Unless you live in Britain you probably never heard of Stephen Lawrence. That is a shame. What happened to Stephen, the courageous struggle by his family for some justice, and the actions of the police in this case are a lesson that should go far beyond the British Isles.
Twenty years ago this month Stephen was waiting with a friend for a bus when he was brutally murdered by racist thugs. Some of those who were involved have been tried and convicted, but others remain free today.
What is amazing about this case is the lengths his family has gone to find some kind of justice. As Our Kingdom writes:
No family has campaigned as this one - taking their own evidence to the police, bringing a private prosecution against the alleged killers, demanding and getting a public inquiry which culminated in landmark changes to the law and the redefining of racial incidents.
Yet, since Stephen was killed more than 100 others in Britain have lost their lives as a result of racist assault
In the past few weeks what has been found out concerning the police is totally disgusting. It seems that the London Metropolitan police has attempted to smear the family. Socialist World.net reports:
A former undercover police officer, Peter Francis, says he was instructed in 1993 to find information that could discredit the family and anti-racism campaigners.
Peter Francis told the Guardian that he was instructed to ‘infiltrate’ Youth Against Racism in Europe (YRE), a campaign that was initiated by supporters of Militant Labour, the forerunner of the Socialist Party (CWI England and Wales).
The archibishop-cramer blogspot adds,
...Francis, who says he posed for four years as an anti-racist campaigner. He was also asked to target one of the witnesses to the murder, Duwayne Brooks: "I had to get any information on what was happening in the Stephen Lawrence campaign," Mr Francis told the Guardian. "They wanted the campaign to stop. It was felt it was going to turn into an elephant. Throughout my deployment there was almost constant pressure on me personally to find out anything I could that would discredit these campaigns."
Peter Francis has become a whistleblower. He has decided to reveal his identity to call for a public inquiry into undercover policing. "There are many things that I've seen that have been morally wrong, morally reprehensible," he said. "Should we, as police officers, have the power to basically undermine political campaigns? I think that the clear answer to that is no."
As a whistleblower, he will now become the victim of all manner of harassment, bullying and subtle forms of persecution. He will be systematically undermined, demoralised, and his mental health questioned. Just as he was tasked with spreading 'disinformation' about the Lawrences, so his superiors will seek to discredit and slander him. It is a sadly familiar tale.
Additional claims have been made that meetings between Stephen’s friend Duwayne Brooks – who was with him on the night that he was murdered by racists – his lawyers and police were bugged.
Stephen's mother, Doreen Lawrence is to meet with the Metropolitan Police Commissioner to demand some answers. In a statement to the media following a recent meeting with another British official , Ms. Lawrence said,
“I made my point quite clear. For the past 20 years the fact that we as a family have been talking about corruption and we have undercover officers trying to smear our family. I want answers. I want to know who was the senior officer who signed that off. We had no idea this was going on from 1993 until 1997.”
Amor magazine ask, "Why is the case important today," and then, the author of the piece, Elisha Rickett, provides this answer:
The Stephen Lawrence case is a prominent example of the injustice of racial discrimination and the injustice and distrust within the police force. However I would say that the Stephen Lawrence case and the family’s campaign for justice represents every single one of us and the ongoing fight for racial equality, It leads an example of Hope for unity within our communities and it is significantly important to today’s society and the way we move forward for the future.
The bravery that Stephen’s family have portrayed in their campaign is nothing but an inspiration to all. Not accepting defeat, staying strong and standing up for what they believe in.
Most of us have grown up knowing the story of Stephen Lawrence, whether you were born before, after or during the time of his murder – at some point you would have heard his name and the tragedy of events that took place all those years ago.
Stephen’s family have campaigned nonstop since 1993, in 1998 Stephen’s parents Doreen and Neville Lawrence set up a charitable trust (The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust) in their son’s name to help future generations of young people enjoy the opportunities that were denied to Stephen by his senseless murder. The trust is committed to supporting young people from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds
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One of their most recent projects is a scheduled concert for Stephen Lawrence UNITY, held at London’s O2 Arena on the 29th September 2013, some of music’s biggest names unite for a special concert championing youth and social empowerment. The concert will raise funds for the Charitable trust.
