Stephen Lawrence

Crime and consequences

How a racist murder reshaped English law

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Readers' comments



femi in reply to art-non-deco

'ar-non-deco',I have read TE for almost fourty years every week.I do not always agree with what they say,or indeed with the positions they take,however, one thing they certainly are not is racist.As a black person I find it utterly exsaperating when people accuse all white people of being racist.People who make this sort of comments are just as racist as the people they accuse ! There have always been white people who are not racist.There have always been people of all races who are not racist,just as there are people of all races who are racist.The fact that one is black,or indeed a member of any other race does not preclude one form being racist.Action speaks louder than words.Alongside Nelson Mandela,Martin Luther King,Mahattma Ghandi and all those good people who have fought for equality and justice for all people regardless of race, have been white people along with people of other races.The fact that a person happens to be white [ or whatever race ]... does not in itself make them racist.
If you have any sense of decency or charity,apologise to TE,it's editors and those who work so hard to produce this wonderful magazine for the crass statement you have made,or produce evidence that TE is, as you describe '...racist-to-the-core'.


'art-non-deco',if as you imply TE is racist,I would really be interested in the evidence you have on which you rest your comment,otherwise you serve yourself up as being an idiot.Now,I would be the first to admit that racism still plagues Britain,however not the institutional type you sugggest in an organisation like TE.Besides,if you give some thought to the mindless comment you have made,you would see that you do ethnic minorities a dis-service by crying wolf.Where there is racism,by all means, make a complaint, and fight it vigorously with all the means at your disposal,but do not make spurious statements which are unfounded and for which you have no proof.In so doing you only succeed in giving ammunition to those mischief makers who seek every opportunity and weakness in the well founded compalints of ethnic minorities to damage or destroy legitimate complains when these do arise, citing in their responses spurious compalints such as that which you have made on these pages

femi in reply to Mark358

Rubbish.This is the sort of comment one would expect from members of far right organisations such as the BNP,who use opportunities such as those presented on this website to make asinine comments such as this one by 'Mark358'.No doubt if this comment is traced back to it's origin we shall find lurking behind it a far right organisation.Fortunately most readers of TE,a far too intelligent to take this sort of comment seriously.
As a black person I must commend the Metropolitan Police for it's tenacity in investigating this case,initial failures notwithstanding.
I have been at the receiving end of what I believe was racist behaviour at the hands of some members of the Met,however in this instance I must congratulate the Met for a job well done.
Anyone looking at the demographich spread of people in the U.K.,available readily on the internet, can affirm the stupidity of the comment made by 'Mark',...just in case he has the cheek to defend what obviously is a silly remark.

art-non-deco in reply to strangelight

Read between the lines. I have been for the last 20 or so years. White supremacy with the aid of capitalism has been the sole ideology.Only now grudgingly they'll acknowledge China's and India's rise with undue criticism on so-called Human Rights for the former...


Glad justice is on its way to completion but a number of people involved remain free.

What I hate is the criticism the Met is coming in for regarding stop and search. The fact is in London knife and gun crime is dominated by certain ethnic minorities so of course focus should fall on them.

The Met seems damned if it does and damned if it doesn't.

PS I am from of Indian origin hence an ethnic minority before I'm accused of racism or whatever.

BHARAT.P. in reply to art-non-deco

For god's sake art deco- Will you please get rid of that Chip on your shoulder ?

The TE is NOT a racist rag. Racist rags do not discuss articles like these. Racist magazines would not even bother to mention these things.

What makes me sad, though is the murder of one Indian student, probably by a skinhead thug, similar appearance to all BNP members.
And with views simiar the MARK on this blog


The Economist is not a racist outfit, as a reader for more than 15 years, I think I can confirm that.
It seems however that within the UK police force, there were (are?) strong racist elements. That is news to me. I had never heard of this case before, but I ask myself: If this could happen two decades ago, has the police force been so reformed, that this could not happen again?
I am better informed about Norwegian society than the UK´s. It did not come as a surprise to me, that a right wing extremist went amok there on a killing spree. I also know, that right wing extremists, although a small minority in Norway, have infiltrated both the police force and the military in that otherwise nice country. It has crossed my mind, that if the perpetrator in Utöya had been an islamist, it would not have taken the Norwegian police upto an hour to stop the killer, even if his act in Utöya was commited only about 30 km away from Oslo. I hope the chaotic and unbelievably slow response of the Norwegian police concerning the Utöya episode will be thoroughly investigated. Still, even if I know about right wing extremists´ infiltration of those institutions in Norway, I believe that in Norway the proportion of right wing extremists is much smaller than in many other European countries, even if the Norwegian lot is a nasty creature.
Recently, it seems the Germans were discovering right wing extremists as a killing lot. Yet one has for the last two decades or more, once in a while heard of houses full of Turkish immigrants burnt down on several occations, killing many people each time. What made the German police take so long to suspect the right wing extremists? I for one suspected them instantly. After all Germany of the 3. Reich was also highly industrialized and it´s people well educated, although it would seem, somewhat erratically in some ways. I fear, that the looming depression will bring forth more of nasty "surprises" from the hands of right wing extremists in the near future. After all, this is the kind of situation they thrive in. And this time, Jews will not be their scapegoats, but rather muslims. So don´t look for discrimination against Jews or blacks, if you want to spot what these times have to offer in the field of racial hatred. It is telling, that the right wing extremists in my country, refuse to be called racists, since their anger and frustration is turned against a religion and not a race!

strangelight in reply to art-non-deco

Well, in fairness China does execute more of its citizens than any other country on earth - and TE has consistently been against the death penalty in the United States too. Oh, and it censors its press. And suppresses protests of all stripes. So how is any of this criticism "undue"?

I'm not saying that the West hasn't done some fairly awful things in the past - I am British, after all. But I hardly think that TE is bothered what colour its capitalists are, so long as they're capitalists (see, for example, its celebration of Indian entrepreneurs just a few months ago, and its celebration of economic development in Latin America and Africa during the past decade).



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