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| '''Kriss Donald''' (] ] – ] ]) was a ] fifteen-year-old who was kidnapped and murdered in ] in ]. Five British Asian men were later found guilty of racially-motivated violence; those convicted of murder were all sentenced to life imprisonment. | '''Kriss Donald''' (] ] – ] ]) was a ] fifteen-year-old who was kidnapped and murdered in ] in ]. Five British Asian men were later found guilty of racially-motivated violence; those convicted of murder were all sentenced to life imprisonment. | ||
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| On ] ], the three men were found guilty of the racially motivated murder of Kriss Donald. All three had denied the charge; however, a jury at the High Court in ] convicted them of abduction and murder. <ref> BBC News</ref> Each of the killers received sentences of life imprisonment, with the Shahid brothers being recommended for 25-year minimum terms and Mushtaq receiving a recommended minimum of 22 years. | On ] ], the three men were found guilty of the racially motivated murder of Kriss Donald. All three had denied the charge; however, a jury at the High Court in ] convicted them of abduction and murder. <ref> BBC News</ref> Each of the killers received sentences of life imprisonment, with the Shahid brothers being recommended for 25-year minimum terms and Mushtaq receiving a recommended minimum of 22 years. | ||
| == Allegations of racial motivation == | |||
| {{NPOV-section}} | |||
| The official narrative regarding the case is based on the prosecution arguments and judge’s statements in the trial, and has been reproduced in the mainstream news media. This perspective states that the killing was racist, and that the perpetrators set out to torture and kill a randomly-selected white person simply because this person was white. The killing is thus assumed to be a result of individual prejudice by the perpetrators against white people in general. The mainstream media have generally presented the killing as motivated solely by racial prejudice. Hence the Daily Telegraph claims that Kriss “died because of the colour of his skin, and because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time”. <ref>]</ref> Even the Guardian headlines the case as a “race murder”. <ref></ref> | |||
| However, the case for this perspective is contentious. The conviction for “racial aggravation” has been used by commentators to depict the killing as “racist”. This does not necessarily follow, as a verdict of racial aggravation only requires that a racial element be present, not that it be the main motive. That one of the perpetrators said he was looking for revenge on a “white bastard” prior to the case is sufficient to amount to racial aggravation in British law; the implication that this means the killing was racially motivated is a further, and contentious, inference. | |||
| Since the convicted persons’ defence at trial was based on claiming non-involvement at all, the trial focuses on establishing their involvement, and questions of motivation were barely raised. As a result, no counter-narrative was offered to the official narrative. One problem raised by the defence was that the prosecution case relies heavily on the evidence of a participant who was convicted only of assault, and released early, prior to the second trial. Although ] is not officially recognised in Britain, the fact that one perpetrator cooperated with the prosecution and was not charged with more serious offences creates problems with the official account of the group’s motives and actions. Initially charged with murder, Zahid Mohammed struck a deal with the state according to news reports. Defence lawyers at the trial claimed that Mohammed, who received a sentence for abduction but was not charged with the murder, had lied to save himself and had got away with murder. <ref>]</ref> Although the defence claimed that the decision whether to convict comes down to whether or not this witness was trusted, the prosecution case also involved forensic evidence such as possessions and DNA from the alleged perpetrators found in the car used for disposal of evidence. | |||
| The claim that the main motive was skin colour has been challenged. BBC correspondent Bob Wylie offers a different perspective on the reasons for the killing. He suggests that the murder was a ‘gangland killing’ by members of a ‘Mafia-style gang who maintained their gangster rule in Pollokshields by a reign of terror’ and who had been involved in earlier alleged incidents of brutality. ‘So in part what happened to Kriss was the result of youth gang clashes but the revenge took place through the methods of extreme gangsterism’. Kriss Donald was not involved with the gang being targeted, but may have been suspected of involvement either because he came from the area in which the gang was based, or because he was seen with a friend who was recognized by the attackers. <ref></ref> | |||
| Similarly, Kriss’s mother claimed the killing was gang-related rather than racial. "It doesn't matter to my family what colour these men are. Kriss is gone because of gangs, not just in Pollokshields but every area of our communities." <ref></ref> | |||
| Thus Kriss may have been “profiled” as a likely member of the targeted gang, or killed as a bystander associated with members of the gang – a type of killing which is not unusual in gang feuds. | |||
