BBC1
When Neville Lawrence took the decorating job at the house of the editor of The Independent on Sunday he no doubt saw it as just another job. Yet this action was to keep his son’s racist murder in the news for months, dragging police corruption, institutional racism, knife culture and street thuggery unwillingly into the limelight. When the Indie ran a sympathetic piece on the killing it was quickly picked up by the rest of the press. Nelson Mandela‘s coincidental visit to Britain two weeks after the killing and his subsequent visit to the Lawrences finally prompted the police to start making arrests. But two weeks is a long time in a murder case. Subsequent events have shown that it was already too late.
“A combination of unusual circumstances, his parents’ quiet dignity and the collusion/corruption it unearthed means we’re still talking about it today.”
Stephen Lawrence‘s murder was not the most vicious that year – it was probably not even the worst racist murder. But a combination of unusual circumstances, his parents’ quiet dignity and the collusion/corruption it unearthed means we’re still talking about it today. BBC’s The Boys Who Killed Stephen Lawrence claimed to have new evidence of police corruption and while that was interesting, I wouldn’t go getting your hopes up for fresh arrests any time soon.
“A good defence brief will go into forensic detail on their asses, cross-examine the shit out of them and come up with some useful discrepancies of his own.”
Mark Daly interviewed several witnesses who said they could place the scrote suspects at locations other than their alibis suggest which is all well and good but we know perfectly well that a good defence brief will go into forensic detail on their asses, cross-examine the shit out of them and come up with some useful discrepancies of his own.
Daly wasted much of the documentary on this while leaving the only new evidence right to the end. Police supergrass Neil Putnam, once imprisoned for corruption, told us that Detective Sergeant John Davidson had told him he was protecting Clifford Norris (known drug smuggler and David Norris‘s father) from prosecution. “A good little earner” he called it. Davidson was instrumental in fucking up the early investigations into the murder. No need to call in Colombo to make the obvious link there. It’s been obvious for years that corruption played the major part in this case. Debates about institutional racism, while making good points about policing of black victims of crime in general, served as a distraction in this specific case.
“Let’s be honest, most people on a jury would convict the shitbags of both Kennedy assassinations – I certainly would.”
We need to be clear about this. No one is getting convicted of Stephen Lawrence’s murder. There isn’t a brief worth the name who couldn’t get these turds off based on prejudicial press coverage and the impossibility of a fair trial. Let’s be honest, most people on a jury would convict the shitbags of both Kennedy assassinations – I certainly would (as long as they found a way to ally this with the obviously correct lone gunman theory). Don’t be surprised if a video is unearthed with Acourt confiding “I reckon the Kennedys should be left wiv just stumps, mate”
“Poring over the details now and obsessing about discrepancies is like trying to force a fried egg back into the shell – pointless and borne of impotence.”
The police fucked up the early evidence gathering and that is the single most crucial time of any murder inquiry. Poring over the details now and obsessing about discrepancies is like trying to force a fried egg back into the shell – pointless and borne of impotence. Short of a publicly signed confession, this murder inquiry is over.
Many people were doorstepped in this documentary and everyone of consequence gave no comment. We’re left with the word of a corrupt police officer, some barely remembered testimony from semi-literate Eltham salt-of-the-earths and a pissed off journalist trying to make a name for himself as the new Donal MacIntyre. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t doubt his sincerity. Just his efficacy.
The best thing about it: The focus finally seems to be on the corruption.
Marks out of 10: 7