A Letter on the Anniversary of the Shooting of Cherry Groce

Cherry Groce

Cherry Groce was shot in the back by police in Brixton in 1985, and died some years later as a result of the shooting. 

I note that Ken Fero has said that the children of those shot by the police – like Cherry Groce – or who died in encounters with the police were left without any support, and the experience Lee Lawrence, the son of Cherry Groce, echoes this (see below). However, Ceri has written this letter to Mr. Lawrence to let him know that she does care, that people do care about him and his mother. 

Ceri also reflects on the parallels between the shooting of Ceri Groce and the killing of Breonna Taylor.   

Ceri Buckmaster 

Lee Lawrence

This project of letters is inspired by ‘My Dungeon Shook’, a letter written by James Baldwin in
1963 to his 15-year-old nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation.

In the letter, James Baldwin writes to his nephew - also called James - about the times he is growing up in and the societal challenges younger James is facing. It’s a moving letter of love and encouragement to foster resilience and clearsightedness.

Taking this letter as a starting point, this project is an invitation to write a letter to someone, (a loved one, a colleague, a politician, a section of the community, an organisation, a business leader, a celebrity, an adversary, an opponent) on the anniversary of a historical event.

So, here is my letter to Lee Lawrence, on the 35 year anniversary of the shooting of his mother Cherry Groce in Brixton, South London (28th September 1985) and the six-month anniversary of the murder of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.

***

Dear Mr Lawrence,

I hope you are well, as well as you can be with all that is happening and all that you have had to deal with in your life.

I recently read the article about your life and your mother’s life in the Guardian. The same day I read that, I found out about the historical settlement of $12m dollars to the family of Breonna Taylor for her murder back in 13th March 2020. When I heard about the settlement, I wondered what it must have been like for you to hear all about the tragedy of Breonna murder on that terrible night in March through a ‘No-knock warrant’ raid. You must be reliving so much through each and every similar event that happens around the world.

I am grateful to hear more about your experience and there are so many things that stand out from the account I read. I was very sad to hear how no one at school asked you how you were coping with the stress of your mum being shot and how you didn’t have any support to integrate the trauma.

I really got how bewildering and hurtful it was that your mum’s story got so little airtime and exposure leading you to wonder why no one seemed to be interested. It’s like you were saying Say Her Name back in the late 80s and early 90s, way before hashtags and social media. I can only imagine the loneliness that no-one caring must have lead you into.

I’m struck by how many years you have plugged away to try to get justice and that when your mum sadly died in 2011 of kidney failure, the pathologist’s report that the kidney failure was linked to the shooting triggered an Inquest. Then in 2014, 29 years after the shooting, Southwark Coroner’s court found that the badly administered raid and the shooting contributed to your mum’s death. In 2016, the High Court ruled that the Met had a duty of care to you and your brothers and sisters.

I’m recounting this back to you to show I am listening and tracking all the twists and turns of the case. There are of course many more details and years and years of your life dedicated to honouring your mum’s life and trying to carve out a path for yourself.

I am inspired and very grateful that you have invested so much effort to create positive outcomes from this experience, such as the programme to support people who have been traumatised as a result of wrongful police actions, setting up the Cherry Groce foundation, working as a voluntary consultant for the police and engaging in a restorative process in order to be heard by the Met. But I hear the despair that the system is broken as there isn’t the will to fix it and you are still waiting for recommendations to be implemented.

What I’m hoping to achieve from this letter is to raise awareness of what you have been through, so that white people (like myself) in the UK don’t think that police violence is something that just happens in the US, that it is an unresolved blight in our country and there is much work to be done to change police attitudes and the white general public’s lack of care and attention, so that no family ever has to go through again what you have gone through.

With my very best wishes to you and your family.

Yours sincerely,

Ceri Buckmaster 

Go here for more about the shooting of Cherry Groce and the reaction from Lee Lawrence from the BBC. 

Go here for more from the Blogging Carnival for Nonviolence 2020.  

Please leave your comments below and please share this blog.  Thanks.