Who is Stephen Lawrence?
Stephen Lawrence was an 18-year-old sixth form student who was stabbed to death in Eltham, south London, on the night of April 22, 1993. It soon became clear that the murder was motivated by racism. Why is the case so controversial? The racist murder of Stephen Lawrence was not unique – the Institute of Race Relations has documented 24 racially-motivated murders in Britain since 1991. Controversy still surrounds many of these killings and the inadequacies of subsequent police operations, but it is the Stephen Lawrence case which has caught the public eye and the media’s attention. This is because the police failed to bring successful charges against five youths, Jamie and Neil Acourt, Gary Dobson, David Norris and Luke Knight, who were widely viewed as the prime suspects in the murder. It has taken two police inquiries, a public inquiry, and now the Macpherson Report, to reveal the extent of the corruption and the conscious and unconscious racism that afflicted the police force investi
