In order to be anti-racist, we must educate ourselves on stories closer to home.

​By Lucy Saddler

As protests and demonstrations condemning the killing of George Floyd - an unarmed black
man killed in police custody in Minneapolis - spread across the globe, many people have
turned to social media to express their dismay at the display of violent and deathly racism.
There is a distinct sense of déjà vu muddled amongst the rightful abject disgust at the way
Floyd was treated at the hands of police officers. A sense that once again the lessons of Eric Garner’s death hadn’t been learnt and the social media posts urging white people to “check
their privilege”, or take a strong stance against hardcore racism shared in the aftermath of
Garner’s death, had fallen on deaf ears. Garner’s story made its way through the news cycle
and after a few months, the rage and anger that his death prompted simmered and faded
away. In order to dismantle institutionalized and systemic racism, we cannot afford to allow
Floyd’s death to fade similarly away. For white people, who have for so long benefited –
whether consciously or unconsciously- from an overwhelmingly racist political and social
environment, it is no longer enough to be simply "not racist". We have to be actively
against racism. Whilst the killing of George Floyd or Eric Garner might feel removed from a
British context, to be actively against racism we have to educate ourselves about instances
of police brutality that happen on the very streets that we walk along to work or university. I
was horrified to learn the story of Sheku Bayoh, who died only 10 miles from where I grew
up.
 
Sheku Bayoh was a 31-year-old trainee gas engineer and father of two. Born in Sierra Leone,
he moved to Kirkcaldy in Fife, Scotland at the age of 11 where he settled. On the 3rd May
2015, having received reports of a black man behaving erratically and wielding a knife, police detained Bayoh as he walked down a street near his home. Despite finding him not in
possession of any weapon, police officers sat on him, used CS spray, batons, arm and leg
restraints. Bayoh died in hospital 2 hours after being taken into police custody. An autopsy
found more than 20 cuts, bruises and lacerations on his body. He had a broken rib and a
petechial haemorrhage in his eye (a sign of asphyxiation). Bayoh’s lawyer believes that he
died of suffocation due to the way in which the police detained him. Shortly after his death,
Police Scotland released a statement asserting that a police officer had been stabbed during
the incident, which was later proved to be a blatant lie.
 
Bayoh’s family were interviewed by police, before the police had even told them about his
death. The police then waited 6 hours after he had been officially declared dead to tell the
family and when they did, they alleged that a member of the public had found Bayoh’s body
and that they were looking for two apparent assailants. His family were misled and lied to
by the police within the 24 hours immediately after his death. 32 days after the incident,
police officers involved finally gave statements describing how Bayoh was “overpowering”
them and had stamped violently on a police officer's back. Yet, CCTV from the scene of
the incident contradicts these statements.
 
The case was referred to the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner, who cleared all police officers involved of wrongdoing in October 2018, three years after Bayoh’s death in
custody. In April 2019, two officers involved in the incident were retired early on medical
grounds and can therefore never face a misconduct hearing. The Scottish government have
initiated a public inquiry into Sheku Bayoh’s death, with the investigation to consider
whether or not race played a role in his death. Five years have passed since Bayoh’s death
and his family still wait for answers as to why and how he died. They were lied to repeatedly by the police and have lost faith in a complaints and judicial procedure that has denied them
justice thus far. Their pain is the same pain felt by the families of Eric Garner and George
Floyd.