Wednesday, August 27, 2014.

The London MP and leading Black British politician Diane Abbott (main picture) will this evening join campaign group Stand up to Racism, in a solidarity protest outside the US embassy in London, with the family, friends and loved ones of Michael Brown and those outraged by the actions of the police in Ferguson, Missouri, USA. 

On Saturday, August 9, 2014, unarmed, African American teenager Michael Brown, was shot dead by police in Ferguson, Missouri. People in the United States and around the world have rightly been outraged. 

Brown’s murder is the latest in a long line of killings by US police of Black men. Five have been murdered in the past month alone. Protestors have taken to the streets of Ferguson, every night since the incident demanding justice for Mr Brown and an end to police killings. 

The Police response to the demonstrations has harked back to the days prior to the Civil Rights Movement. They have used tear gas, dogs, automatic weapons and armoured cars on demonstrators. Many say Mr Brown’s murder highlights the deeply racist nature of US society today. However, deaths in police custody are not limited to America, as we have seen in the cases of Mark Duggan, Smiley Culture, Sean Rigg, and Christopher Alder to name but a few in Britain.

Stand up to Racism’s Sabby Dhalu argues there are parallels with Britain and the USA on policing, institutional racism and the treatment of black people. The killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown by the police in Ferguson, MO, she says, has provoked widespread outrage in the USA and across the globe.

"All black people have ever demanded from the demonstrations in the USA now to the civil rights movement in the 1960s, is equal treatment before the law. This is long overdue, but institutional racism is a barrier to this,” she said. "Stand up to Racism has called this vigil outside the US embassy to show solidarity with the family, friends and loved ones of Michael Brown, those outraged by the actions of the police in Ferguson but also to demand an end to institutional racism and deaths in police custody here in Britain."