The footage shows the paratrooper dying with his trousers around his ankles. Monkey noises are heard being made at the beginning of the officers’ shift and after Mr Alder’s death.
“I do not think these noises were directed specifically at Mr Alder,” Mr Hardwick said. However, he added: “If the racist connotation of these noises was not obvious to the officers, they should have been.”
What worries me about the outcome is not so much the death of a black man in police custody (that is quite normal in Britain, even in the 21st century), but that the judge could come out with the idea that the monkey noises made by the pigs (nice trick, pigs impersonating a higher life form) while the paratrooper was dying, choking to death on his own blood and vomit for 11 minutes, were not directed specifically at him.
Were they watching a special showing of Animal Planet in which they were required to impersonate their simian superiors? No. They were having a laugh at a dying black man.
Mr. Alder must have walked through fire to become a paratrooper. If there’s one place racism is even more institutionalised than in the police force, it’s the army. He trained to defend his country. That shows loyalty, commitment and courage.
The officers involved are not doing any time. They never do.
Rest in peace Mr. Alder, if you can. My condolences to your family who are bravely fighting for justice in the face of oppression and institutionalised, ingrained, state-rewarded racism.
