Women's Equality Party and Chris Kaba

[HerGorgeousMajestyArabellaScott]

Tweets yesterday and today lamenting Kaba's death.

This was a violent criminal who was subject to a restraining order from his then-pregnant girlfriend.

Why are WEP tweeting in support of him?

https://x.com/WEP_UK/status/1848648576710107247

Then why use a male abuser of women as their campaign poster boy?

The police officer was doing his job according to his training, and by all accounts is a model professional police officer - confronted with a criminal intent on using his vehicle to escape the police and willing to cause maximum damage to other officers using a vehicle which had been used for a gun crime the day before.

While I agree political parties shouldn't be one issue

It's a bloody big issue, though, isn't it?

WEP need to re-examine their consciences.

Of course it is. But parties don't really get anywhere if they are single issue.

If the WEP wanted to do intersectionality on the police they could talk about Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry. On gang violence the impact that gangs have on women (in my area most gangs members are white, and a number of women and girls have been caught in the cross fire literally and figuratively but the same is true for black communities and the impact gangs have on women and girls)

Instead the WEP are just a disappointing mess.

Do we think they ever had any?

Every time they’ve tried to promote themselves on MN they’ve shown themselves up as prioritising men.

It's the single biggest human rights issue on earth.
There are many aspects to it. As I said upthread, it includes racism - as experienced by and affecting women. Disability - as experienced by and affecting women. Poverty - as experienced by and affecting women. Etc, etc.

The WEP are not going to get anywhere with their stated objectives if they dissipate their energy and focus.

You are preaching to the converted.

WEP have done so much damage to their 'brand' by repeatedly centering men, I don't see a way back for them.

Agreed.

Perhaps we were talking at cross purposes! 😀

Yes but intersectionalism. We cannot think about protecting women without protecting drug dealing murderers and domestic abusers first you know, if they aren’t white heterosexuals.

If they aren’t what WEP would call cisgender white heterosexuals.

My bad, better reeducate myself.

Not relevant at all but these gang names sound so ridiculous.

Meant to say earlier I agree with all of this. I don't know if you have to be weird to be a police officer but it's not an easy job. Unsocial hours, far too much contact with some of the most difficult, damaged and outright nasty people in society, ostracised or attacked by others, potentially lots of danger. I'm glad there are people willing to do it. I hope the police can improve their assessment at the recruitment stage and do a better job of monitoring various important things they need to pick up on about serving officers (e.g. their attitudes to women).

I've seen the footage. At the time he was shot, his vehicle was stationary. It was stationary because there were two police cars in front of his car preventing him from moving forward. Behind him was another police car, preventing him from reversing away.

He was blocked from driving away. The officer who shot him was standing between the two vehicles in front of him. His hands were clearly visible on the steering wheel.

At the time of the incident, the police did not know who was in the car. They didn't even have his name, so it would have been impossible to know anything of his criminal history.

One has to admire such a commitment to digging in, in the face of all the evidence.

The officers didn’t know who he was. But - to put being obtuse to one side for a moment and focus on the facts - from the link, they did know this and they knew they were about to place themselves in danger:

”At 7pm firearms officers were briefed at the start of their 12-hour shift. They were told about the Brixton shooting, how the gun was still outstanding and that the suspects were at large. A firearms marker had been placed on the Audi Q8. Intelligence indicated a “ride-out” — looking for enemies with intent to cause them harm — by 17 into 67 territory and there were warnings of “further incidents in the coming weeks”.

Later that evening Kaba said that he was going to visit a friend. He hugged his mother and set off in the crossover SUV coupé, which generates 0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds. It would be the last time Lumuanganu saw him alive.

The silent follow

At 9.51pm a firearms officer sitting in the back of an unmarked Volvo named “Alpha” clocked the Audi driving towards them in Camberwell. “That’s one of the vehicles, get in,” he said to his two colleagues after recognising the number plate circulated at the briefing.

The officer, known only as DS87, stood outside to see which direction the car was travelling. At 9.55pm a firearms incident was declared. The officers were unaware of the driver’s identity when they began the silent follow.

The operational firearms commander gave directions of the tactic: an enforced stop with extraction. Some officers believed the driver did not know he was being pursued but others said his “circuitous” route suggested that he was aware.

