Chris Kaba’s murder should be a major nail in the coffin for the Met Police.

Image courtesy of Chris Kaba’s family.

At 10pm on Monday September 5th 2022, Chris Kaba’s car was hemmed in by two Metropolitan Police vehicles on a narrow residential road in Streatham Hill. Before he could even get out of his vehicle, he was shot through the windscreen by an officer, and later died from the shot. Since the incident, the vehicle and surrounding area has been combed through, and they have found no evidence whatsoever of a firearm in or near the car. This was the culmination of a car chase as apparently his number plate had been “automatically recognised” as being potentially linked with a shooting a few days previously.

In short, the Met Police chased down an unarmed Black man and shot him dead because his car may have been in an area around the time of a shooting, days before. They have since apologised, but apologies are not enough. Chris Kaba was a 24 year old man, with a baby on the way, who has had his life taken from him for, at worst, running from the police.

And who can blame him? This is not an organisation known for the kind and warm way they treat men who look like him. He is the second Black man to die at the hands of the Met in the past 3 months, and he joins a much too long list of Black people who have suffered at their hands.

And that list doesn’t just include those who, like Chris, lose their lives. The impact on the community is huge. The immediate friends and family are mourning, they are hit with loss and grief and injustice all at once. But like ripples in a puddle, the impacts spread outwards too. Distrust of the police is felt across the community, it’s added to the mental list of “How We Know The Police Aren’t For Us” that seems to grow longer and more detailed every day. That trauma is real and it is heavy. Clinical psychologists are even beginning to speak out about the mental toll it takes to carry that.

And here’s why this should absolutely be a nail in their coffin: The officer who shot and killed Chris is still at work. Not suspended pending investigation, not removed from that position of power they abused. Still at work. Chris lost everything, his baby will never know it’s father, his loved ones must try and rebuild from here, and the person that - literally - triggered that is at work right now.

What message does that send to the community? This is an institution that claims to want to improve trust within the Black community, how are they planning to do that when they murder us and show up to work the next day as if they haven’t done anything out of the ordinary? As if they are no more impacted by taking our lives than by hitting roadkill on the way home.

And the truth is this: the people employed at the Met do not understand the racial trauma that is shared by so many when it comes to interacting with the police. I had to make a phone call to them earlier this week, and was met with hostility, rudeness, passive aggressive energy. They simply did not care what I had to say. And when I said “The thing is this, I am a Black person, having to even take the time out of my day to interact with the Met is incredibly hard.” I was told, “What does that have to do with anything, how could I know you’re Black on the phone.”

They don’t understand that what matters is the way they have treated us, the way they treat us, it impacts us even when they can’t see us. If I feel sick even having to make a phone call to this organisation, how do I feel when there’s officers walking towards me? And if that makes my heart rate increase and my palms sweat, how does it feel when they approach my car, lights flashing and sirens on? And if that’s how I feel as a lighter-skinned woman, how is a dark skinned man like Chris Kaba feeling?

And it’s not even that they don’t understand. It’s that they don’t want to. This police force is under special measures, and even under special measures they don’t care about murdering us, and shrug off the trauma they’ve instilled across generations of Black people. Meanwhile his loved ones and the wider community are secure in their belief that had Chris been white, he’d still be here. There is a wilful dissonance here from the Met Police that serves only to reinforce that they are not fit for service.

Chris Kaba’s family have called for a full murder investigation after his death. And rightfully so - if any other gang chased down and shot an unarmed person because they might have been somewhere a few days before, we wouldn’t even have to discuss if it was murder.

A protest has been organised for September 10th 2022, with plans to assemble at 12 noon at Parliament Square, to march to Scotland Yard. If you can attend, please do. If you can’t, please spread the word, and help get justice for Chris.