Racist Murder and Pressure Group Politics (Civil Society) Book

On 22 April 1993 black teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered. His killers were never brought to justice. A committee of inquiry was established under the chairmanship of Sir William Macpherson to investigate 'the matters arising' from the death of Stephen Lawrence for both the investigation and the prosecution of racially motivated crimes. The inquiry concerned itself almost exclusively with racist policemen. The Macpherson report, published in February 1999, purported to have found that officers of all ranks in the Lawrence case were guilty of what Macpherson called 'institutional racism'. It further claimed that 'institutional racism' pervaded the Metropolitan Police, other police services and British society as a whole. Racist Murder and Pressure Group Politics offers a devastating critique of Macpherson's methods and conclusions. Although the inquiry had the appearance of a judicial procedure, it came closer to the Stalinist show trials of the 1930s. Rules of procedure and evidence were relaxed, and indeed no evidence of racism in the police who dealt with the case was ever produced. Witnesses were harassed by members of the inquiry team and by the crowd in the public gallery. They were urged to confess their guilt and to repent. The Macpherson Report is widely regarded - by those who have not read it - as having 'proved' the existence of racism in the police and in British society. Dennis, Erdos and Al-Shahi unpick the proceedings and reveal the dangers of allowing the agenda of public inquiries to be dictated by one set of special interest groups. "The tendentious reasoning and illiberal recommendations of [the Macpherson Report] have been brilliantly anatomised by the ethical socialists Norman Dennis and George Erdos and the Kurdish academic Ahmed Al-Shahi." The Times. "Sir William Macpherson's report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence is shot to pieces by an academic analysis from the Institute for the Study of Civil Society." Daily Mail. "A new book that likens the Macpherson inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence to a 'Stalinist show trial' and claims that it failed to show any evidence of racism within the Metropolitan Police sparked a furious fight last night." The Independent. "The Macpherson Report has been examined in detail by Norman Dennis and colleagues ...By the time they have finished, not much of Macpherson is left standing." Melanie Phillips, The Sunday Times.Read More