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Stephen Lawrence police not racist, says Sir Ian Blair
Justin Davenport, Crime Correspondent06.04.09
FORMER Met chief Sir Ian Blair said today that police who investigated the murder of Stephen Lawrence were not "necessarily racist".
He claimed that detectives treated the Lawrences in the same way as they did any other "working-class family" at that time.
The main finding of the Macpherson inquiry 10 years ago was that the force which dealt with the murder of the black 18-year-old by white youths in 1993 were "institutionally racist".
The former Commissioner was speaking publicly for the first time since he was ousted by Mayor Boris Johnson in October. He was giving evidence to the Race and Faith Inquiry set up by Mr Johnson to examine why black and ethnic minority officers are more likely to leave the force and are less likely to be promoted than white colleagues.
Sir Ian said that the force had changed out of all recognition from the days of the Seventies and Eighties when police officers were in open conflict with the black community. “Those days are gone,” he said.
Commenting on the Lawrence case he said: “Anybody who has read the Macpherson report would recognise an institution that was treating people in a very monochrome way. I do not necessarily believe that there was anything racist about the activities of the Metropolitan Police in relation to the Lawrences.
“What the investigators did was treat the Lawrences in the same way as they would any family of working class people but they did not understand the expectations and the experiences of the black community. That is what has changed.”
Sir Ian also admitted the promotional chances of black and ethnic minority officers were limited by “informal networks” of white officers.
But Sir Ian strongly denied claims made in a recent employment tribunal that he surrounded himself with a “golden circle” of senior white officers.
He said: “Are there informal networks that are less accessible for people of ethnic minority backgrounds? I think there are. People still like to socialise with people who look like them, behave like them and sound like them. That is human nature.” He said similar networks existed in all British institutions and added: “It is not an old boy network where if you buy me a drink you will get a job.
“But I think it will take a long time for these informal networks to cease to exist.” Sir Ian also attacked the leadership of the Black Police Association, saying its decision to urge black people not to apply for recruitment in the Met was absurd.
He said he was personally affronted by one claim that the Met was pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing.
Sir Ian also revealed that at one time he wanted to introduce a system of positive discrimination in favour of black recruits but lawyers declared it illegal.
Sir Ian admitted that the claims of an “apartheid culture” at Belgravia police station had happened on his watch but blamed it on a failure at a “relatively junior command level”.
Alfred John, the chairman of the Metropolitan Black Police Association, said: “I totally disagree with that. I do not think this will help matters, it fuels the distance we have between policy and practice.”
In his 1999 report, Sir William Macpherson blamed racist attitudes for the police's failings in the Lawrence case and said that Stephen's mother and father had been treated with “insensitivity and lack of sympathy” on the night of the murder.
He also said that he and his inquiry team had been “astonished by the lack of direction and organisation during the vital hours after the murder”.
Reader views (7)
None of you have read the full Lawrence report from the time he was stabbed and the police turned up - I have. The police were not rascist. If anything it was the other way round, but of course the public was never told the full details of what went on when the police arrived at the scene.
- Sally, Orpington, Kent
The murder of Stephen Lawrence was tragic, but why is it any more tragic than the murder of Christopher Yates by an Asian gang, or the almost daily murders and stabbings by black youths in London?
The judiciary refused to even acknowledge that the murder of Christopher Yates was a racist attack, even though the gang boasted about 'killing a white man' - why is there no multi-million pound, taxpayer-funded enquiry into that?
- John North, London, UK
I agree with him for a change.
The Police are simply inept, and investigated the Lawrence case as badly as any other.
The race card was played to show how how bad the Police can be.
Now, if Lawrence had been rich (of any colour or creed),the investigation would have been very different !
- Cap, London
I am sure that I could work with you Reesa, whatever you look like. A friend in need is a friend indeed, and in the police service needs arise when you least expect them
- Keith Price, Luton, England
I think Mr Blair has hit the nail on the head and defined institutional racism - it is the 'informal networks' from which the ethnic minorities are excluded that constitutes this type of racism. If these people wish to socialise only with people that look like them etc - it follows that they would also only want to work with people that look like them to the exclusion of those that do not.
- Reeda, Paris
What a pity. I thought we had seen the end of this complete plum.
- Thomas, London
The force was described as "institutionally racist" by Mr Blair and his colleagues only recently. Hindsight is a wonderful opportunity to rewrite history when the time for gongs and awards comings knocking!
- Keith Price, Luton, England
