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

The verdict was that his shooting was lawful.
On this occasion.

https://x.com/forblackwomenuk/status/1848157032928432612?refsrc=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
We’ve created a Facebook group to provide a safe space for women in the UK to share their experiences with past or current abusive relationships and to expose abusive and predatory men.

This is what WEP should support, Not complaining about the lawful death of an abuser and exploiter of women.

It wasn’t “completely hemmed in”. The police car behind him was not touching his car and he was reversing and going forwards. Using the car as a weapon. When they say “armed police”, he put his hands up and then put them on the wheel to keep driving. The footage and aerial images freely available all over the media show this. Officers could easily have been killed.

The jury system is not perfect, but we're committed to it as a country and as far as I'm aware the WEP is not campaigning to abolish it. I therefore think it's totally inappropriate and inflammatory for them, as a political party, to condemn a jury decision, when the jury has sat in the courtroom and heard all the evidence and the WEP hasn't.

And yes, absolutely bizarre to do so when the deceased was a violent criminal with a record of domestic abuse.

This is from The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/oct/21/what-we-now-know-about-the-13-seconds-before-chris-kaba-was-shot Clearly describes how the car was not completely blocked in and another police officer saying this is not best practice.

The marked BMW car, in which Blake was sitting, was waiting in Kirkstall Gardens, a residential road in Streatham, as a police helicopter hovered overhead.
A white Tesla was parked on the left-hand side of the road, with a blue van parked on the other. As the Audi turned in, Blake’s BMW pulled in between the two civilian vehicles, creating a block at the front of the Audi.
Behind Kaba’s car, creating a rear block, was an unmarked police Volvo. It came to a halt, close to the Audi, but not tight enough to stop it reversing.
This was what police call the “containment phase” of the operation. But it was not complete, said one serving firearms commander, who told the Guardian his force would have waited for the containment to be tight before officers rushed out of their cars. This would negate the chance of the vehicle being used as a weapon.
However, in Blake’s case that did not happen, with defence barrister Patrick Gibbs KC telling the court the Audi had “far more room to manoeuvre than was safe”.
On police radio, commands of “strike” and then “doors, doors, doors” rang out as armed officers burst from their cars shouting “show me your fucking hands” and surrounded the Audi. Some were trying to break the windows, reach in and yank Kaba out.
For the first part of the standoff, the Audi first smashed into the BMW and the parked Tesla, trying and failing to ram through.

Louise Casey's report on the Met found them to be institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic – and in need of radical reform. So no-one is suggesting that there are not problems in the Met (or, indeed, other police forces), or saying that this shouldn't be taken seriously. But "institutionally racist" does not mean that every single person who serves is racist - that applies more to the policies and processes than it does to individual officers (although I accept that there are individual officers who are racist).

It is evident in this case that the vehicle Chris Kaba was driving had a firearms marker on it (with good cause), and that's why it was followed and an attempt to stop it occurred. Nothing to do with the colour of the person driving it, nothing to do with race - everything to do with crime. The police did not act outside the law in this case.

Chris Kaba has a long history of violent crime - he was a gang member who shot people, extorted money from immigrants, and beat up his pregnant girlfriend. I'm really puzzled by how many people are trying to defend him. In your post you say, "Your world sounds a lot nicer, no one does bad things." Can you not see that in this particular case, the bad person who did bad things was Chris Kaba himself?

The WEP could amplify the voice of Mina Smallman. Instead they've chosen to support an abusive, violent man.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9r319dzkz3o.amp

Just to save time User1589 will shortly tell you how she is/was a criminal justice lawyer for 20 years and knows all about these things because she's been defending these poor black men against the racist police all of her career.

https://dearblackwomenandgirls.org/black-women-femicide-crisis-london/

Now that is a women's issue.

Thanks, Arabella.

One would think from pps that it's only possible to confront racism in the police forces through men's stories - even if those men are abusers of women.

I found that tweet genuinely shocking and sickening. What a joke of a party.

At the time of the incident, the police did not know who Kaba was. Therefore his criminal history is not relevant.

I would love to believe that individual officers were not racist. I would also love to believe that individual officers were not misogynist as well.

The police did not act outside the law in this case.

The police have to act with reasonable force. The CPS believed there was enough evidence for a murder trial. The prosecution was based on the fact that Kaba was stationary at the time of the killing, was blocked in and no one was in imminent danger. I agree with the CPS that under the circumstances it was murder.

I'm not denying that Kaba was a criminal, I'm arguing that he should have been arrested, taken to court and if found guilty, imprisoned.

@username1589 -

I do not agree with your position on this but it is refreshing you're explaining your view on things without becoming personal (which is easily done on these forums!).

