Campaigners in Belgium call for urgent reform to combat police brutality

In recent years Belgian police have been involved in a series of high-profile deaths. Most of these cases were people of minority backgrounds and no officer involved in any of the cases has been jailed. In january 2021 protests erupted in response to the death of Ibrahima, a 23-year-old Black man, who died after filming the police conducting an ID check on him. The protest ended in a clash between police and protestors and testimonies of the protestors and bystanders indicate police abuse. Human Rights activist Alexis Deswaef, calls: “the police violence must be judged to end the problem of impunity.” The European Union’s anti-racism summit, which took place on March 19, was an opportunity for the EU to address the problems raised all throughout EU regarding police brutality and structural racism. But, as journalist Sarah Chander reports, the “EU leaders focused overwhelmingly on the individual dimensions of racism, such as hate speech” and failed to address the need in law enforcement reforms.