Sheku Bayoh died in police custody on Sunday 3 May. This young man was not laid to rest until Sunday 7 June. Hundreds turned out from Sheku’s local community in Kirkcaldy, Fife and hundreds’ from all over: South London, Reading, Northampton. Diplomatic figures from Sheku’s home country of Sierra Leone, marched alongside working class folks from Sheku’s gym in the Templehall Community Centre.
The march formed up opposite Gallaghers pub’ where Sheku was restrained by up to 9 police officers a month ago. Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! joined the procession and stood with it as it stopped outside the local police station to repeat the family’s and campaign’s demands for answers as to the circumstances of Sheku’s death.
From the mosque people gathered at Dysart Cemetery to say hushed farewells and prayers for this popular local laddie who at 31 years of age leaves behind a partner Colette and two young children. At the press conference which followed his burial we heard shocking details of how doctors and nurses at Victoria Hospital had insisted police remove handcuffs and leg restraints from the dying Sheku as staff vainly tried to revive him.
We heard details of the media operation immediately put into place by the cops as they withheld news of his death from his partner and a friend in order to get personal information to smear Sheku. Lies spewed from the sewer of police disinformation: that he had been found by a member of the public lying in the street, that a ‘petite’ policewoman had been confronted on her own by Sheku. The cops declared Colette and a friend of Sheku’s homes as ‘crime scenes’ and sealed them off. The campaign’s facebook page has been hacked and records deleted. Police Scotland Area Commander Gary McEwan told the family and friends not to speak to the media- while the cops were busy spreading outrageous falsehoods to justify and excuse their actions.
The Justice For Sheku Bayoh Campaign announced its determination to find out the truth of what did happen on 3 May and to demand justice. Once again the Scottish National Party is opportunisticly manipulating the democratic demands of the people expressed in the referendum of last year and the recent general election. It is undermining all of our aspirations for real social justice and its inaction stands in the way of progress. The Scottish SNP government has been shockingly silent, the same as Police Scotland, over this death. We must make our voices of protest heard.
JUSTICE FOR SHEKU BAYOH!
Facebook Justice For Sheku Bayoh Campaign
Michael MacGregor
