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ABUSE REPORT
Racism in the United Kingdom
On October 30, 1998, David “Rocky” Bennett, a 38-year-old African-Caribbean
living in England, had an argument with a white patient over the use of a phone
in a psychiatric facility. Staff picked Bennett to be segregated from the rest
of the patients. He became more upset. The staff then pinned him face down on
the floor for 25 minutes. He screamed, “Get off me, get off me, I can’t breathe.
Get off my throat. … They are going to kill me.” His screams were ignored. Then
they stopped—David was dead.
A May 2001 coroner’s inquest determined “Accidental Death Aggravated
by Neglect.”
David Bennett’s family requested and obtained a government inquiry
into his death. This resulted in a February 2004 report that painted a bleak
picture of “institutional racism” in the country’s mental health system. Sir
John Blofeld, a retired High Court judge, stated: “Black and minority ethnic
communities have a fear of the NHS [National Health Service]: that if they engage
with the mental health services they will be locked up for a very long time,
if not for life, and treated with medication which may eventually kill them.”
Desmond McLean was raped at the age of 14. He would not speak about
his ordeal, which worried his family. After an argument at home, he was admitted
to an adult psychiatric ward in England: “Whenever I showed any resentment to
what was happening to me, four or five adults would jump me and pull my trousers
down and put a needle in my buttocks.
Having that needle gives them a lot of control over your emotions.
Whenever black people show any signs of psychiatric problems they are labeled
paranoid schizophrenic or psychotic. It’s because they don’t understand where
black people are coming from and how we express our frustrations.”
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