Yves Sakila’s death has echoes of George Floyd. When will we in Ireland confront our own racism?
Growing up in Dublin, I learned to navigate life in fight-or-flight mode. Yet even now, our leaders are ducking a vital conversation
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Seán Gallen is a Martinican-Irish writer and film-maker based in Berlin and Dublin
Watching the harrowing footage of what would become Yves Sakila’s final moments of consciousness, it is hard not to be reminded of the agonising death of George Floyd. Sakila was declared dead in a Dublin hospital on 15 May, a short time after being pinned to the ground by security guards outside Arnotts, a city centre department store.
Congolese-born Sakila had allegedly been suspected of shoplifting in the store and fled. If we have any knowledge of what subsequently happened in the busy pedestrianised street outside, it is because video footage was captured by passersby. In these deeply distressing images, the 35-year-old is being restrained by a group of security guards for nearly five minutes. He tries to protest but his shouts are muffled in the concrete when one of the men appears to put his knee on the back of Sakila’s neck. By the end of the video, Sakila has stopped moving.
المصدر: The Guardian — Commentisfree