On 15 May, 35-year-old Congolese man Yves Sakila was killed by five security guards who pinned him down for five minutes on Henry Street in Dublin.
The crime that earned Sakila this excruciating public execution? Allegedly shoplifting a bottle of perfume from Arnotts.
When Gardaí arrived at the scene, their first response was to handcuff the unconscious man. Only afterwards, he was unavailingly administered CPR, then transported to Mater Hospital where he was declared dead.
Footage of the incident, widely circulated on social media, shows one of the guards forcefully digging his knee into Sakila’s head or neck. To many people who saw the disturbing video, this immediately elicited memories of the murder of George Floyd by cops in Minneapolis six years ago.
In fact, Sakila’s killing has been called “Ireland’s George Floyd moment”. It comes amidst a rise in racial abuse and hate crimes over the last few years.
It exposes starkly the reality faced by many, who know only too well what it’s like to suffer racial discrimination and intimidation from Gardaí, security personnel and in their everyday lives – and to have their lives literally valued less than a bottle of perfume.
“The ones I worry about are the Africans”
This brutal killing of a black man did not occur in a vacuum.
Only a week earlier, none other than former commander-in-chief of brown envelopes Bertie Ahern had been recorded making racist comments demonising African immigrants while canvassing for Fianna Fáil ahead of the Dublin Central by-election. “The ones I worry about are the Africans,” he said at a doorstep. “We can’t be taking in people from the Congo and all these places.” It’s outrageous for anyone to accuse a whole continent of criminality, but especially so coming from the disgraced former Taoiseach infamous for taking tens of thousands in bribes while in office.
Behind the racist rhetoric, it is clear what Ahern was doing. His party’s atrocious record on housing, healthcare, and other issues are why the Fianna Fáil candidate was polling as low as 4 percent in the lead-up to the by-election. He hoped to turn the tide by telling working-class voters that it’s not the government that deserves the blame for these crises, but African immigrants.
The point is, the racism that leads to security guards killing a black man – or the stabbing of an Indian man as happened last year in Tallaght – doesn’t come out of thin air. It is cynically whipped up by the ruling class to divert blame and keep themselves in power.
In fact, there has been a growing trend as of late of government politicians scapegoating migrants. Last year, Micheál Martin outrageously implied that the housing crisis is driven by asylum seekers who are a “significant factor in the growth of homelessness.” Simon Harris said that the number of rejected asylum applications should raise a “red flag” with people abusing the system – as if a swathe of criminals was flooding Ireland from all sides. And then those very same politicians come out expressing their ‘concern’ and ‘distress’ at the rise in racism and have the cheek to talk about the killing of Sakila! This is only stinking hypocrisy.
Let’s be clear. They are the ones responsible for the increase in racism, by pursuing policies that create an unlivable situation for the working class in the first place, and by then blaming it on immigrants.
Their hands are stained with blood.
“Thorough” investigation
Fianna Fáil Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration Jim O’Callaghan has assured the public there will be a “thorough Garda investigation” into what happened.
A post-mortem on Sakila’s body was carried out on Thursday. However, contrary to ordinary procedure, the cause of death has not yet been revealed to the family “for operational reasons” – whatever that means. We’ll be excused to think that they want to delay the release of their ‘findings’ until after the outrage around the case has cooled off. We’re left to wonder why a post-mortem would even be needed to determine a cause of death when the horrific killing has been caught on camera for millions to see.
Additionally, an investigation into the conduct of the Gardaí who handcuffed Sakila is being carried out by Fiosrú, the Office of the Police Ombudsman.
Officially founded only last year, Fiosrú is the continuation of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) – which was rebranded only last year since it had become synonymous with cover-ups that protect the Gardaí, as in the case of 20-year-old Terence Wheelock.
A flick through the record of the Gardaí and of the Ombudsman on racism will shutter any illusions that true justice will be served for the murder of Sakila or that anything will change through such ‘investigations’.
A 2024 survey found that 1 in 12 black people in Ireland had experienced discrimination in their interactions with Gardaí in the past two years. One of the most infamous cases in recent years was the 2020 killing of George Nkencho, a man with mental health problems who was shot six times by Gardaí outside his home. In 2024, the Director of Public Prosecutions said there will be no prosecution for the killing of Nkencho following an investigation by GSOC.
In fact, a statement by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties accurately reveals what the real aim of such ‘thorough’ and ‘independent’ investigations actually is:
“The swift and transparent progress of both investigations is important for Mr Sakila’s family and loved ones, but also to maintain the confidence of ethnic minority communities and the broader public in An Garda Síochána and the administration of justice” [our emphasis].
The point for them is not to find the truth and serve justice, but to protect the reputation of rotten institutions such as the Gardaí.
To fight racism, fight capitalism!
On Thursday afternoon, hundreds attended a rally outside Leinster House to show solidarity with Sakila’s family and call for justice. There was a rightful sense of outrage among members of Dublin’s Congolese community and others gathered.
One of the speakers at the rally was Yemi Adenuga, a Fine Gael Councillor and spokesperson for Black Coalition Ireland. Besides a transparent probe into Sakila’s death and reforms to Garda Síochána, she called for “equal treatment for all communities, not just on paper but in practice”.
This is a wonderful idea, but coming from Fine Gael, it’s reduced to a utopian platitude. It’s especially insulting considering Sakila spent the final years of his life in homelessness as a result of her party’s policies.
The real cause of racist brutality at the hands of Gardaí and others is not a lack of racial training or of slightly better ‘accountability’ mechanisms. The ruling class – and the system they defend – are responsible for the death of Yves Sakila.
As Malcolm X pointed out, “You can’t have capitalism without racism”. True justice for Yves Sakila will only be delivered once we get rid of all of those at the top who use racism to defend this rotten system.
