Murder Of Stephen Lawrence Essay

On April 22nd 1993, eighteen-year-old student Stephen Lawrence was murdered by a group of five or six white youths in an act of racial hatred. Stephen Lawrence was racially abused before the entire group savagely beat Lawrence stabbing him twice which caused him to bleed out from four major blood vessels. Stephen Lawrence’s body was discovered by an off-duty police officer who did not attempt first aid, instead, covering him with a blanket. He was taken to hospital but declared dead on arrival. In the aftermath of the murder of Stephen Lawrence, several residents came forward to provide the names of local gang members who had a long history of racially motivated knife crimes as recently as four weeks prior to the murder of Stephen Lawrence. The prime suspects were identified within three days of the murder as David Norris, Gary Dobson, Jamie Acourt, Luke Knight and Neil Acourt (Hall, 2009).

However, police failed to make any arrests at this time. Brian Weeden, the officer leading the investigation, claims that the decision not to arrest the suspects at the

It was alleged by the BBC based on the testimony of a former police detective, Neil Putnam, that the murder inquiry’s Detective Sergeant John Davidson had accepted bribery from the father of prime suspect David Norris in exchange for the obstruction of the case and protection of the accused (BBC, 2006). Peter Francis, a former undercover police officer has also claimed that he was pressured by superiors when working undercover within an anti-racist campaign group to smear the credibility of the Lawrence family to the group so to nullify the public outcry for justice at the time (BBC, 2014). The reports of corruption further alienated and exaggerated feelings of mistrust between the black community and the police