Smiley Culture Friends Accuse Police
31 March 2011, 14:16
A meeting between police chiefs descended into chaos today as family and friends of a reggae star angrily accused officers of failing to explain his ``bizarre'' death.
Singer Smiley Culture died of a single stab wound through the heart after four Metropolitan Police officers executed a search warrant at his Surrey home.
As the death was raised at a Metropolitan Police Authority meeting, campaigners leapt to their feet, screaming ``murderers''.
Asher Seator, his best friend, wept as he called on officers to launch a full inquiry.
``No one is doing anything,'' he told a panel sitting at City Hall, in central London.
``What are you investigating?''
MPA member Cindy Butts was reduced to tears by the protest.
She said: ``It has been 30 years since the Brixton riots and so much has changed... (but) we have so much to do.''
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has launched an investigation into the death.
Campaigners had been told the singer, whose real name was David Emmanuel, stabbed himself while making a cup of tea despite officers still being in his home.
The 48-year-old found fame with a string of 1980s' hits including Cockney Translation and appeared on Top of the Pops.
Smiley Culture's 1984 hit single Police Officer was an autobiographical song of how he was caught in possession of cannabis but let off when the officer recognised him as a reggae artist.
Speaking about the hit, he told the Guardian last year: ``My hit single Police Officer was a true story - the police used to take my weed. It was better than being arrested and I made that into a hit.''