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A song for Blair Peach, who died 30 years ago today.
It's also a song for St George's Day (England's national day). Britain is gripped in a debate at the moment about heavy-handed policing of lawful protest. Three weeks ago a man died at the G20 protests in London, officially from "natural causes" ... until a member of the public came forward with video footage showing that he was violently assaulted by riot police. The officer concerned may now face manslaughter charges. More amateur video evidence has subsequently emerged of police aggression against protestors ... forging a new avenue of justice for the YouTube generation. A police sergeant has been suspended for smacking a young woman across the face and beating her legs out from under her ... thanks to some footage someone posted on YouTube, shocking images which brought tears to my eyes. Her bruises are all over the front pages of the national newspapers.
The point is, if it wasn't for the "sousveillance" - ordinary people filming the police with their phones and digital cameras - the truth of these incidents would never have been known. No such technology existed when Blair Peach was killed in 1979.
Blair Peach was a schoolteacher and anti-fascist campaigner who died from catastrophic head injuries after being beaten by a police officer from the notorious Special Patrol Group (SPG) during a protest in Southall, London. It was never established exactly what he had been hit with ... a search of the SPG locker room uncovered an armoury of lethal weapons including lead coshes and crowbars, but this was ruled inadmissable as evidence and the official report has never been made public. The subsequent inquest returned a verdict of death by misadventure on the basis that Mr Peach had an "unusually thin cranium" ... essentially that his failure to survive the beating was nobody's fault but an accident of physiology. The SPG was disbanded in the 1980s but despite a huge public outcry and the evidence of 11 witnesses, no officer was ever charged or disciplined over Peach's death.
I've been trying to write this song for a few weeks but it would never have come together without Daniel's help ... firstly his encouragement and latterly his transformation of my rough demo into a meaningful song. Thanks Daniel!
It's also a song for St George's Day (England's national day). Britain is gripped in a debate at the moment about heavy-handed policing of lawful protest. Three weeks ago a man died at the G20 protests in London, officially from "natural causes" ... until a member of the public came forward with video footage showing that he was violently assaulted by riot police. The officer concerned may now face manslaughter charges. More amateur video evidence has subsequently emerged of police aggression against protestors ... forging a new avenue of justice for the YouTube generation. A police sergeant has been suspended for smacking a young woman across the face and beating her legs out from under her ... thanks to some footage someone posted on YouTube, shocking images which brought tears to my eyes. Her bruises are all over the front pages of the national newspapers.
The point is, if it wasn't for the "sousveillance" - ordinary people filming the police with their phones and digital cameras - the truth of these incidents would never have been known. No such technology existed when Blair Peach was killed in 1979.
Blair Peach was a schoolteacher and anti-fascist campaigner who died from catastrophic head injuries after being beaten by a police officer from the notorious Special Patrol Group (SPG) during a protest in Southall, London. It was never established exactly what he had been hit with ... a search of the SPG locker room uncovered an armoury of lethal weapons including lead coshes and crowbars, but this was ruled inadmissable as evidence and the official report has never been made public. The subsequent inquest returned a verdict of death by misadventure on the basis that Mr Peach had an "unusually thin cranium" ... essentially that his failure to survive the beating was nobody's fault but an accident of physiology. The SPG was disbanded in the 1980s but despite a huge public outcry and the evidence of 11 witnesses, no officer was ever charged or disciplined over Peach's death.
I've been trying to write this song for a few weeks but it would never have come together without Daniel's help ... firstly his encouragement and latterly his transformation of my rough demo into a meaningful song. Thanks Daniel!
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Lyrics
Blair went down to Southall
To oppose the National Front
Another Brick Lane rampage
Where the people take the brunt
Penned in by the cordons
Chaos on patrol
Crush them into kettles
Until both sides lose control
Streets ask no questions
Pavements have no eyes
And curtain twitching witnesses
Are undermined by lies
No mobile phones or videos
And no CCTV
Silence and attrition
For the guilt of SPG
It'll all blow over quickly
It'll come out in the wash
They'll never let those lefty scum
Indict the lethal cosh
Processed through the system
To erase the ugly scene
Death by misadventure
And we'll all be squeaky clean
To oppose the National Front
Another Brick Lane rampage
Where the people take the brunt
Penned in by the cordons
Chaos on patrol
Crush them into kettles
Until both sides lose control
Streets ask no questions
Pavements have no eyes
And curtain twitching witnesses
Are undermined by lies
No mobile phones or videos
And no CCTV
Silence and attrition
For the guilt of SPG
It'll all blow over quickly
It'll come out in the wash
They'll never let those lefty scum
Indict the lethal cosh
Processed through the system
To erase the ugly scene
Death by misadventure
And we'll all be squeaky clean
Peter Bauckham
the National Front marches in the late 70s and early 80s (there was one in Lewisham right outside were I was working - really quite frightening) - and your song has jogged my memory regarding this incident. Excellent writing Rebsie and a great arrangement. As much as I dislike the rise of CCTV and camera phones - at least today there is a greater chance that the truth of incidents such as G20 will be discovered.
Peter