February saw the 10th anniversary of the ground-breaking Report of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. This provoked a major debate on whether its findings and recommendations remain relevant today.
The National Assembly Against Racism, the Trades Union Congress, and Dr Richard Stone, (a member of the original inquiry), among others, echoed the calls by Doreen Lawrence that the problems the Inquiry addressed remain very much alive.
On the other hand, the anniversary has been taken by others, including Jack Straw and Trevor Phillips, as an opportunity to argue that it is time to move on and that the terms of the Inquiry findings are no longer relevant. Trevor Phillips argued that the term ‘institutional racism’ was no longer appropriate, and proposed substituting the neutral and woolly-minded ‘systemic bias’.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7904194.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7836766.stm
The terms of this debate were rapidly resolved when, in the same week as the anniversary, an internal Scotland Yard investigation found that claims of racist bullying at Belgravia police station, in central London, were both credible and consistent. Sergeant Sarah Cashman said many Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) were afraid to speak out and some had been assaulted and threatened by colleagues. The case came to light when PCSO Asad Saeed, 35, claimed an “apartheid” system of separate vans for black and white officers existed.
An extract of Sgt Cashman’s review is contained in documents submitted to an employment tribunal brought by Mr Saeed that began on 3 March. This found claims of racist language including an allegation one officer said: “Stick by me and we will bring down all the lazy blacks, one by one.”
www.polfed.org/CCC_DailyNewsAlert_030309.pdf
This case underlined the view of the National Assembly Against Racism, and the wider anti-racist movement, that while there has been significant progress, huge strides still need to be taken, particularly to eliminate racism from the police, but also from other public institutions.
There is no doubt that in some cases the police response has been more effective than that met by Stephen Lawrence’s family. For example, the police took swift action in bringing Anthony Walker’s murderers to justice in July 2005. But there remain many other cases of abject failure by the police in taking action in other racist murders and the decades long problem of the disproportionate stop and search of black people still persists.
Earlier this month, Everton striker Victor Anichebe accused the police of targeting him because he is black. Cheshire police were forced to apologise to Anichebe, after wrongly accusing him of attempted robbery whilst standing outside PR Jones Jewellers in Cheshire. One officer had tried to take away his crutches to prevent him from ‘escaping’ and handcuffed his friend.