As the enquiries into the Lawrence case continue, we hope for justice and Racial equality.
While nothing the police do anywhere should come as a surprise, as a facebook critic of mine has recently reminded me, not being surprised does not mean we should not be outraged and does not mean we should not act.
The following is from Organized Rage.
Police spied on murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence’s family as they tried to dig “dirt” to “smear” them, an ex-undercover cop has claimed.
Peter Francis said he took part in the operation to attack the reputations of Stephen’s parents, Doreen and Neville.
It was just one operation in a filthy, decades-long, plot to cover up the crimes and failings of the cops. Met bosses wanted Francis to find information that could be used against the Lawrences shortly after Stephen’s killing in April 1993 in South East London.
Corruption and racism infected the investigation into the murder.
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| Duwayne Brooks |
Francis trawled through photo and video evidence of a demo against the Nazi British National Party (BNP) headquarters for days in order to find Stephen’s friend Duwayne Brooks.
This led to him being arrested and charged in October 1993. A judge threw out the case.
Family liaison officers recorded details of every person visiting the Lawrence home. The information went to the spy cops.
The role of the spying operation wasn’t revealed to the 1998 Macpherson inquiry into the cops’ investigation into the death.
Francis was part of a covert unit known as the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), which used the identities of dead children and formed sexual relationships with activists to get information.
He also monitored a number of campaigns involving relatives of those who died in police custody.
For instance, Stoke Newington Police Station in Hackney, east London, was infamous in the 1980s and 1990s for police corruption and racism.
The Hackney Community Defence Campaign uncovered 130 cases of police brutality there. It was then infiltrated by the cops.
The Newham Monitoring Project was spied on—as was the rest of the left.
With the blessing of senior commanders, undercover officers routinely adopted a tactic of “promiscuity” to boost their cover stories and gain information.
Undercover
One cop, Bob Lambert, went on to become a detective inspector in the SDS. He supervised other undercover police spies there.
Jacqui, an activist who had a child with Lambert while he was spying on her, said, “I feel like I’ve got no foundations in my life.
“I was not consenting to sleeping with Bob Lambert, I didn’t know who Bob Lambert was.
“I had a spy living with me, sleeping with me, making a family with me, and I didn’t do anything to deserve that.”
It was the women who had been targetted who first exposed Lambert as an undercover cop.
Francis said that Lambert advised him to wear a condom when sleeping with activists.
According to one cop, “The best way of stopping any liaison getting too heavy was to shag somebody else. It’s amazing how women don’t like you going to bed with someone else.”
Paul Condon, who was head of the Met during most of the 1990s, coined the phrase “noble cause corruption”.According to this, police justifiably “bend the rules” to get a conviction when they “knew” the accused was guilty but had no proof.
Top cops from then and now deny significant knowledge and say they are shocked.
But current Met boss Bernard Hogan-Howe claims spy cops are “a vital part of our armoury”.
The spy cops worked for the Association of Chief Police Officers—conveniently a private company—even though it was funded by the Home Office.
Scrutiny
This meant they were hidden from public scrutiny.
Corporations use the information from the state spies and there is a revolving door between ex-cop spies and private security industry blacklists.
The SDS was wound up and replaced with the National Domestic Extremism Unit, which still oversees spy cops.
The whole spying operation is now controlled by the Metropolitan Police.
Cop scandals usually lead to closing ranks.
The odd scapegoat is charged, a larger number of officers are retired or transferred and an inquiry is set up that produces a whitewash. There have been countless corruption investigation into the cops.
But enough—it is time to get rid of the filth.
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The Police's Dirty Secret, the Channel 4Dispatches documentary which exposes how undercover officers reportedly used sex and lies to spy on members of the public can be found here..
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