{"id":170103,"date":"2023-01-25T17:23:04","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T17:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=170103"},"modified":"2023-01-25T17:23:04","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T17:23:04","slug":"mum-blasts-racist-police-over-banana-codeword-to-visit-dying-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/mum-blasts-racist-police-over-banana-codeword-to-visit-dying-son\/","title":{"rendered":"Mum blasts &apos;racist&apos; police over &apos;banana&apos; codeword to visit dying son"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Mother condemns &#8216;racist&#8217; police after officers gave family the codeword &#8216;banana&#8217; to visit mixed race son, 19, as he lay dying in hospital<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sheldon Lewcock, 19, was struck by a van while out cycling with friends last year<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Thames Valley Police&#8217;s professional standards department is probing codeword<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The mother of a mixed-raced teenager with &#8216;a heart of gold&#8217; who died after being struck by a van has blasted police for giving her a &#8216;racist&#8217; codeword to access his hospital room.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Angela Lewcock was told to use the password &#8216;banana&#8217; to visit her son Sheldon, 19, after he was mowed down in Tilehurst, Reading, while out cycling with friends last August.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thames Valley Police said its professional standards department was investigating after community leaders said the word was &#8216;inappropriate&#8217; due to the fruit&#8217;s association with monkeys.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ms Lewcock told the BBC: &#8216;To visit my son he had a password, which was banana, which I didn&#8217;t really think much of it at the time and it wasn&#8217;t until after I realised that it was probably a racist comment. It&#8217;s disgusting.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/01\/25\/16\/66963611-11675727-image-m-19_1674665510769.jpg\" height=\"691\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Angela Lewcock said her son Sheldon (pictured together) had an &#8216;amazing personality&#8217; and a &#8216;wicked sense of humour&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/01\/25\/16\/66963413-11675727-Angela_Lewcock_was_told_to_use_the_password_banana_to_visit_her_-a-20_1674665602046.jpg\" height=\"832\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Angela Lewcock was told to use the password &#8216;banana&#8217; to visit her son Sheldon (pictured), 19, after he was mowed down in Tilehurst, Reading, while out cycling with friends last August<\/p>\n<p>Yvonne Yew, editor-in-chief of Reading&#8217;s Caribbean Express News, agreed, branding the word &#8216;inappropriate.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>She added: &#8216;It indicates that the person has to be black and of colour, and normally you would associate bananas with a monkey. That&#8217;s the association that I got.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I was horrified when I heard that was the password.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It&#8217;s a serious matter. It might only seem like one word but it&#8217;s one word that has affected this family and the community as a whole.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Sheldon, affectionately known as Shelly, suffered catastrophic injuries following the collision on Pierce&#8217;s Hill, but was still able to facetime his mother.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Mrs Lewcock recalled: &#8216;My phone rang and it was Sheldon. He repeatedly said my name, &#8221;Mum. Mum. Mum.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;By then, I&#8217;m asking Sheldon, &#8216;What&#8217;s up?&#8217; The phone went dead and within about 10 seconds I had a FaceTime call from Sheldon&#8230; he had blood all over his face.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>She rushed to the scene and sat with him as paramedics tried to keep him alive, before he was airlifted to hospital and placed into an induced coma.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thames Valley Police gave the family the &#8216;banana&#8217; password so they could visit him.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The force said in a statement: &#8216;We are conducting an investigation into the password which was used at the hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;This has been referred to our professional standards department.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Mrs Lewcock said Sheldon had an &#8216;amazing personality&#8217; and a &#8216;wicked sense of humour&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She added that he had a &#8216;heart of gold&#8217; and &#8216;wouldn&#8217;t hurt anybody&#8217;. He and his friends rode their bikes to Sulham Woods regularly because they had set up wooden ramps there, she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Thames Valley Police confirmed that an 18-year-old man has been charged with failing to report an incident and driving without insurance, while its serious collision investigation unit continues its enquiries.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The force added:\u00a0&#8216;Sheldon&#8217;s family continue to be supported by family liaison officers and are regularly updated on the investigation.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-11675727\/Mum-blasts-racist-police-given-codeword-banana-visit-mixed-race-son-hospital.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mother condemns &#8216;racist&#8217; police after officers gave<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":170102,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23056],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mum blasts &amp;apos;racist&amp;apos; 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