Today marks the 25th anniversary of the death of the young black man Stephen Lawrence. He was murdered while waiting with his friend Dwayne Brooks for a bus one evening.
Stephen Lawrence was the victim of a brutal race attack when a gang of five white youths attacked and murdered him in an unprovoked attack based only on his race. The police did very little to help him as he lay on the street dying. The police did very little to address the crime and even though the perpetrators were known to the police, no action or initial arrests were made by the police. The parents of Stephen Lawrence, Doreen, and Neville, mounted a case against the police, pursued a private prosecution against the perpetrators and fought for changes in the police system.
Two of the alleged five white young men were eventually arrested, charged and found guilty of Stephen’s murder. However, the journey has been a very difficult one for Stephen’s patents and his friend Dwayne Brooks; peppered with its personal challenges that would have been unbearable for the everyday person.
The subsequent inquiry led by Sir Paul Condon branded the Police as having institutional racism.
Interestingly, 25 years on, our Prime Minister Theresa May and her Secretary of State for the Home Department Amber Rudd are both being heavily criticised for their actions towards the Windrush generation who are being appallingly treated. Some had lost their job, access to benefits or health care and even lost their home. The national disgrace has forced the issuing of apologies from both the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister.
Injustice anywhere unchallenged is no good. Dr Martin Luther King Jnr while in prison in Birmingham Alabama USA wrote in a letter, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to just everywhere.’
In seeing the injustice being experienced by her people, Esther was driven to take radical action, so much so that she resolved to break the law, ‘…so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.” Esther 4:16.
Let us join hands and heart, praying for and seeking justice for our fellow citizens. Do what you can, lobby your Councillors and MP and sign petitions. Do something to challenge injustice.
