they have worked round this case when many others have forgotten The strength of the book lies in the clear explanation of the complex chronology and in some of the testimonies it brings forward.
We have contributions from Winston himself:
"Innocence is determined by decisions which depend on the look of the accused, skin colour, their sex and background. The present criminal justice system can only be described as a major tool that offers to cut corners to gain guilty verdicts instead of finding out or searching for the truth." Winston's mother Mary also writes powerfully: "From the age of 14 the police started on Winston, just for riding a bike without lights - from that day on they never stopped. They told me that if a pin dropped anywhere in Tottenham they would come for Win. ston. It wasn't only Winston that was locked away, it was the whole family." In addition there is damning evidence of police racism in the statements that officers made in and around both trials. We also learn the tragit story of how Silcott was let down by a lawyer he trusted because he too was black. Sadly however the book is marred in other ways: There is a sectarian account of the campaign in support of Silcott which wrongly implies that the forces involved in the book are the only people who have lent any support. Mark Jasen THE STEPHEN Lawrence campaign is currently travelling across the country hearing conflicting evidence from the police and from anti-racist organisations about police responses 1o racism.
Every minor step forward for the Campaign stands as iestament to the courage and determination of Doreen and Neville Lawrence. The very fact that the inquiry is taking place is a result of years of long and hard campaigning.
The inquiry has focused attention to other examples of racism both from the police and society as a whole When the family of Ricky Reel told police their son had gone missing after being chased by two white men, the police ignored them until his body was found in the Thames, wven then they insisted that he had fallen in by accident.
When Michael Menson died after being set on fire, the police refused to acknowledge that there was any crime involved.
The inquiry has drawn attention to these and other horrific examples of racist violence, police racism, indifference and incomvetence - in themselves only the tip of the iceberg.
Throughout the inquiry the campaign has conducted itself brilliantly. The shear weight of evidence has forced the Inquiry Chair Sir William MacPherson, DOI known for his antiracist credentials, to criticise Police and the Home Office denials of racism.
The has done far more than put t forward correct legal arguments inside the inquiry. Its real importance is that it has projected the inquiry as part of a wider to challenge racism and to change public consciousness. Its success has been shown in the results of opinion polls that have shown that the majority of Londoners now have less faith in the police as a direct result of the inquiry.
The Lawrence campaign have demonstrated that the "few bad apples" theory of police racism is wildly off the mark. The Scarman enquiry into police racism in the 1980's took the RACIST view that police racism amounted POLICE to the prejudices of one or two OFF OUR junior officers STREETSI whilst exoneratthe police as a whole.
ustice It will be far peace more difficult for the Lawrence inquiry 1o take such a position in face of anger the inquiry has granted Paul Condon has apologised to the role of the police in the inquiry, has accepted that racism, both conscious and sub-conscious, exists throughout the police force, and even admits that such practices are widespread. But what Condon refuses to accept is that there is institutional racism. To do so, according to The Guardian "would have condemned him as a traitor in the eyes of the ...metropolitan police".
This is not an argument about semantics, but is the very reason that Condon should go.
For any member of an institution that is racist through and through to challenge that racisin, they must, by definition, betray that institution. That is something Condon has made clear he is not prepared to do.
Condon has been forced to admit that there are more than a few bad apples, but his view differs from Scarman's only in the numbers involved.
Getting rid of the Chief of the Metropolitan Police will not rid the police of racism, but it would be an acknowledgement that institutional racism exists.
As the Stephen Lawrence Campaign has shown, real change will only come through mass campaigning, through limiting the powers of the police, through making the police accountable to a body independent of themselves, and through the self organisation of black communities and working class people 10 defeat racism
NEWSPAPERS and political the IMF to be a key predictor of currency working class has internationally been