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7 Mar, 2014

The full truth of UK police incompetence and corruption – The Independent

Had he lived, Stephen Lawrence would have been celebrating his 40th birthday this year. We do not know how his promising life would have turned out, but we do know that the decades since his murder have been a bleak, bleak tale of official incompetence interrupted only by the taint of corruption and racism. What is so troubling about it is that it has taken such concentrated efforts by successive home secretaries and prime ministers to get anywhere near the truth over such a long period of time.

How many cases like Stephen’s – racially aggravated assaults and victimisation short of murder, and even murders and manslaughters too – have seen the criminals get away with it because of the “institutional racism” of the police? We need look no further for why so many in the black community feel that this country treats them as second-class citizens, at best, and why they still view the police as an alien, oppressive, hostile force, especially in London.

Read the rest: Decades after Stephen Lawrence’s death, his family still awaits the full truth of police incompetence and corruption – Editorials – Voices – The Independent.