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UK: Stephen Lawrence, Lakhvinder Reel and Michael Mension - isolated Met chief "not in denial" over institutional racism(feature)

01 September 1998

The second phase of the inquiry into the police investigation of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence opened at the end of September, after hearing closing arguments from legal representatives. These included a "toned-down" summation by Sonia Woodley, for senior detectives involved in the investigation, in which she attacked Stephen's parents for "playing the race card". Inquiry chairman, Sir William Macpherson, made his first remarks when he rejected the claim that Metropolitan police racism was limited to "a few rotten apples" and denounced the culture of institutional racism within the force.

The inquiry then heard submissions from national organisations, including Sir Paul Condon on behalf of the Metropolitan police, who repeatedly asserted that he "was not in denial" while rejecting invitations from the inquiry team to acknowledge that institutional racism permeates his force. His belated personal apology to the Lawrence family was dismissed by them as "patronising". During October and November the inquiry will hold a series of meetings across the country before handing their final report to the Home Secretary (see Statewatch Vol. 8, no 3 & 4).

Police lose the plot

The weight of criticism levelled at the Metropolitan police during the first four months of the inquiry stimulated a panic response from the service in an attempt to deflect the inevitable condemnation. At the end of July two black officers were appointed to top posts in what senior officers described as "a major cultural change" but can more accurately be seen as a cynical damage limitation exercise. In early August Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Grieve began work as the Metropolitan police director of race and violent crime with an anachronistic brief that included the "reform [of] police racial awareness training". A spokeswoman for the Met outlined their defence when she admitted that while;

"there might have been a perception of racism or unintentional racism.. the Met does not accept that institutional racism played a part." (Observer, 9.8.98)

Amid this flurry of activity the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) set up its own Task Force on Racism in response to the inquiry. It is headed by their president-elect, chief constable John Newing, who was the first to break ranks with his Metropolitan police colleagues by telling the Observer newspaper that "institutional racism played a part in the Mets failures to carry out a proper investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence." Paul Wilson, chair of the Black Police Association, praised Newing's candour remarking: "It's quite refreshing. The concept of institutional racism has hit the Met's leadership for six. I don't understand why the Met denies institutional racism played a part in the Lawrence case."

The Macpherson inquiry part two:

An indication of the inquiry's thinking came from the chairman, Sir William Macpherson, on the opening day of the second part of the inquiry, when he rejected Lord Scarman's findings on the 1981 uprisings, that police racism was limited to "a few bad apples". Macpherson asserted that institutional racism was endemic within the Met creating an "obvious crisis of confidence between the black community and the police":

"What we are looking at here is a collective failure of police working together. It is a collective failure that has to be addressed not one individual here or there that has to be hauled over the coals - and a general discrimination."

He added: "it might be good for the Home Office and everybody else involved to take on board the perceptions of the black community and assume they are right."

The Home Office submission to the inquiry ran in tandem with that of the Met persisting with the "few rotten apples" theory and promising more of the same token gestures that have failed black communities since their introduction at the behest of Scarman. Claiming that "much has been achieved since Scarman",