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George Floyd’s death: MPs’ claims of ‘shock and anger’ ring hollow

Where is our politicians’ anger over killings by rubber bullets in Britain and the North of Ireland? asks RICHARD RUDKIN as fresh details of injustice and tragedy emerge

THE death of George Floyd at the hands of the US police prompted huge demonstrations across the US. 

In Washington, police officers and government agents dressed in riot gear faced accusations of using rubber bullets to push the crowd away from St John’s Church close to the White House where protesters had gathered. 

The actions by the US in authorising the use of tear gas and rubber bullets on its citizens brought widespread condemnation from all parties in the House of Commons. 

At Prime Minister’s Questions on June 3, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer expressed “shock and anger” over the death of George Floyd and questioned why the Prime Minister had not yet spoken out over the incident. 

Scottish National Party leader in Westminster Ian Blackford added: “The UK exports millions of pounds worth of riot gear to the US, including tear gas and rubber bullets. 

“The Prime Minister must have seen how these weapons were used on American streets.”

Labour MP Fleur Anderson went a little further by asking Boris Johnson to condemn the actions of the US police and freeze sales of tear gas and rubber bullets.

Johnson did condemn the actions in the US, saying: “I certainly condemn the killing of George Floyd and we [the British government] will certainly make sure that everything we export to any country around the world is in accordance with the consolidated guidance on human rights.” 

Each and every comment is correct and to be applauded. Questions must be asked when a government uses ammunition such as rubber or plastic bullets on its citizens. 

However, on this occasion for me, and I’m guessing many other people, the concern of some MPs lacked authenticity. 

It appeared to be more an opportunity to be seen by the watching media to be “saying the right thing.”

I say this because if British politicians are outraged about the use of rubber bullets in the US, then why were they not alarmed when a freedom of information request by the Guardian revealed a disturbing fact — that the Metropolitan Police had spent more than £500,000 on plastic bullets in 2017, more than three times the average for the previous five years? 

Diane Abbott, who was the shadow home secretary at the time, was right in stating: “It is very concerning that police forces would want to stockpile such weapons.” 

A good point indeed, yet so far there appears to be little appetite within Parliament to ascertain why such a volume of ammunition of this kind — the same ammunition British MPs are “outraged” at the US for using — is required by police forces in Britain.

However, the hypocrisy of MPs over their attitude to plastic bullets isn’t just confined to who should or shouldn’t have them. 

No, it stretches to who should or shouldn’t be condemned for the injuries caused by their use. 

For while British politicians are rightly concerned about the use of plastic bullets in Hong Kong and the US and the life-changing injuries they cause, there is a deafening silence when it comes to speaking out in support of children who were killed after being struck by one, fired by the British governments own crown forces in the North of Ireland.

The names Seamus Duffy (15), Stephen Geddis (10), Carol Ann Kelly (12), Julie Livingstone (14), Stephen McConomy (11), Francis Rowntree (11), Brian Stew (13) and Paul Whitters (15) may not be names that British politicians are familiar with. 

Yet these are the names of the children who lost their lives after being hit by either a rubber or plastic bullet. 

Let’s be clear — this type of ammunition is not a “soft option.” Both types of ammunition weigh approximate 131 grams and travel about 60 metes per second. 

While each of these children have their own heartbreaking stories surrounding their death, the case of Seamus Duffy was particularly disturbing due to how other injuries, in addition to that caused by plastic bullet, may have been sustained.

In August 1989, the 15-year-old had travelled to the New Lodge area of Belfast from his home to watch an anti-internment bonfire. 

Although he was not involved, Seamus was shot by a Royal Ulster Constabulary officer with a plastic bullet after trouble broke out. 

A pathologist’s report outlining the injuries concluded that Seamus had sustained a crushed heart, along with a four-inch gash to his left lung. 

There were allegations that large batteries, the kind you might use in a large flashlight, may also have been fired from the baton gun along with the plastic bullet that struck Seamus. 

While many readers will find this suggestion astonishing, in the early ’70s it was a practice that I was aware of, and many ex-military who served during that period will be aware of it too, although I suggest few will ever openly admit to it.

Two years ago it was reported that agencies of the British government had denied the family of one of these children, Paul Whitter, access to historical files held at the National Archives at Kew until 2059 – files that may have provided answers to their child’s death at the hands of crown forces. Where was the British politicians’ “outrage or anger” then? 

Or when the British government announced it would attempt to implement measures to prevent prosecution of former members of the security forces who served during the Troubles, to try to prevent justice? 

Where was this “shock and anger” from MPs when allegations emerged that “death squads” of plain-clothed British soldiers operated on the streets of Belfast in the early 1970s, linked to the killing of unarmed civilians?

Finally, maybe British politicians should reflected on the words of Marin Luther King Jnr when he said: “An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Only then would they see just how hollow their claims of being “outraged, shocked and angry” actually sound to those who have waited almost five decades for justice.

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