This blog has long argued that the most significant inference to draw from the Stephen Lawrence murder is that the police are quite often incompetent. The Macpherson inquiry found differently - it said that the police were institutionally racist.
Following the conviction of Messrs Dobson and Norris yesterday for Lawrence's murder, Dr Richard Stone, one of the inquiry's members, is quoted as follows in the Guardian this morning: "We couldn't believe the police investigated murders in general as they had done with the Stephen Lawrence case .... insufficient evidence was presented to us to draw the conclusion that it might have been corruption so we were left with one other possibility, that it had to be racism".
It's the first sentence which stands out for me. I saw first hand how the police did their investigations when I was a lawyer, and I find it only too easy to believe that they messed up not just the Lawrence case but many others as well. I've previously cited the Michael Barrymore swimming pool death. So when Dr Stone says "we were left with one other possibility", he's wrong. There were two others - racism, yes, but incompetence too. So far as I can gather, the Macpherson inquiry did not look at any other murder investigations, with or without a racial element, to see how well they were conducted. Maybe Macpherson wasn't that competent either.
Doreen Lawrence said yesterday "Had the police done their job properly, I would have spent the last 18 years grieving for my son rather than fighting to get his killers to court". That hits the nail on the head. I thought Mrs Lawrence behaved with a dignity, poise and restraint that were very characteristically British. Go on, laugh if you like. But black people being British is rather the point, isn't it?
