Podemos demands recognition of the young Gambian man shot dead by the Police as a victim of racism

Beyond the specific case of Bah, it demands the creation of a State Commission for Anti-Racist Memory, guarantees of reparation for victims and their families, and the approval of a Comprehensive Law against Racism and Racial Discrimination.

EFE

June 4 2025 (08:40 WEST)
Abdoulie
Abdoulie

Podemos deputies have registered a non-legal proposition in Congress demanding that the State recognize the young Gambian man shot dead by the Police at the Gran Canaria airport on May 17, Abdoulie Bah, as a "victim of institutional racism."

The young man, who was 19 years old and suffered from psychiatric problems, received five shots - one of them in the neck - when he attacked five National Police officers with a knife who were trying to subdue him at the airport bus stop, after having had an altercation with a taxi driver shortly before.
Bah arrived on the islands in a small boat as a minor and had been under the guardianship of the Government of the Canary Islands until May 2024, when he turned 18 and had to leave the juvenile centers, although he continued to collaborate with the reception network as an educator.

His roommates and friends say that he had been showing symptoms of suffering from some type of mental illness for weeks. And, in fact, the Police had arrested him just a few days before his death for walking disoriented along the median of a highway.

The circumstances of his death are already the subject of the investigation opened on the day of the events by the duty court in Telde, where the airport is located, which will assess whether the police's reaction was proportional to the threat posed by the young man, armed with a knife, to their lives or those of other people.

In a statement, Podemos blames his death on "institutional racism" and demands that an "independent investigation with the participation of anti-racist groups" be opened, that his family be compensated, and that police protocols be urgently reformed "to end racial profiling and lethal violence."

Beyond the specific case of Bah, it demands the creation of a State Commission for Anti-Racist Memory, guarantees of reparation for victims and their families, and the approval of a Comprehensive Law against Racism and Racial Discrimination.

The deputy for Las Palmas and general secretary of Podemos in the Canary Islands, Noemí Santana, assures that her party is saddened by the death of Abdoulie Bah and believes that "institutional racism is a political violence that must be recognized and combated, not minimized or ignored."

"It is not enough to be outraged on social media or make symbolic gestures. We want facts: new protocols, anti-racist training for police, laws that protect, and a truth that repairs. Silence kills. Inaction perpetuates injustice," she says.

Podemos claims to have the support of "more than 200 anti-racist organizations" in its proposal on the case of Abdoulie Bah, among which it cites SOS Racism, the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid, and the Federation of African Associations in the Canary Islands. 

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