A court was told that at 9.57pm, Kaba phoned his friend and said: “I think there are police behind me.”

As Kaba turned into Kirkstall Gardens the Foxtrot vehicle, coincidentally, was parked on the street. Residents’ cars were in bays either side of the road so the stop tactic was adapted.

An officer in the car behind Kaba shouted: “We’re going to do it here. INLINE. INLINE. INLINE.”

The ARV emerged from behind a white Tesla and drove forward while the unmarked Volvo boxed Kaba in from behind”

It is all explained at the link. Sorry the facts don’t fit what you would prefer to have happened.

I think we watched different footage!

They don't show the actual moment of shooting for obvious reasons, but seconds before he is ramming the car.

You're making it sound like he was just sitting in a stationary car not doing anything which is a very bizarre lie. It was very fraught and he was very active.

I suppose technically if it was a moment in between the moment the man accelerated fast and reversed fast as he tried to ram police cars and police officers in the car that was linked to gang violence and a recent shooting, he was at a standstill.

But good fucking lord, I don't care.

I don't care what this violent man was doing.

I do care what the ONE party that is supposed to be agitating for women is doing.

Why aren't they supporting the girlfriend he abused?

This thread is about the WEP.

I think these are great questions.

Since 2005 the only unarmed men to be shot by the police have been black. It's posited that the police are more likely to pull the trigger if the suspect is black.

Investigation after investigation have found the Met to be institutionally racist. Not only racist, but recently misogynist and homophobic. Wayne Couzens for example was a trained firearms officer with the Met and they've had some prolific sexual offenders and other abusers.

I don't believe a police officer has ever been found guilty of murder, a few have been found guilty of manslaughter.

The police officer didn't just have a few seconds, that's how long he took to asses the situation before pulling the trigger. His belief that people's lives were in danger was an assessment he made on hearing a car moving at speed and a revving engine.

We've all seen the footage and the car was not moving at speed because that would be impossible. It would be impossible because he was blocked in by police cars. There were two in front of him and one behind him.

The officer who shot him was standing in between two police cars and Kaba's car was stationary. He stated that he thought officers lives were in danger yet in court could not point out on the footage whose lives or at which point.

No police were injured, Kaba did not have a weapon and his hands were clearly visible on the steering wheel.

What would I have done? Probably taken more than a few seconds to assess the situation before shooting an unarmed man in the head.

In addition to the DV, the gang he was in seems to have engaged in other acts against women:

”Several people identified Kaba and claimed that he and his associates ran a protection racket — taking money from black women on the proviso they would “make sure no trouble would come to their door”. The Times was told the gang preyed on “freshies” — a derogatory term which, in this instance, describes immigrants from central Africa.

“We all knew what was going on,” a source said. “They knew who to target. No offence but they went for freshies — they couldn’t come for us [Caribbean people] because they know we’re too feisty.”

The “little hoodlums” closed in on the area in 2019, business owners claimed. One person said a hairdresser “started doing some of the boys’ hair for really cheap. [A woman’s] son hung around with them and there many times we had to stop the police from arresting him.” They claimed that the young man was “touched” — a colloquial term describing someone who is “not all there”, adding: “They used him because he was vulnerable. The police knew about it.”

The hairdresser is said to have told friends: “I’ve got people to watch over me.” It’s unclear how much money the gang took from her and for how long, but her friends were aware of the intimidation she faced.

Another person said: “One guy took her phone and walked off with it. When I asked why she let him do it, she told me, ‘He said he’ll bring it back when he’s ready.’ How can you do this to your own people?”

The racket wound down after the targets moved away and some gang members were jailed, a source said.“

Inside Chris Kaba’s criminal past: from knives at 13 to gangland guns

www.thetimes.com/article/197ac8af-cacd-477f-b74b-1f959c5f6519?shareToken=1a1bbbb8497dcb78f52fafdf5459aa64

Why would the WEP be supporting someone involved in such acts? It is bizarre.

Where does it say that they knew who was in the car and his criminal history?

He wasn't unarmed. He was armed with a three ton Audi which he drove directly at the police.

At the time he was shot his car was stationary and he was blocked in by the police.

He was sitting in the car not doing anything at the time he was shot. Look at the footage again, his car was not moving.

He was trying to ram his way out of a police block. His car was blocked in by police cars.