Civil rights veteran Reverend Al Sharpton has warned that police brutality incidents such as the recent killing of Tyre Nichols by Memphis officers could happen in the UK without policing reforms.
Father-of-one Tyre, was Tasered and brutality beaten to death following a traffic stop on January 7, 2023 and six officers have now been fired with five being charged with his murder.
Now Reverend Al Sharpton who attended the 29-year-old's funeral alongside US Vice-President Kamala Harris says that “systemic racism” and a “culture of policing that produces brutality” needed to be addressed.
He stated that without doing so, tragedies like that of Tyre who died in hospital three days later could happen in Britain.
Reverend Al Sharpton said: “The failure to address systemic racism in UK policing and the culture of policing that produces brutality against our people will only lead to more incidences like the tragedy of Tyre Nichols”
During his current visit to the UK, the reverend appeared on ITV's Good Morning Britain today (February 7) alongside political activist Lord Simon Wooley and founder of Operation Black Vote, echoing the same sentiment.
Speaking to host Susanna Reid who asked whether Britain had less problems with police brutality, he stated that the UK 'has a problem.'
He said: "I think also the comparisons, clearly you don't have the same scale but you have a problem.
"If you and I were in the hospital, does it make you feel better to say, 'well Sharpton is sicker than you are', well both of us are sick and we need to heal."
He went on to add that there needed to be laws to ensure that police could not brutalise people of colour without consequence.
He said: "The fear people have here of being treated differently is unimaginable for people in the United States who are white to think they would put a knee on their neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds but it happened.
"It was not out of our imagination [as black people]."
A damning UN report last month found that the UK government has failed to address “structural, institutional and systemic racism” against people of African descent in Britain.
In a statement the UN working group said: “We have serious concerns about impunity and the failure to address racial disparities in the criminal justice system, deaths in police custody, ‘joint enterprise’ convictions and the dehumanising nature of the stop and (strip) search.”
Numerous black men died at the hands of the police last year with one case sparking protests across the UK.
Chris Kaba, 24, was shot dead while sat in a car by armed police officers in Streatham but no gun was found in the vehicle or near the scene.
The IOPC is conducting a criminal investigation into the officer who discharged their firearm which led to Kaba’s death set to conclude before the end of the year.
While Oladeji Omishore who was believed to be suffering a mental health crisis, died after being after being shot with a Taser weapon on Chelsea Bridge before plunging into the river Thames.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) are investigating Oladeji's death however, his heartbroken family blasted the investigation calling it “flawed” as the officers involved had not been interviewed under caution almost five months later they are still on active duty.
On October 7, 2022, a mixed-race (white and black Caribbean) man in "distress" died shortly after being restrained by police officers in Hertfordshire.
He had called the police himself for help before he was sprayed with PAVA, a pepper-spray like substance before he struggled to breathe and subsequently died.
An investigation is underway to establish the circumstances surrounding this incident and examine the officers conduct before with the man before he died.
There have been other deaths following police contact last year and over the years in the UK which prompted campaigns against police brutality.
For the last 24 years, the United Families & Friends Campaign (UFFC) run by justice campaigner Marcia Rigg - meet annually to remember those they have lost to deaths in police custody as well as psychiatric institutions and prisons.
Justice campaigner Marcia Rigg has been leading the marches since her brother Sean Rigg died in police custody while suffering a mental health episode.
She took over the UFFC from Brenda Weinberg, the sister of Brian Douglas, who died after being hit with a long-handled baton by police officers in Clapham.
Speaking to the Mirror she said: “We're seeing that other people are dying or being restrained.
“The march is always on the last Saturday of October every year. [Brenda] had been campaigning. In the tenth year [of the marches] she was tired.
“She just said, ‘I’m going to give you the baton to keep it going. I’ve been heading it for the last 14 years.”
