|
Macpherson Report 1999 & Repsonses
It was in April 1993 that the black teenager Stephen Lawrence, 18, was murdered by racists at a bus stop in Eltham, a suburb of South East London. The police blotched the investigation and were themselves accused of racism. His killers have never been convicted though there are suspects. In July 1993, the Crown Prosecution Service decided that there was insufficient evidence for hope of conviction and stopped the proceedings. In 1995/96, the Lawrences undertook a private prosecution which failed. Under intense pressure from the parents, Neville and Doreen, and community groups, the government (under Home Secretary, Jack Straw) ordered a public inquiry into the murder in 1997.
Of 88 who testified at the inquiry, 65 were police officers. Their manner was found to be “lazy, evasive, indifferent, complacent, defensive”. Memory of the events constantly failed them. Detective Constable Tomlin turned up wearing a sweatshirt and sandals and was twice reprimanded for flippancy. (He is believed to have retired to Costa del Sol.) Deputy Asst Commissioner Osland actually advised fellow officers to sue the Lawrences.
In February 1999, the Report of the Inquiry by Sir William Macpherson was published. It found the murder of Stephen Lawrence to be “solely and uniquivocally motivated by racism”. The police were severely criticised. The investigation was found to be “palpably flawed” and marked by “fundamental errors” and “professional incompetence”.
The Report revealed that the Metro Police service (MPS) was institutionally racist and found a disturbing picture of racism running through British society. “Racism exists within all organisations and institutions. It infiltrates the community and starts among the very young...” In contrast, a previous Report (1981) by Lord Scarman (following black disturbances in Brixton) had flatly denied that institutional racism exists.
Among the most racist and repressive are state institutions like the immigration service (concerned with entry into the UK), the police (internal order) and the armed forces (external threats). Macpherson made some 70 recommendations and called upon “every institution to examine their policies and practices, to guard against disadvantaging any section of our communities”.
Selected Recommendations The police and public sector bodies should be subject to the Race Relations Act 1976. No 11 Police should be subject to the full force of race relations laws. [Agreed by government.] No 12 A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person. [Agreed.] No 49 All police officers, including CID and civilian staff, should be trained in racism awareness and valuing diversity. [A 3-year training programme has been set up.] No 57 Racist words spoken or acts done by police officers should lead to disciplinary proceedings, usually meriting dismissal. [New procedures in place from April 1999.] No 60/61 Stop & search powers to stay but records must be kept and copy given to the person stopped.. [In 1999, six times more blacks than whites were stopped. Prominent blacks stopped and questioned include: Neville Lawrence (Stephen’s father), Bishop Sentamu of Stepney and Lord John Taylor.] No 67 The National Curriculum should be amended to reflect better the needs of a diverse society. [The government has failed to incorporate anti-racist education into the National Curriculum and instead opted for some vague citizenship studies for 11-16-year olds from 2002. It is as if for the state, racism serves as a tool for social control of blacks and Asians. Failing schools (mostly with a large proportion of black pupils) instead of being better resourced, may be placed outside the National Curriculum and turned over to private capital.]
