Smiley Culture, a significant black British musician and cultural figure, died at his home in police custody recently. Despite there being four officers in his home, and his being under arrest, he apparently picked up a kitchen knife and stabbed himself once in the heart, fatally. As he lay dying (this is undisputed) he was handcuffed. Despite Smiley Culture's family hiring a superb pathologist, the police have refused to take this matter further, according to today's Guardian, for the chilling reason that the four officers are "witnesses" and not suspects - so they cannot be compelled to make any statements. None of them has described the events surrounding this sudden apparent suicide, let alone coherently. They have simply refused. I once called the police and had them come to my home, and I was treated with civility and great professionalism, and I don't want to cast aspersions. However, there is something awfully worrying about a situation where police can do anything they want to to you in your own house, and then, because they are police, not have to testify as to what happened, even if they walk in to talk to you, and leave with you dead. That is a culture of dread.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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As I have got older, my respect for the British police has grown. It is a dirty, difficult and dangerous job that I personally would not want to do. Like you, we have needed the police on several occasions in the past and have always found them helpful, courteous and professional. Incidentally, the fact that there were four officers present makes it exceedingly unlikely that Smiley was murdered.
Best wishes from Simon