Norman Dennis, George Erdos, Ahmed Al-Shahi, "Racist Murder and Pressure Group Politics (Civil Society)"
Publisher: Civitas:Institute for the Study of Civil Society | 2000 | ISBN 1903386055 | PDF | 198 pages | 11.2 MB
On 22 April 1993 black teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered. His killers were never brought to justice. A committee of inquiry was established under the chairmanship of Sir William Macpherson to investigate 'the matters arising' from the death of Stephen Lawrence for both the investigation and the prosecution of racially motivated crimes. The inquiry concerned itself almost exclusively with racist policemen. The Macpherson report, published in February 1999, purported to have found that officers of all ranks in the Lawrence case were guilty of what Macpherson called 'institutional racism'. It further claimed that 'institutional racism' pervaded the Metropolitan Police, other police services and British society as a whole. Racist Murder and Pressure Group Politics offers a devastating critique of Macpherson's methods and conclusions. Although the inquiry had the appearance of a judicial procedure, it came closer to the Stalinist show trials of the 1930s. Rules of procedure and evidence were relaxed, and indeed no evidence of racism in the police who dealt with the case was ever produced. Witnesses were harassed by members of the inquiry team and by the crowd in the public gallery.