David Beresford
Racism, it seems, is the bane of even the most civilised police forces. That, at least, is the experience of the man many would regard as the world’s top cop, who landed up in South Africa this week on something of a holiday from a race row which is threatening his job.
Sir Paul Condon, the head of Scotland Yard, is fighting for his political survival in Britain after his force’s handling of the murder of a black teenager, Steven Lawrence. The 18- year-old was stabbed to death in an unprovoked racial attack in south London in 1993. Police took two weeks to arrest five suspects, when they had sufficient evidence to make arrests within 24 hours, and failed to secure convictions.
Last week Condon made a voluntary appearance before a public inquiry into the case and offered a personal apology to Lawrence’s parents for the Yard’s failures with the investigation. He also conceded that there were elements of racism within the force. But he refused to concede that there was “institutional racism” at the Yard.
Condon is widely recognised as a brilliant policeman. The youngest commissioner this century, he had made racism one of his principal targets. But now he is expected to resign if the inquiry makes a finding of “institutional racism”.
This week, addressing academics at the Technikon Southern Africa, Condon defended his force against the charge.
The commissioner said he believed that the metropolitan police record on racism was better than that of any other police force in the world and he warned that the charge of “institutional racism” had the potential to polarise opinion and exacerbate the problem.
Delivering a paper on “a London perspective” of contemporary policing, Condon said the Lawrence case had brought home the fact that they had not been “putting enough effort into investigating racially motivated crime”. Recalling the circumstances of the Lawrence murder, Condon said: “The police investigation was flawed. Not, I believe, through racism or corruption, but it was flawed because of competing pressures.”
There was a problem of racism in society, so there was a problem of racism in the police service. But if they were to be accused of institutional racism “you are really saying that most people in that service come to work and act out a racist agenda. I don’t believe that. I think that it is unfair to the black officers, to the Chinese officers, to the white officers, to the whole range of officers,” he said.
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