Funeral of Mark Duggan in London amid tight police presence

Mark Duggan

The funeral of Mark Duggan who was shot dead last month by police will take place tomorrow (September 9). The service will start at 11am at the New Testament Church Of God, Arcadian Garden, Wood Green N22 5AA. Mr Duggan will later be buried at Wood Green Cemetery, Wolves Lane N22.  Thousands of police officers will be on duty and every police stations within the M25 has been put on full alert. The Met stated this precaution was necessary to avoid a likely repeat flair up of the London riots.

Mark Duggan died on August 4 from a single gunshot wound to the chest after the taxi he was travelling in was intercepted by police in Tottenham Hale as part of a pre-planned operation to arrest him.

The details surrounding Mr Duggan’s death, the apparent lack of contact from the police in delivering the news to his parents and the treatment they received following their peaceful protest outside Tottenham police station on August 6 sparked the initial riot in Tottenham that would later engulf the country.

Initial reports suggested that the police were fired on first but were later corrected by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) who confirmed that the two shots fired were discharged by a special firearms officer.

The IPCC, which is currently investigating the killing, released a statement admitting that they may have

"inadvertently given misleading information to journalists when responding to very early media queries” adding that “having reviewed the information the IPCC received and gave out during the very early hours of the unfolding incident, before any documentation had been received, it seems possible that we may have verbally led journalists to believe that shots were exchanged."

The question this raises is how it is possible for the IPCC to communicate to journalists unverified accounts before the facts had been confirmed and corroborated.  This misinformation seems especially inappropriate considering the incident commented upon involved the death of a young man and consequently caused family and friends unnecessary distress.

Further questions regarding the conduct of the Metropolitan Police Service have been raised by Mark Duggan’s family, who learnt about his death from media reports before being formally notified by police. The Met has since apologised to the family but have refused to release a statement about the killing of Mark Duggan, saying that it is subject to an IPCC investigation.

Commenting in today’s Guardian, the family said

"Someone needs to be made accountable for this and we're not going to stop until we get justice."

Anyone who witnessed the shooting can contact Birnberg Peirce solicitors in confidence on 020 7911 0166.

Operation Black Vote.