| The very idea that members of underprivileged minorities can engage in “racist” acts is challenged by many anti-racists, and the idea of ] is controversial. The classification of the killing as racist depends on a depiction of racism as individual prejudice, a view which is controversial among scholars on the subject. The motives for prejudice against members of a dominant ethnic group are not the simple hatred or desire to defend privilege which motivate majority prejudices, nor is there necessarily a desire to construct a system which enslaves members of the dominant group. Rather, prejudicial acts are often viewed as inversions of dominant social practices, as is revealed in the work of ]. Parallels can be drawn with indiscriminate attacks on French settlers in Algeria and on Israeli civilians by Palestinian suicide bombers. This interpretation of the killing is reinforced by news reports revealing that the people convicted were themselves victims of a racial attack earlier in the day. ‘On the night before Kriss Donald was murdered, Imran Shahid went clubbing in Glasgow city centre. He was attacked by a group of white youths from Pollokshields as part of long standing war’ between Shahid’s Pakistani gang and the ], a white gang operating in the same area. <ref></ref> Thus, while the victim was innocent of involvement in specific racist acts, and may have been targeted partly or wholly based on skin colour, the murder was an attempt at ] of a dominant group, not a simple acting-out of prejudice as in racist killings in the full sense. | |||
| Anti-racist group ] claim that racialised gang tension in Glasgow is largely shaped by a context of widespread racial abuse of Asians. ‘Young Asians in particular claim that they have been forced to group together to defend themselves against marauding white racists’, and this sometimes extends into gang violence which goes ‘beyond legitimate self-defence’. <ref></ref> Neil Davenport of Spiked-Online argues that the idea of anti-white racism is a myth and that the mainstream media presentation is based on subjective interpretation rather than fact. Although one of the killers referred to the rival gang as ‘white bastards’, this was simply a supplement to the main motive of gangland revenge. In contrast, ‘the authorities and media who, right from the start, have attempted to frame the murder solely in racial terms’. <ref></ref> | |||
| Neo-fascist websites are overrepresented in coverage of the case, which has been widely commented on by far right political parties such as the BNP, <ref></ref> racist and white-supremacist websites, <ref></ref> | |||
| <ref></ref> <ref></ref> and racist groups as far afield as America. <ref></ref> <ref></ref> These groups promote a stronger form of the official narrative, claiming that the killing was motivated by racial hatred of whites; indeed, this narrative seems to have spread from far-right to official sources. In its original form, this narrative is part of a broader view in which white people are seen as threatened, as underprivileged relative to ethnic minorities, and in which crime is interpreted as a predominantly racial phenomenon targeted against whites. It is linked to the claim that multiculturalism does not work and that racism is basic to human nature. <ref></ref> The involvement of these groups has been a major source of controversy around the case. | |||
| == Controversies surrounding the case == | == Controversies surrounding the case == | ||
| {{NPOV-section}} | {{NPOV-section}} | ||
| There have been accusations from groups such as the ] (BNP) that the media and the ] did not see the Kriss Donald case to be as important as the murder of black teenager ] by whites in ] because the victim was white and his killers are not. The British state broadcaster, the ], was criticized by some BBC viewers over its coverage of the case |
There have been accusations from groups such as the ] (BNP) that the media and the ] did not see the Kriss Donald case to be as important as the murder of black teenager ] by whites in ] because the victim was white and his killers are not. The British state broadcaster, the ], was criticized by some BBC viewers over its coverage of the case. <ref> ] streamed from the BBC website</ref> | ||
| The BNP were themselves accused by ] and ] ] ] among others of seeking to exploit the case for political advantage, and an open letter signed by some prominent individuals, including ], trades unionists, and community leaders condemned the BNP's plans to stage a visit to Pollokshields. The BNP held a rally in the area after the killings, leading to accusations that it was fuelling racial tension and exploiting a tragic death for political capital. <ref></ref> | The BNP were themselves accused by ] and ] ] ] among others of seeking to exploit the case for political advantage, and an open letter signed by some prominent individuals, including ], trades unionists, and community leaders condemned the BNP's plans to stage a visit to Pollokshields. The BNP held a rally in the area after the killings, leading to accusations that it was fuelling racial tension and exploiting a tragic death for political capital. <ref></ref> | ||
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| <ref></ref> | <ref></ref> | ||
| Some commentators continue to doubt that the murder was racially motivated or that significant ethnic tensions exist in Pollokshields.<ref>http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/2081/</ref> | |||
| == References == | == References == | ||
Revision as of 01:03, 4 January 2007
Kriss Donald (4 July 1988 – 16 March 2004) was a Scottish fifteen-year-old who was kidnapped and murdered in Glasgow in 2004. Five British Asian men were later found guilty of racially-motivated violence; those convicted of murder were all sentenced to life imprisonment.
Kidnapping and murder
On 16 March 2004, Donald was abducted from Kenmure Street, beside the Pollokshields Bowling Club at the foot of McCulloch Street where he lived with his mother and three sisters. The gang who kidnapped him took him on a 200-mile journey to Dundee and back while they made phone calls looking for a house to take him to. Having no success at this, they returned to Glasgow and took him to the Clyde Walkway, near Celtic Football Club's training ground.
