Stephen Lawrence was failed 30 years ago. 30 years on, nothing has changed.
30 years ago today, Stephen Lawrence's life was taken from him by a group of white boys who took issue with him being Black in their vicinity. Racist thugs who got away with it for decades because of the failings of the Metropolitan Police.
Failings. That’s not quite true is it? Because that would suggest something didn’t go the way it was designed to. But as the infamous MacPherson Report of 1999 concluded, the Met Police were institutionally racist. That means not just a few bad apples, not a couple of bad seeds who happened to be on this case. The entire institution from the top to the bottom was rotten. That doesn’t happen by accident, that’s by design. Stephen wasn’t failed, because the institution was never set up to protect or serve him.
This is the fifth annual Stephen Lawrence Day, after it was announced as a nationally recognised day in 2018 by then Prime Minister Theresa May. And every year, people take it as an opportunity to celebrate Stephen. Celebrate. It feels to me as though that’s not entirely what this day should be about. For his family, for his friends, of course. They will celebrate him for as long as they have air in their lungs. But for the public, for companies, for the government, this is not a day to celebrate a Black boy who never got to be a Black man. He was not ours to celebrate. It should be a day of remembrance, and of honouring his memory.
But how can we do that in any serious way, how can we speak to honour his name, to honour his memory, when 30 years on the story is the same. 24 years on from the MacPherson report, absolutely nothing has changed. The Casey Report investigating the Metropolitan Police was published in March 2023 and what did she find? That it was “broken, rotten, institutionally racist, corrupt, misogynistic and homophobic”, and it has been called the most damning report in the 200 year history of the institution. 30 years on from Stephen, and the findings are worse than they were then.
The first thing I saw this morning when I woke up was a video of a 16 year old Black boy being wrestled to the ground by 3 Metropolitan Police officer, one of whom was kneeling on this child’s neck. They refused to say why they were stopping him, and for asking why, he was assaulted, thrown into a police van and driven around for hours. Simultaneously to this video being shared on twitter, here is what the official Met Police account were tweeting.
He reflects on the pace of change? He reflects on the Met’s response? He reflects on the lasting impact of policing in London? His officers are out on the streets assaulting Black boys as he speaks, and still he speaks?
What change? Black people are 7 times more likely than White people to be stopped and searched by the Met Police today, despite the fact that across England and Wales it is white people more likely to be found in possession of something they shouldn’t be carrying.
What long lasting impact? Black children are 11 times more likely to be strip searched than white children across England and Wales. 46% of strip searches on children were done in London by the Met between 2018-2022. The same force that was protecting one of the worst sex offenders in recorded history, David Carrick, is carrying out almost half of all strip searches of children, and disproportionately targetting Black children.
What response? Met police are 4 times more likely to use force with Black people than white, and Black people are the only ethnic group where the percentage of use of force incidents with the Met police is higher than the percentage they make up of the population. A serving officer said to the BBC that the reason for this is “As far as they're concerned black people are more aggressive.”
WhatsApp groups filled with racist vitriol, glorifying rape, mocking disabled Black people - they’re common place in this police force. Taking photos of the bodies of two dead Black women, making light of their death, and sharing the photos with other officers and members of the public is something two officers didn’t think twice about doing. What does that tell you about the culture of their work place?
When Evidence Joel reported her son Richard Okorogheye missing in March 2021, a member of the Metropolitan Police told her “if you can’t find your son, how do you expect police officers to find your son for you?”
Richard went missing on March 23rd 2021. 27 years, 11 months, and 1 day after Stephen Lawrence was killed. 27 years, 11 months and 1 day after the Metropolitan Police failed Stephen, it failed Richard too. Only it didn’t fail, did it? Institutionally racist. Racist by design.
Two mothers, separated by nearly 3 decades, were put through the same ordeal by a police force who simply didn’t care about their boys. Because their boys were Black. How dare the Met police speak Stephen’s name on this day or any other when they continue to treat the Black community with such disdain, disrespect and disregard? How dare they use his memory for publicity when on the same day a young Black boy had his neck knelt on by an officer with a power complex? How dare a government even name a day for his honour whilst handing a racist and corrupt organisation £ 4 billion a year and denying claims that racism is a problem?
The reality is, Stephen Lawrence could have been killed today and the treatment he and his family would receive would be almost a mirror image of what happened 30 years ago. Stephen Lawrence Day should be a day for us to get angry. Because he should still be here. Because things should have changed for the better as a result of how badly he was failed. But he’s not, and they haven’t, and for that Stephen I am so sorry.