Prince Harry marks 25 years since racist murder of Stephen Lawrence
LONDON: Prince Harry will attend a memorial yesterday marking the 25th anniversary of the racist murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in a killing that triggered far-reaching changes to British attitudes and policing.
The prince and his fiancee Meghan Markle will join Stephen’s mother Doreen Lawrence, who campaigned tirelessly for justice after her son was brutally stabbed to death at a bus stop on April 22, 1993.
Five suspects were arrested within days but failures in the police probe into the 18-year- old’s killing meant it was not until 2012 that two of them were jailed, after new evidence came to light.
The case drew the interest of Nelson Mandela, who met the Lawrence family a fortnight after Stephen died, telling them: “It seems black lives are cheap.”
A public inquiry in 1999 found the initial police investigation was marred by incompetence, a failure of leadership and ‘institutional racism’.
It led to an overhaul of policing in Britain, with London police chief Cressida Dick this weekend noting the ‘ huge and positive change’ enacted.
However Jon Boutcher, a senior officer who leads on race issues for the National Police Chiefs’ Council, warned that concerns remain in some communities.
“Because of the legacy of the past, we must accept some still view policing as institutionally racist and we need to work doubly hard to gain trust,” he said.
It has since emerged that the police also sent an undercover officer to spy on the grieving Lawrence family in the late 1990s as they campaigned for justice. — AFP