threatening behaviour;
* Any other incident you feel is racially motivated

Racial discrimination or harassment can occur anywhere for example, within the provisions of education, employment, health, housing and within service provisions. BRAMU has the experience of working with victims of racial harassment over 15 years and offers a combination of tangible support and practical advice service by utilizing race relations legislation and BRAMU’S knowledge and experience in combating racism at all levels.

The national hate crime conference was a resounding success, very well attended and a ground breaking achievement., you can listen to the recordings of this event by clicking on the links below:

Click to play - Part 1 Hate Crime Conference

Click to play - Part 2 Hate Crime Conference

Click to play - Part 3 Hate Crime Conference

Click to play - Part 4 Hate Crime Conference

Click to veiw - Profiles of Speakers

Click to veiw - Profiles of Workshop Facilitators

The conference was opened and chaired by Rosemary Campbell-Stevens
(educationalist). She introduced the day by explaining why we are here and gave the following statistics:-


In 2008, the Organisation for Co-operation in Europe recently placed the UK top of a world league table for reported hate crimes with over 46,000 reports logged. This is against the backdrop that there are a fair amount of hate crimes that go unreported.


In the wake of the recent research carried out by the Equality and Human Rights Commission around disability hate crime, it is timely that this conference is being held. In 2007, the saddening deaths of Fiona Pilkington and her daughter Francesca Hardwick resulted in a fresh debate around hate crime and more specifically disability hate crime.


The Pilkington Review similar to Stephen Lawrence should be regarded as a watershed moment for victim support. It is appropriate therefore that this conference acts as a medium for practitioners and service providers to debate, share and learn from the experience and expertise within the room. This I hope leads us to take a more joined-up and partnership specific approach – not only for victim support but hate crime reduction overall.


Maxie Hayles (Chair of BRAMU) then followed with his opening address:-

• Alongside the EHRC the last 12 months alone has seen some considerable research undertaken on hate crime - Chakraborti and Gardland of the University of Leicester being notable, which also coincided with the Cross Governments Hate Crime Action Plan from last year.

• In closing, I would like to draw your attention to our plan for the immediate future. We are in the process of developing a hate crime, educational/training pack targeted at managers in key stakeholder organisations with a duty of care to victims of hate crime. Furthermore, we will be commissioning a comprehensive assessment of the existing support system and infrastructure for reporting and investing incidents of hate crime in Birmingham.

• We believe the outcome of such research will help to inform future operational design and policy development discuss in this area of expertise.

• We will provide more information about this later this afternoon.

• The proposed training pack and research projects signal our intention to lead on the hate crime agenda and to help shape the future discussion on the subject.

• Finally, I would like to say this: Without the will to implement legislation, without unity, without a clear purpose and most of all without action we will achieve nothing of note.

• Quote: Henry Ford once said “If you believe you can, or you believe you cant, then you are probably right” We believe we can make a difference to the lives of victims of hate crime. So once again, I thank you for being here. The only thing left to say is ‘Today of all days, let us take the opportunity to really make a difference to people’s lives’.

• Thank you.

Overall, delegates have expressed their enjoyment and satisfaction of the way the conference was structured. The range of speakers, the workshops, and the entertainment all made it a day to remember.

CONFERENCE PHOTOGRAPHS

Vernal Scot	Simon Wolley
Maxie Hayles & Simon Wolley	Rodger McKenzie
Simon Wolley , Vernal Scot & Rosemary Thompson	Bob Willams-Findlay
Maxie Hayles & Rosemary Campbell-Stephens	Lee Jasper
Paul Fitzgerald	Ann Own
	Paul Fitzgerald & Lee Jasper

Definition of Hate Crime

Home Office:

Hatred is a strong term that goes beyond simply causing offence or hostility.  Hate crime is any criminal offence committed against a person or property that is motivated by an offender’s hatred of someone because of their:

*  Race  
*  Religion  
*  Gender or gender identity  
*  Sexual orientation  
*  Disability

BRAMU definition of a hate crime:

Any incident which constitutes a criminal offence, which is perceived by the victim or any other person as being motivated by prejudice or hate.