Two major conferences were held in London in February 2000 to review the situation and to hear about the more high profile cases from relatives or supporters. The first conference, Reclaiming the Struggle, was held on 19 February. It was organised by the veteran Institute of Race Relations and the year-old National Civil Rights Movement. The second, on 26 February, was sponsored by the National Assembly against Racism and supported by the Trades Union Congress. A summary of views expressed at these conferences and elsewhere appear below. A year after the issue of the Lawrence Report, the consensus is that little has changed in practice. In fact race incidents have risen significantly (by 66%). Among the cases highlighted at the Conferences: - Roger Sylvester (he died in police custody), - Ricky Reel (found dead in the Thames after a racist attack), - Michael Menson (set on fire), - Harold & Jason McGowan (found hanged), - Edgar Fernandes (murdered in Turkey), - Satpal Ram (wrongfully convicted, 14 years in jail, transferred between jails 59 times), - Mal Hussein (terrorised at his shop, over 3000 race incidents since 1994), - Safraz Naijeb (brutal racist attack: broken leg, nose, ribs, head)
--------------------------------------- 1. One year on from the Lawrence Report, the record is dismal. We see racism in front of our faces everyday. new Labour is failing black people on every front - from policing to immigration rights, from employment to the criminal justice system... Asylum seekers are subjected to daily abuse by the tabloids [all owned by multi-millionaires]... _____ Lee Jasper (NAAR) 2. Nothing has changed since the Lawrence inquiry... This government has gone back on nearly everything it committed itself to... the police seem committed to the bad old ways... _____ Imran Khan, Lawrence family solicitor (Jan/Feb 2000)
3. It is the state that sets the tone and tenor of race relations in society. By refusing to examine and outlaw the racism within its own structures - deportations, stop-and-search powers, deaths in custody, school exclusions - the state gives a filip to popular racism and contaminates civil society. New Labour has policies, not principles. The mind of the government can be seen in the Immigration & Asylum Bill - stigmatising the asylum seekers & dispersing them while the media churns out stereotypes ... It is the racism of the state that needs to be addressed first. _____ Dr A Sivanandan, Director, Institute of Race Relations
5. The EU is “founded on the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights... and the rule of law” [Art 6(1) of EU Treaty]. Yet in view of our history and evidence of racism in public institutions, including the police force, the EU member states cannot take the moral high ground - the thin veneer of civilisation strips away to reveal the ugly face of racial hatred... Examples: the treatment of Roma refugees on arrival in the UK, widespread discrimination in employment, school closures, police violence, failure of legal redress... _____ Claude Moraes MEP,
========================= Police & Media Responses Many individual Police officers refuse to be labelled as institutional racists. Within the MPS in particular, a fight for the heart and soul of policing rages between a small but significant band of enlightened senior officers and a majority of junior officers who do not support the Inquiry recommendations. At the opposite end of the spectrum are some Sergeants, Inspectors, staff associations and the Police Federation, who believe that the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry was a witch-hunt and that senior officers have sold out on this issue.
Black officers found themselves victimised. The case of Sergeant Gurpal Virdi, an officer with 17 years' experience in the MPS, provides an example how little has changed since the murder of Stephen Lawrence. Sergeant Virdi submitted evidence to the Inquiry relating to a racist attack that took place in Hanwell on the 21st March 1998. He outlined a catalogue of basic errors made by his colleagues
during the course of the police investigation
- similar to those highlighted in the Lawrence case.
African and Asian
colleagues. The implication was that Mr Virdi had sent the offensive
material. He was subsequently arrested and the case referred to the
CPS, who eventually dropped it. The response of the MPS was to
instigate disciplinary charges against this officer instead of commending
him for his professionalism and dedication. An internal hearing the
charges were upheld and the Sgt dismissed.
The media
During the Inquiry, the print media were
largely supportive of the plight of the Lawrences but after publication of
the Macpherson Report began to express doubts about the Inquiry findings,
arguing that Macpherson had gone too far and returned to their familiar
theme of ‘political correctness gone mad’. The judge was branded a ‘useful idiot’ by the Sunday Telegraph (28 February 99), while The Times of the same day thought that by Sir Paul Condon's acceptance of the Inquiry definition of institutionalised racism he demonstrated that he had ‘laid down his officers for his life’ The Telegraph (03 Mar 99) called the Inquiry team a ‘lynch mob’… “Middle England is waking up to what is happening … the report makes it intolerable for the defenders of bourgeois democracy.” The Spectator (rightwing weekly, 13 Mar 99) contained columnist Stephen Glover's views: "The politically motivated Macpherson report will be remembered as an ill-conceived piece of sophistry that for a week or two drove us crazy."
Sections of the media sought to discredit the inquiry team and suggested that the family were politically motivated - a classic example of the British press seeking to scapegoat victims and their representatives. In sum, three consistent themes emerged: a) The picture that emerges is one of patchy implementation of the report nationally. There is much public resentment and a clear failure to ensure minimum standards are applied nationally. b) Clear evidence of a consistent attempt to undermine the Inquiry report recommendations, the Inquiry panel and by extension the Black community, by sections of the press and in partnership with a hostile group of police trade unions. c) A consistent attempt, by both the sections of the press and police to link the reduction of stop and searches with the reported increase in street robbery.
However, the Lawrence Inquiry paved the way
for the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 under which public
bodies were assigned a pro-active role in preventing racism. Each
authority was obliged to prepare a Race Equality Plan for this purpose.
Reference 1. Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Response by the 1990 Trust (Feb 2000) 2. Arun Kundnani, The politics of anti-Muslim racism, Race & Class, vol 48, Apr 2007
|