Blair Peach
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Clement Blair Peach (25 March 1946 - April 23, 1979) was a New Zealand-born teacher who became a symbol of resistance when he died as a result of alleged police brutality during a demonstration in London, United Kingdom. At the time he was teaching at a special needs school in London. He was also known as a left wing agitator and a member of the Socialist Workers Party.
A campaigner and agitator against far right wing and neo-Nazi organisations, Peach was killed in a clash with officers from the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group in Southall, in April 1979, during a demonstration by the Anti-Nazi League against a National Front election meeting taking place in the town hall. He was knocked unconscious and died the day after in Hospital.
An inquest jury in May 1980 later returned a verdict of death by misadventure, prompting Mr. Peach's girlfriend Celia Stubbs to claim the police constable who administered the fatal blows to his head had got off 'scot free'. She continues to campaign for a public inquiry into his death.
A primary school in Southall was later named after Blair Peach.[1]
Linton Kwesi Johnson's famous song "Reggae Fi Peach" chronicles the death of Blair Peach in the form of Dub Poetry, representing a position of defiance to the attitudes of the UK government at that time. The Ruts also commemorated the death in the tune "Jah War".