My view is that I think the officer did the best they could in a very awful and difficult situation. I believe he had a genuine held belief his colleagues lives were in danger.

I haven't come to this decision lightly. Having read everything available to me, I'm of the view that Kaba's actions created an impossible situation for the police.

Objectively speaking...
The first part for me, is that we know Kaba made off from the police in a car chase that the officer was involved in.
That in isolation could be typical of someone who has something to hide within the car. I accept this could be something like drugs and doesn't necessarily mean a gun.

The second part is when the police blocked him in (a typical and taught tactic used by police to prevent a car continuing to make off and endanger themselves/ the public). Kaba proceeds to ram the car back and forth several times.
This, in my opinion, means the officers suspicion for what he has on him has grown significantly.
This indicates that not only does Kaba have something to hide in his car, but it escalates that he has something to hide more than a bit of drugs. His actions so far are leaning more towards, there is something seriously bad in that car.

When I take the above, alongside the information the officer had been given whilst dealing with the car chase (and in that I mean that the vehicle was involved in a shooting the night before), leads me to think it is perfectly reasonable to believe there is a gun in the car.

Those few seconds you believe you would have taken could be difference between him/ his colleagues going home to their family, or Kaba going home to his.
Kaba chose to live a very dangerous lifestyle, with little to no regard for his community. The car chase in isolation shows he doesn't care about other people and their safety, and that's before we go through his criminal history. Without being dramatic, those extra few seconds could have been the difference between life and death.

I honestly believe the officer did the best they could with the facts they had.

I respect your opinion, I just thought I would explain mine too.

@uusername1589
And to add... the officer did have the information the vehicle was involved in a shooting the day before, I do not dispute that they knew Kaba was the driver.

So what do you think would have happened if the police had allowed this thug to violently bludgeon his way out of the road block which was his intent? If he had managed to do that without maiming or killing a police officer would he have continued on his journey abiding by road traffic laws and not endangering members of the public? I think not. The police would have has to try and bring him to a halt again, with all the massive inherent dangers involved both to them and the public. This wasn't racism. They did the right thing and a jury thought so too.

The first part for me, is that we know Kaba made off from the police in a car chase that the officer was involved in.

Kaba wasn't in a police chase. The registration of the car was flagged as being in an alleged firearms incident in the days previously. He was followed by unmarked police cars.

The second part is when the police blocked him in (a typical and taught tactic used by police to prevent a car continuing to make off and endanger themselves/ the public). Kaba proceeds to ram the car back and forth several times.

The police didn't do the block properly. The vehicle behind him left too much space giving him room to manoeuvre.

He tried to get out of the police block. As he moved forward, the police repositioned the vehicle behind and hemmed him in. He had two vehicles in front of him and nowhere to go. The officer who shot him was standing between the two cars in front.

As Kaba was hemmed in, the officers were not in 'imminent danger'. His hands were clearly visible on the steering wheel. No weapons were found in the car ie there were no weapons in grabbing distance.

The police were not aware of his criminal history at the time of the incident.

And to add... the officer did have the information the vehicle was involved in a shooting the day before, I do not dispute that they knew Kaba was the driver.

The vehicle was not registered to Kaba so they could not have known he was in the car.

https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/cps-authorises-murder-charge-against-police-officer-following-death-chris-kaba

'The CPS assessment of any case is not in any sense a finding of, or implication of, any guilt or criminal conduct. It is not a finding of fact, which can only be made by a court, but rather an assessment of what it might be possible to prove to a court, in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors.'

Okay, enough derailing and misinformation.

The WEP are a disgrace.

The police didn't do the block properly. The vehicle behind him left too much space giving him room to manoeuvre.

Are you saying that it's the fault of the police for not blocking him in and giving him room to manoeuvre? Not the fault of the driver who tried to ram his way out of the blockage without any thought to the danger he was causing to police and pedestrians?

Following a thorough review of the evidence provided by the IOPC (Independent Office for Police Conduct), the CPS has authorised a charge of murder against a Metropolitan Police officer following the death of Chris Kaba.

Apologies for the derail. Usually I can completely appreciate opposing points of view, even if I don't agree, but in this case I am really struggling with the massive support shown to a violent criminal.

Yes, you're right, @HerGorgeousMajestyArabellaScott - the WEP are a disgrace.

What's the point of this post? Nothing you say contradicts what Arabella says.

Perhaps you'd like to comment on what the Women's Equality Party has done, in tweeting support for this violent thug with a history of criminality towards women he and this fellow thugs had identified as vulnerable?

If they had hemmed him in properly, he would not have been able to ram the vehicles. They are solely responsible for following procedure and containing a suspect.

Kaba was solely responsible for trying to get out of the police block.

The police didn't do the block properly.

Roads and firearms policing expert now? Done your APP I assume. Busy busy.