I'm sure most of you know the story of Stephen Lawrence's murder. It has been all over the news due to the very recent trial. To explain the story briefly Stephen Lawrence was an 18 year old black student from south London. On the night of 22 April 1993 he was with his best friend Duwayne Brooks and they were waiting for a bus. The buses were disrupted and not running on schedule. After waiting ages for their bus they decided to go to another bus stop to see if any buses were coming and that is when they came face to face to the gang of racist white males. Duwayne managed to escape but unfortunately Stephen didn't and was stabbed twice and died.
Five suspects were arrested but no one was ever convicted until 3 January 2012, 18 years later. There was enough evidence linking some of the suspects to the murder but the initial police investigation was inefficient and there was a lot of corruption involved; hence the charges being dropped against the suspects in the first trial. Fortunately new forensic evidence came to light and two of the original five suspects (Gary Dobson and David Norris) have been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 14/15 years having to be served. I do wish that their minimum terms were much longer but they were sentenced as juveniles since they were 16/17 at the time of the murder. In addition the Judge was bound by pre-2003 law and had to sentence them according to the laws at the time of the murder. If the incident had happened in present times then the minimum sentence would have been 25 years.
Though I am glad that they have been convicted I think it is 18 years too late. Police had ample time to get the suspects convicted many years ago but due to their inefficiency it took far too long. The names of the suspects were given to police the day after Stephens murder but they did not do a thorough investigation.They made a number of errors, for example the officers that attended to Stephen while he was dying did not even give him first aid though all of them had been trained in it. They thought Duwayne Brooks was the perpetrator and treated him like a suspect. One of the policemen in charge of the investigation had ties with one of the father's of the suspects and when this came to light he migrated to Spain. This investigation led to the 1999 McPherson Report which concluded that there was institutional racism within the police force.
Even though I was just three years old at the time this happened, this story has had an impact on me. As part of one of my modules in my degree I looked at the MacPherson report and the many recommendations he made. I also had the opportunity to meet one of the lawyers who represented the Lawrence's during the first trial and heard him speak on the racism involved in the case. I don't know what sickened me more about this case, the racists who killed Stephen or the police's handling of this case.
As a black female living in the UK I have been fortunate not to have experienced racism but unfortunately its not the same for all people from minority ethnic groups. Just recently an Indian was shot at close range for absolutely no reason apart from the colour of his skin. Discriminating and harming someone due to something they were born with and have no control over is sickening. I hope the other three suspects Neil and Jamie Acourt, Gary Knight also get convicted.
Racism is evil and is something which causes hate, violence and negativity. If I had my way racism would not exist. Though we do hear about racist incidents we should remember that there are many non-racist people out there. Even when Stephen was dying it was a white Christian couple that held him and prayed for him. I believe in the saying that love conquers all. If we learn to love and accept one another we will continue to progress.I think that is the reason why the most important commandment in the bible is "Love your neighbour" because love has no room for wrong doing. I am going to leave you with a bible verse on Love
(1 Corinthians 13:4-7) 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Written By Dinah