A BBC Panorama programme this week shone a light on deaths in police custody. Just days before it was broadcast, Mohamud Hassan died after being held by police in Cardiff, south Wales.
Some 1,174 people have died following contact with the police in England and Wales since 1990. None of their families have received justice.
The Panorama programme heard that two cops involved in the 2015 death of Sheku Bayoh in Fife may have given false statements.
They claimed Sheku had attacked a female officer before being restrained.
The witness said the attack “never happened”.
Misconduct
A public inquiry is ongoing into Sheku’s death. Repeated deaths in custody lead to repeated inquiries.
It’s good that people protest, and demand answers and justice. But the odds are stacked against them.
Not one officer has been successfully prosecuted over a death in custody. And figures released this week showed, when cops are found to have potentially committed gross misconduct, over 90 percent keep their jobs.
Police are violent and racist because their job is to uphold a violent and racist system.
We need to fight over every death in custody and every police assault.
But to end police brutality for good, we need to end the brutal system they serve.
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