The Conviction of Gary Dobson & Davis Norris for the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

The Conviction of Gary Dobson & Davis Norris for the murder of Stephen Lawrence.  The recent conviction of Gary Dobson and David Norris has brought some conclusion to the injustice experienced by the Stephen Lawrence's Family and our best wishes and sympathies are extended to them.  This conviction and sentencing provides hope for a community where it is all to common for skin colour to determine the quality (or lack thereof) of protection offered to victims of crime. The failure to prosecute racist within the system, and within wider society today, only highlight's the institutional racist inheritance within our criminal justice system - a legacy that remains to be eradicated from the legal process.  This tasks falls to the current staff and personnel within the police service and the wider criminal justice system. It should never be the case that a crime can simply be brushed under the carpet, or that those who have committed a crime should be let off because they are white. Such behavior continues to spread fear and anger within the Black community - although we all play our part in building a just and fair society, when it comes to equality before the civic and criminal law in our country, equality of justice; is the last thing that we can expect to receive.  We are hopeful that the other suspects in the Stephen Lawrence case can be found and brought to justice. It is implicit that officers within the police service who failed to act, or were in any way involved in impeding the prior investigation, should resign from their posts, if  they have not done so already. The Guardian reports,  "Publicly, the Met said nothing. But privately, senior officers, who believe the police team and the scientists involved deserved unqualified praise from the judge for their successful investigation, were angry that instead, in their view, he had sought to reopen old wounds". This implies a wish within the Met to turn away from their responsibility to eradicate institutional racism, a crime against society as a whole that was responsible for this current tragedy experienced by the Stephen Lawrence family. Is institutional racism now to become business as usual?

In saying this we would also like to offer our unequivocal thanks to those officers and personnel within the police service that have made the partial resolution of the murder of Stephen Lawrence possible. They deserve our support and our highest praise.  Without the commitment of these personnel from within the Justice system, who are determined to see justice done, nothing can change. We wish them well in their efforts to bring into the light the other criminals involved in this and other cases of injustice perpetrated within socity, added by the tacit complicity of some within our public institutions.