Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbot and Black Lives Matter have been urged to apologise after criticising the police over the shooting of violent gangster Chris Kaba.
The liberal Left has been accused of treating Kaba as an innocent victim of police violence despite his extensive criminal past.
A jury at the Old Bailey took just three hours to clear Sgt Martyn Blake of murdering Kaba following a three-week trial after the 23-year-old was stopped by armed police and shot in South London in 2022.
Details of Kaba’s violent past were released on Tuesday and showed he was a leading member of a gang connected to gun crime and drug dealing. His family, who insisted Kaba had turned his life around and wanted to be an architect, tried to gag the press from reporting such details.
Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police commissioner, said some politicians were too quick to jump on a bandwagon comparing Kaba’s death to that of George Floyd, the African American man murdered by a US police officer in Minneapolis in 2020.
Robert Jenrick, the Tory leadership contender, criticised numerous charities, non-governmental organisations and far-Left politicians for “jumping” on the shooting “to justify their pre-existing prejudices”.
Sir Jacob Rees Mogg, the former Tory MP, also rounded on Sadiq Khan for “boasting” of being in contact with the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which was investigating the Kaba shooting, despite the London mayor probably knowing of Kaba’s criminal past.
Lord Stevens, the crossbench peer who served as Met commissioner from 2000 to 2005, said many people simply assumed that Kaba was an entirely innocent man.
“People need to stop and think. I believe the liberal Left should apologise now it has come out that his background included him having been involved in a shooting and chasing a man outside a night just days before his death,” he told The Telegraph.
“Let’s have an acceptance of what he was and what he did.”
Stressing that Kaba’s death was a tragedy, Lord Stevens added: “You can see why he acted the way he did in that car; he wanted to get away from the police and was desperate to do so. I think those who vaunted him should apologise.”
He said he felt that Kaba’s family were wrong to try to “hush up” his substantial criminal past, adding: “We have an open society and people need to understand what we are dealing with.”
Shortly after the 2022 shooting, Black Lives Matter held a demonstration in which protesters declared “police are murderers” and called for the Met force to be scrapped.
Stormzy, the rapper, addressed the crowd and supported the family’s call for “accountability” as he said: “No one should be able to go on like this.”
Mr Corbyn, the independent Islington North MP and former leader of the Labour Party, attended the protest along with Ms Abbott, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Harriet Harman.
Mr Corbyn said his thoughts were with Kaba’s family “as they fight for justice and accountability”. Ms Abbott, the MP for Hackney, told demonstrators: “I don’t know how I would feel if it was my son killed in cold blood.”
Sir Jacob said those who misled the public about Kaba should be “ashamed”.
He told The Telegraph: “As Black Lives Matter seeks to defund the police it is no surprise that the Left-wing supporters of Kaba prefer a violent thug to law and order.
“Yet those who suggested he was anything other than a gangster should be deeply ashamed as they misled the public and stirred up racial tensions.
“This particular applies to Sadiq Khan who ought to have known the background and boasted of being in close touch with the IOPC. As the joint overseer of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, his behaviour was at best irresponsible.”
A spokesman for the Labour mayor said: “As with all fatal police shootings, it is for the IOPC to independently assess the full circumstances of the case and consider whether the officer[s] concerned should face any misconduct action.”
Mr Jenrick added: “Charities, NGOs and far-left politicians all jumped on Chris Kaba’s case to justify their pre-existing prejudices about the UK.
“Even now, after the firearms officer has been acquitted by a full jury and the truth about Kaba’s violent past has been revealed, baseless allegations of ‘state based violence’ abound.
“The British Left has been infected by America’s identity politics to the point they are now blind to the difference between wrong and right.
“They are so consumed by false narratives about racism in our country that they are defending the indefensible,” he added.
“In failing to back Martyn Blake, Sadiq Khan has jeopardised the work of firearms officers and put the safety of Londoners – from dangerous criminals like Kaba – at risk.”
The full extent of Kaba’s criminal past emerged on Tuesday after reporting restrictions regarding his criminal career were lifted.
In the early hours of Aug 30, 2022 – just six days before he died – Kaba and three other members of his gang smuggled a handgun into a Notting Hill Carnival after-party at a nightclub in east London.
CCTV captured him shooting a 23-year-old man in the leg. As the target tried to flee, Kaba followed him outside and shot him while he lay on the ground. The man survived.
He and his associates left in an Audi Q8, the same car he was driving on the evening he was shot dead.
On Sept 4 – the day before he was shot by police – Kaba and his gang were suspected of carrying out a gun attack on the occupants of a Mercedes car outside a primary school in Brixton.
Once again, the Audi Q8 was used as a getaway car by the group. While the identity of the gunman was never established, analysis of Kaba’s clothes revealed gunshot residue.
Kaba’s criminal convictions date back to the age of 13. By his late teens, he had graduated from petty crime to serious violence with convictions for stabbings and grievous bodily harm.
In December 2022, the University of Greenwich said: “In September, we heard the heartbreaking news of the death of Chris Kaba, a 24-year-old musician and aspiring architect who was expecting a baby with his fiancée. Two years ago, following the murder of George Floyd, our university committed to do more to eliminate institutional racism.
“It is essential that we all continue to be honest and humble about the challenges we face about the work that needs to be done and unapologetic in fighting for equity and social justice.”
The statement now appears to have been deleted from its website.
At the time of his death, Kaba was an expectant father, but court records also show that he was served a 28-day domestic violence protection order in April 2022 relating to the mother of his unborn child.
The order barred him from contacting her on social media or entering the street where she lived.
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