Responding to the BBC announcement today (Monday) that it has identified a new suspect in the murder of Stephen Lawrence, Black Equity Organisation Chief Executive Dr Wanda Wyporska said:
“The Metropolitan Police force has a lot of questions to answer about its shambolic investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence.
“Stephen, his family and Black communities across the UK are understandably angry that basic policing, that would have brought the killers swiftly to justice, didn’t happen. The lack of interest in catching the murderers is staggering and shows how a young Black life did not matter.
“The 1999 Macpherson Report highlighted the catastrophic failures that allowed the killers to evade justice for decades. The excoriating Baroness Casey report laid bare the depth of the racism, misogyny and homophobia that still exists within the Met.
“But despite overwhelming evidence, the Met Commissioner stubbornly refuses to admit that his force is institutionally racist. Sir Mark Rowley must follow the lead of the police chiefs of Scotland and Avon and Somerset, accept the charge and begin the process of ridding his force of the attitudes and behaviours that allowed racist killers to walk free.”