There, they held his arms and stabbed him 13 times. He sustained internal injuries to three arteries, one of his lungs, his liver and a kidney. He was then doused in petrol, set on fire and left to die.
The five men convicted of the abduction and murder, all of whom were British Asians of Pakistani origin, were convicted of racially aggravated offences. After the murder, some of Donald's attackers fled the United Kingdom and sought refuge in Pakistan. Three suspects were arrested in Pakistan in July 2005 and extradited to the UK in October 2005, following the intervention of Mohammed Sarwar, the MP for Glasgow Central.
The Pakistani police had to engage in a ‘long struggle’ to capture two of the escapees. There is no extradition treaty between Pakistan and Britain, so it was unusual for the extradition to be agreed; it was reportedly the result of Sarwar’s intervention. There were numerous diplomatic complications around the case, including apparent divergences between government activities and those of ambassadorial officials; government figures were at times alleged to be reluctant to pursue the case for diplomatic reasons.
The issue of the killing quickly became politicised because of the racial element. After the murder there were reportedly ‘racial tensions’ in the area sufficient to lead to police intervention.
Arrests and trial
Initially, two men were arrested in connection with the crime. One man, Daanish Zahid, was found guilty of Kriss Donald's murder on 18 November 2004 and is the first person to be convicted of racially motivated murder in Scotland. Another man, Zahid Mohammed, admitted involvement in the abduction of Donald and lying to police during their investigation and was jailed for five years. He was released after serving half of his sentence and returned to court to give evidence against three subsequent defendents.
These other men, Imran Shahid, Zeeshan Shahid, and Mohammed Faisal Mustaq, all in their late twenties, were charged with murder in October 2005 after being extradited from Pakistan. Their trial opened on 2 October 2006 in Scotland.
On 8 November 2006, the three men were found guilty of the racially motivated murder of Kriss Donald. All three had denied the charge; however, a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh convicted them of abduction and murder. Each of the killers received sentences of life imprisonment, with the Shahid brothers being recommended for 25-year minimum terms and Mushtaq receiving a recommended minimum of 22 years.
Controversies surrounding the case
 | The neutrality of this section is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
There have been accusations from groups such as the British National Party (BNP) that the media and the British Government did not see the Kriss Donald case to be as important as the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence by whites in 1993 because the victim was white and his killers are not. The British state broadcaster, the BBC, was criticized by some BBC viewers over its coverage of the case.
The BNP were themselves accused by Scotland's First Minister and Labour Party MSP Jack McConnell among others of seeking to exploit the case for political advantage, and an open letter signed by some prominent individuals, including MSPs, trades unionists, and community leaders condemned the BNP's plans to stage a visit to Pollokshields. The BNP held a rally in the area after the killings, leading to accusations that it was fuelling racial tension and exploiting a tragic death for political capital.
An article in The Scotsman newspaper alleged a lack of response by authorities to concerns of rising racial tensions and that Strathclyde Police had felt pressured to abandon Operation Gadher, an investigation into Asian gangs in the area, for fear of offending ethnic minorities. On 8 November 2006 Bashir Maan, a prominent Pakistani Glaswegian, also claimed on BBC television that police were well aware of the activities of Pakistani gangs in Glasgow but were reluctant to take action for fear of being accused of racism. In a January 2005 interview with a Scottish Muslim newspaper, he had previously claimed that “fear and intimidation” had allowed problems with Asian gangs in some parts of the city to go unchecked. The article also quoted a former senior Strathclyde police officer who criticised “a culture of political correctness” which had allowed gang crime to “grow unfettered”.
A BBC report suggests that another reason for inaction was lack of evidence, as locals were more prepared to make complaints than to give evidence in court.
References
- "Boy was set on fire as he bled to death" Glasgow Evening Times
- “Schoolboy murder trial under way” BBC News
- “Trio jailed for Kriss race murder” BBC News
- "BBC Newswatch Interview with Fran Unsworth" RealPlayer streamed from the BBC website
- “Murder hunt police drop ‘politically incorrect’ gang crackdown” by Dan McDougall in the Scotsman
- “Row over policing Asian gangs” by Imaad Azim in the iWitness
External links
- “Abducted, stabbed and set on fire for being white” by Arnot McWhinney in The Scotsman, Friday 2004-11-19
- “Man killed schoolboy as act of racist revenge” by Kirsty Scott in The Guardian, Friday 2004-11-19
- "Gangsters, murder and extradition"
- "Three jailed for life for racially-motivated murder of schoolboy"