For the Grenfell community, the trauma cannot be 'sued' away

Earlier this month, 33 Metropolitan police officers who attended the scene of the Grenfell fire - 27 currently employed and 6 former officers - are suing the force over their ‘trauma’ for personal injuries and losses, with some claiming they are too traumatised to work. 

This is not the first time emergency responders sue for trauma over the Grenfell fire. Just last month, a legal action by the Fire Brigades Union against London Fire Brigade was settled for £20 million with over 100 firefighters suffering personal injury and loss.

The night of the fire that claimed 72 lives on 14 June 2017, firefighters were given incorrect equipment to respond to a cladding fire, and the former London Fire Commissioner Danny Cotton unapologetically adhered to the Stay Put policy, telling people to stay in their homes as the building burned, resulting in more avoidable deaths.

This week, Rachael Wright-Turner, a Grenfell council chief officer on a £125k salary who was sacked after she claimed she had PTSD from supporting the community in the aftermath, received a £4.6 million pay-out.

"The night of the fire and in the aftermath, the institutional racism and Islamophobia of the Met police was on full display"

“Trauma from hearing stories? What about the people who watched their friends and family die? She had to take her children out of private school. We literally got sent to port cabins with faulty fire alarms, a lack of heating and AC. It’s beyond me she won her ‘case’. Being in a normal school building was a luxury for us. We were literally put in tin cans,” Yousra Cherbika, who was 12 years old and living near Grenfell tower at the time, told me. Her family was displaced to a hotel for months.

Survivors, bereaved families and the local community present that day have been drastically let down by the first responders intended to protect them, particularly the Metropolitan police who collectively mishandled the fire.

The night of the fire and in the aftermath, the institutional racism and Islamophobia of the Met police was on full display. They colluded with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council (RBKC)’s racist rhetoric.

For Grenfell witnesses, Israel's war on Gaza is a reminder of British complicity in state-sanctioned death from Kensington to Palestine, writes Shareefa Energy👇 https://t.co/gZlGmgpsW1

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) December 22, 2023

Four days after the fire, Kensington and Chelsea Police wrote in a Grenfell Community Impact Assessment: "There’s an expectation the death toll from the fire could rise substantially. Any subsequent disclosure would have the impact of community tensions, especially when the majority of those affected are believed to be coming from a Muslim cultural background combined with the incident occurring during the holy month of Ramadan."

The ashes had barely settled, but already the police and the council were more concerned with Muslims’ supposed potential for “crime and disorder” than justice for those killed.

Grenfell United, survivors and bereaved put out a statement in June 2022 after the Grenfell inquiry Aftermath Module closing statements:

“Armed police were sent to stand outside local rest centres where we had to go for support and to search for loved ones. We were threatened with arrest by police officers. We were violated, dehumanised.

Kensington and Chelsea officials referred to us as 'muzzies' and refused to come down to Grenfell because 'it's like little Africa down there'. And now we've heard the Metropolitan police targeted us because of our faith.

This is Islamophobia at its finest. We are disgusted, horrified. We are angry…

They treated us like criminals because they use a racist, discriminative system. Instead of collecting vital incriminating evidence, their sole focus was to racially profile our community. 

Maybe this is why so much evidence was destroyed by the suspects. Why half a decade later there are still no charges.”

On the night of the fire, the Grenfell community were criminalised by police officers. As a local, I was at the scene from 1am to support survivors and witnessed the police’s insensitive hostility first hand.

"Police officers should be applying pressure to demand justice, issuing arrest warrants for those responsible and demanding flammable cladding be removed from hundreds of buildings"

As survivors waited in the surrounding area to be taken in ambulances, police demanded that community members recite their names and details into body cameras, as though we were the arsonists.

They were rude towards distressed people, behaving like nightclub security, and enforcing a “two family members only” policy. The majority of survivors were from migrant communities with large extended families present.

I witnessed a police officer upset a survivor who escaped around 5am, who was forced to retaliate through their oxygen mask: “I just came out of a burning building. My family will stay with me.”

It was infuriating seeing police upset distraught survivors and their families who’d imagined the worst in the most terrifying circumstance imaginable. On the other hand, ambulance workers did an incredible job supporting survivors at the base of the tower, tending to people with care.

On the Friday morning after the fire, I advocated for an elderly man who survived whose wife had died. Two police officers threatened that if he didn’t sign a document, they would delay him from seeing his wife’s body.

Our community mobilised to advocate for survivors and challenged police abusing their powers, whilst allocating trustworthy lawyers. But the police were continuously hostile towards the presence and demands of the community.

It’s now the seventh Ramadan and 81 months since the Grenfell fire, but justice is still distant. The survivors, bereaved and the local community living under the shrouded tower block are the true victims.

They are unavoidably reminded daily of what happened to their families, friends and neighbours.

Police officers should be applying pressure to demand justice, issuing arrest warrants for those responsible and demanding flammable cladding be removed from hundreds of buildings.

"Cases like these distract attention away from those who truly suffered destabilising trauma from the Grenfell fire in favour of those in positions of authority who failed them"

Rock Feilding-Mellen, the former deputy leader of RBKC council, is in Jamaica using his ‘trauma’ to promote psychedelic retreats. This man is responsible for signing off on the flammable cladding.

Instead of arresting the butchers of Grenfell or challenging institutional racism within the Metropolitan police, officers are seeking compensation for doing their job attending an emergency scene.

The Met police must be held accountable for their hostile behaviour during an incredibly traumatic night for those directly impacted. Justice should be the collective pursuit, not compensation for authority whilst we impatiently await justice for the 72 almost 7 years later.

Cases like these distract attention away from those who truly suffered destabilising trauma from the Grenfell fire in favour of those in positions of authority who failed them and continue to fail them.

Shareefa Energy is a working-class poet, writer, activist and creative campaigner originally from Leicester. She was the Youth and Community Coordinator for stop and search in London from 2016-17. She has supported the United Friends and Families Campaign in various capacities since 2011. She was headline poet and facilitator for The Freedom Theatre’s ‘Through The Eyes of Women’ Feminist Theatre Festival 2022 in Jenin Refugee Camp in Palestine.

Follow her on Twitter: @ShareefaEnergy

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.