As a Black Britain who follows US politics obsessively l often get asked to expand on a lot of stories that may only warrant a 30 second segment on UK TV or radio news. Last week's travesty of a verdict was no exception, expecially as work collegues who normally see me acting pretty madcap noted the stunned look on my face l wore that day. When they ask if the verdict was that bad l just mention the name of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence and that was explanation enough.
More after the fold.
A bit of background before l get to my main point so l hope you will bare with me.
Here in the UK we have had our share of Race Riots, nowhere near the level of the US but bad enough, notably in the 1980's due to draconian Stop And Serch Laws (known by the acronym "SUS") which targeted predominantly young black males a pattern which began to repeat itself after the terrorist attacks of 7/7 here in the UK.
The Thatcher Government of the early eighties were too busy selling off our national industries to the businessmen that got them elected so they did their best to try to ensure that nothing changed and that police actions were not seen to be blamed but the Scarman Report which was ignored by the Thatcher government of the day warned that the alienation of minorities and their treatment by police needed to change, something which came to a tragic end for one young man and set in motion changes here in the UK as to how we are policed and how we are tried in court. One of the main reasons l got so upset with what happened with the Trayvon Martin case is the fact that while people were focusing on the trial they were not talking about the police ineptitude and wilful neglect which led up to the poor prosecution case.
On the evening of the 22 April 1993 Stephen Lawrence and his friend Dwayne Brookes were waiting at a bus stop in Eltham, South East London. Stephen was attacked by five white youths who yelled "What, what, Nigger" at him and stabbed him twice. He managed to flee for 130 yards before falling and dying in the arms of one of the witnesses. What followed was a police investigation so poorly done, so overtly racist and so biased in the extreme that it now ranks as one of the worst race crimes in the UK and was seen by most in the minority communites as proof that the police cared little about the value of our lives.
While it did not take 44 days to make an arrest (just 14 in this case) the public enquiry into the lacklustre actions of the detectives was jaw dropping. You have an officer who had risen to the rank of Detective Superintendent who admitted to being so ignorant of basic criminal law that he didn't know that he could arrest the five suspects on the grounds of reasonable suspicion! Officers on the night were more interested in finding out if Stephen Lawrence was in a gang that they ignored the words of his distressed friend who was trying to tell them what happened. The police tried to say that they faced "a wall of silence" from the comunity when in reality they had received from locals the names of suspects and an anonymous note was also left on a police car windscreen and in a telephone box naming a local gang. Doreen Lawrence, Stephen's mother had also been sent an anonymous note which she handed over to the leading officer who, thinking she was out of eyesight scrunched it up and threw it away!!!!!
These are things which were exposed in 1998 after we had got rid of the Tories and had a Labour government still to be tainted by its proximity to G W Bush. It is probably the best thing ever done by Jack Straw, the then Home Secretary, and it led to the Police force being found to be "Institutionally Racist", something that still rankles with some officers to this day, but their actions up til now including the deaths of John Charles de Menezes, Azelle Rodney, and Mark Duggan really haven't made a lot of minorities change their minds.
It took 20 years, a damning indictment of UK policing, advances in forensic science, public enquiries, the only Daily Mail headline supporting a black male l had ever seen at the time*, and a change in the laws regarding Double Jeopardy before some sort of justice was done. Due to the fact that they were minors at the time Gary Dobson and David Norris were only sentenced to 15 and 14 years in prison, something which would have happened years before if the life of Stephen Lawrence was valued by the police investigating his murder a lot higher than they did. This is the same with Trayvon Martin and that is why the verdict rankles with me in such a way.
Yes, the verdict stank and the prosecution did a piss poor job in my opinion, but the actions of the Standford Police were a lot worse and THAT is something which needs a lot more scrutiny to ensure lesssons are learned. It was their lack of action and wilful (in my view) ambivience towards a dead black teen which sewed the seeds for a dismissal in this trial. It would be good to think that some of them would lose sleep over it but if Officer Todd Snipes is any example l doubt that would be happening. And don't get me started on the "jury of Zimmerman's Peers" who were so upset for "poor george" and all he went through.
With the Stephen Lawrence case l fell out with a school friend l had known since l was 11. We were both 23 then, he was married to a policewoman at the time and trotted out the "Wall Of Silence" tripe all officers were spouting which led to shouting, swearing, very ugly comments and the refusal to acknowlege each others existance. It took years but we're back on speaking terms, we just leave discussions to football and SciFi (although the "Hulk vs Superman, who would win the fight?" argument rages on). All it took was his messy divorce (l did the old, "I never really liked her, she wasn't really for you" bit) and a heavy drinking session where free and frank debate was allowed. I hope (not pray, as i'm not a religious man) that in the future somethings will change in the US in regards to what happened. Even now, 20 years later l look back on those days with a shudder as l remember the actions of the UK police back then towards young black males, and even to mid twenties like me. In some ways the actions have regressed, but unlike in those days we can do more to fight back against both police profiling and their disregard for young black males lives, l only hope that the same will be said in the US.
I have rambled on for a bit too long (sorry!!) and l can't really find a great way to finish. I can only hope that in various ways one of the lessons for the law enforcement who's actions helped Zimmerman act like "a fucking punk" who "always gets away with it" do better in dealing with a someone determined to act like a vigilante next time.
*Okay, have to address this as a last thing. I linked to that Daily Mail headline through gritted teeth. They are an odious publication who's primary function is to have stories which show minorities, immigrants, non Christians (except Jews), the poor, people on the left wing of politics, LGBT individuals or groups, unwed parents, people who rely on the NHS or need any kind of government benefit, any sports star who doesn't play "Rugger" or Cricket (or did well in the 2012 London Olympics) and any celebrity who is not in Downton Abbey or Nigella Lawson in a bad light.
The ONLY REASON they had that headline is because Neville Lawrence, the father of Stephen, was the personal plumber of the Daily Mail's editor and appealed to him directly. If he had no personal link to the father of a black murder victim the chances of that headline appearing would have been somewhere around the same as Dan Savage and Perez Hilton being invited on a weekend camping holiday with Louie Ghomert and Iowa's Steve King!