An open letter to the climate justice movement
https://actionnetwork.org/form
We are writing as members of the climate movement, to send our love and solidarity to Chris Kaba’s family and his loved ones in their grief. We are part of groups and organisations united in the spirit of building a climate justice movement capable of ending oppression in all its forms.
Chris Kaba, an unarmed Black man, was shot and killed by a Metropolitan police officer on Monday 5 September in South London. Chris was 24 years old, and expecting a baby with his partner. Chris Kaba is one of 1833 people to die after contact with, or in the custody of, police in England and Wales since 1990. Of these deaths, only one has resulted in a conviction (for manslaughter).
Black people in the UK are disproportionately more likely to be killed by police than their white counterparts. Black people are also more likely to be incarcerated and to receive longer sentences. Time and time again, British police have been shown to be institutionally racist. We stand in solidarity with all victims of racist state and police violence in the UK.
We cannot fight for climate justice unless we also fight racist police violence. Today’s climate crisis is also a result of oppression and exploitation. The same European colonialism that colonised and plundered entire nations through the logic of white supremacy, was the same project that sought to control and exploit nature. This is the origin of the ecological collapse we are witnessing today. It is the same logic of imposition, extraction, exploitation and silencing that continues today. As a result of these systems, Black, Brown and Indigenous communities have endured hundreds of years of oppression, are treated as expendable, and continue to be deprived of even the most essential conditions to human life - the freedom to breathe.
Black and racialised people are also more likely to be harmed by governments, the police and corporations for fighting against the climate crisis. The climate crisis is disproportionately harming working class Black, Brown, Indigenous and otherwise racialised people around the world, from London to Lahore. In 2013, nine-year-old Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debra was the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death. Nearly 10 years later, racialised Londoners continue to be more likely to live in areas with toxic air. In Pakistan, floods caused by the emissions of wealthier, whiter counties have displaced millions and killed over 1,400 people. In Uganda, entire villages have been impacted by floods caused by the climate crisis, with people displaced into makeshift camps. At the same time, racist migration policies enacted by the UK government and other countries in the Global North, make it harder for refugees displaced by climate colonialism to find safety.
Climate justice is racial justice - we demand reparations for the white supremacist violence of colonialism and the climate crisis, and for communities affected by racist police violence.
We will keep amplifying and supporting the demands of Chris Kaba’s family.
Response to the question: did the officers know that it was Chris in the car or were they simply following a suspect vehicle?
The suspended officer must be interviewed under caution without delay and the family must be kept informed on this
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