CAMPAIGNERS SUPPORTING the family of a man who died in police custody have said he is “Scotland’s George Floyd” as the inquiry into his death gets underway  today (May 10).

Relatives and relatives of Sheku Bayoh attended a rally outside the building where Lord Bracadale would chair the public enquiry into whether race was a factor in his death while being restrained by police in Fife, Scotland.

Bayoh, a 31-year-old trainee gas engineer, died in police custody in May 2015.

His family’s lawyer Aamer Anwar encouraged the police officers involved to give a thorough account of their actions if they had nothing to hide as the inquiry into his death began in Edinburgh.

The independent inquiry into Bayoh’s death was launched by the Scottish government in 2019 after years of campaigning from Bayoh’s partner, Collette Bell, his sister Kadi Johnson and other family members.

Courage

Anwar said that if it weren’t for the “courage and perseverance of Sheku’s loved ones who have refused to walk away, be hushed, humiliated or patronised,” the inquiry would never have happened.

“Over the years, it has become clear to the family that the police, Pirc (the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner), and Crown Office, has operated an unholy trinity of dishonesty, racism and incompetence, betraying the word justice,” he told a press conference.

He went on: “Kadi Johnson (Bayoh’s sister) has no doubt that the way Sheku or her family were treated by the justice system would not have happened had Sheku been white, their treatment was compounded by repeated attacks from those who remain in a child-like denial about the existence of racism in policing today.

Justice

“Kadi has described Skeku as Scotland’s George Floyd, but taking the knee and Black Lives Matter will mean nothing if Scotland fails to support justice for Sheku.”

“In less than 50 seconds of the first police officers arriving, Sheku Bayoh was brought to the ground, he was handcuffed and retrained with leg and ankle cuffs, and would never get up again, losing consciousness and dying.

“As Kadi said when they put her brother’s lifeless body in the ambulance, he was still shackled like a slave, with over 24 separate injuries, cuts, lacerations, bruises and a broken rib.

“Within minutes, the process of criminalising, smearing and stereotyping began to enforce an image of a mad and dangerous black man, wielding a knife and with stereotypical characteristics of extraordinary strength in an attempt to blame Sheku for his own death, but he was unarmed and never deserved to die.”

Protest

Campaigners say the inquiry will mark the first significant public investigation into institutional racism in Scotland since thousands of people took to the streets to protest following the death of George Floyd in 2020.

Hannah Lavery, the poet and playwright whose best-known work Lament for Sheku Bayoh was first performed at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2019 said: “Many people have said that Sheku was our George Floyd, and his name alongside George’s was evoked many times during the Black Lives Matter protests in Scotland in 2020,” Lavery said.

“Now is the time for those who were moved to show support then to stand by Sheku’s family and friends now. They have fought so hard for this inquiry, that long struggle needs to be honoured by us all. They need to know that they are not alone”.