Chris Kaba: Killing without consequences

If police can benefit from every conceivable route to escape justice for unlawful killings, what is the point of an IOPC in the first place?

~ Daniel Adediran ~

The dropping of misconduct charges against the police officer who shot Chris Kaba is another blow to the Black community in the UK, and to all communities affected by the injustices of policing.

Kaba was killed in Streatham, south-east London in 2022. His car reversed into an unmarked police vehicle during a stop conducted by MO-19, the Metropolitan Police’s special firearms unit. He was unarmed, unknown to the police, and not a suspect in any crime at the time of his death. He was shot by Sgt. Martyn Blake minutes after the officer’s arrival on the scene.

After Blake was acquitted of murder in 2024, the Independent Office for Police Conduct announced that he would face a disciplinary hearing. Last January, the process was suspended, awaiting a change in law that would replaced the use of force test in such cases from the civil law test to the criminal law test. Following the new legislation, the IOPC in July announced a policy of applying it retroactively to existing proceedings, saying it would be unfair if officers “faced potential dismissal for misconduct, which if it occurred now, would not amount to misconduct under the new law”. Despite being the most controversial police shooting in recent British history, the IOPC decided there were no “exceptional circumstance” to override this policy in the case of Chris Kaba.

After almost 4 years, the circus of trial and complaints proceeding has ended with no justice for Chris Kaba. Nine more fatal police shootings have occurred in the meantime. If police can benefit from every conceivable route to escape justice for unlawful killings, what is the point of an IOPC in the first place?

Since 1990, there have been 1,926 deaths recorded in or following police custody or contact. There has only be one manslaughter charge and conviction in that entire time, and not a single murder conviction. If there was a gang that operated on the national level with this number of victims, the mainstream right-wing press would be up in arms every night of the week. Because it is the Met, these figures are met with silence.

The IOPC is the fourth iteration of this institution, which has changed its face every decade since the 1970s Scarman report – with every iteration showing serious failings in taking the Metropolitan and other police forces to task over misconduct. Clearly we should look to other ways of looking after our communities, without relying on the ‘fist of the state’ which can come crashing down on our bodies without so much as a slap on the wrist.

Image: Chris Kaba’s parents with supporters in 2022. Alisdare Hickson, Wikimedia Commons