Photo: Harri Kuokkanen
Lawyer Lakin Afolabi sat alongside six others in a dark blue suit with a red bow tie.
The panel of seven individuals ranging in occupation included lawyers, a police operations leader, and a law professor.
They discussed the issue of police brutality at Western University Monday night as part of Black History Month.
“2019 was the year that racism became very real, even more than ever for me,” Afolabi said.
“Not because of something that happened to me, but [what] my young brothers [experienced].”
The Criminal Defence lawyer went to tell two stories about his brothers’ violent and discriminative experiences with police.
The first story was about his younger brother who attended the University of Windsor.
“There’s an article in the Toronto Star [about] two students getting into an altercation, but only the black student was disciplined; that’s my brother.”
A few listeners dropped their jaw.
“[My brother] was shoved by an individual that ran at him, and he tuned up the guy quite nicely,” Afolabi continued.
“Ultimately, he was cleared [because] he acted in self defence, but the individual that attacked him as yet to be disciplined.
Lakin Afolabi shares another story about his two brother experiencing a violent situation related to police brutality when walking to a store. #LdnOnt pic.twitter.com/RV17O0KPVW
— XFM News (@XFMNews) February 25, 2020
The moment Afolabi finished sharing his younger brother’s story, he began to share another.
“Two of my brothers went to Shoppers Drug Mart, and as they were coming out… a black SUV pulled up, guys hopped out with machine guns and [yelled] ‘get on the ground! Get on the ground!'”
“They were both arrested.”
The lawyer explained it was a case of mistaken identity.
His brothers’ home address was close in proximity to a suspect police were searching for, and they mistook Afolabi’s brothers as suspects.
What upset Afolabi the most was when he found out the suspect looked very different than his brothers.
Lakin Afolabi (Photo: Lakin Afolabi Law)
Also, police were only looking for one man, “so why were two guys arrested?” Afolabi asked.
To make matters worse, the lawyer says police were shocked to “find the wrong guy,” and accused one of Afolabi’s brother of having an association with the suspect.
“[My brother said] ‘I don’t know this guy! He lives right next to me in a duplex, but no, I don’t have guns, I don’t have drugs.'”
“I think that was a huge wake-up call for me,” admitted Afolabi.
The Criminal Defence lawyer says racism is not something he faces often thanks to his suit, occupation, car and four young children.
But his brothers’ stories will always act as a reminder that racism and police brutality are real, violent, and highly discriminative towards those with dark skin.
“If we make it more comfortable for people to engage in the dialogue of race and race relationships, I think that would be a good starting point,” explained Afolabi.
“[We need] people to [become] more engaged and educated on [issues] of racism.”
Afolabi says redefining the approach towards discrimination and racism should be the first step.
“When we think ‘racism,’ we think whitehood and Nazism… we don’t think of someone closing an elevator when they see a black person coming in.”
“So if we redefine what racism is, and [differentiate] it from racial bias, then people will be more willing to engage more in conversations.”
The event was held by the University Student Council’s Ethonocultural Support Services.
