We failed to get justice for the murder of 14 youths and, in defeat, turned on each other

Welcome to the republic of "Sarf London". In the past couple of weeks, British justice has proved itself incapable of solving the murders of 14 young blacks. Thirteen of them died in the New Cross fire 23 years ago at the home of Mrs Gee Ruddock, whose 16-year-old daughter's birthday party ended in flames. A second inquest has managed, after all this time, an open verdict, the same as the first. The 14th death was that of Stephen Lawrence, executed by white racists. The Crown Prosecution Service has finally declared that it is unable to prosecute his killers because of a lack of evidence.

I have lived at several addresses in Sarf London. I once worked as a gardener keeping Blackheath clean and tidy, and I taught at South-East London Technical College. I dived in and out of basement parties and carefully chosen pubs, carried a knife after dark, crossed the road whenever a group of white boys was coming from the opposite direction, and avoided the police like the plague. Police and whites alike enjoyed "nigger-hunting". At the time, Sarf London had only a handful of young blacks about and racism was writ large. When I reminisced with a senior police officer 30 years later, he intimated that the area had always contained a number of brutal and corrupt officers.

Villainy, one of the hallmarks of Sarf London, tempted officers into a world of greed. Both blacks and whites were good for a kicking and a frame-up. This state of affairs went unchallenged until second-generation blacks, born in the area, matured into adulthood. Stereotypes then hardened. Black resistance was deliberately misinterpreted. We were now violent and prone to disorder. Black youth was demonised. So when the Ruddock party exploded in flames, the police at once homed in on black youngsters. A fight between them had caused the fire, they said.

Yet the first policeman on the scene told Mrs Ruddock that two white men had firebombed the party. He disappeared, never to be seen or heard from since. Stephen Lawrence's stabbing was at first seen by the police as the death of a violent black youth who had got his come-uppance.

Sadly, blacks turned on their own in both cases. The New Cross parents blamed Mrs Ruddock for the death of her own and their children. Stephen Lawrence's friend Duwayne Brooks put his name to a book that falsely portrayed Stephen's mother and father as unfit parents. In defeat, we consume each other.

Post your comment

Please note: you will need to login or register before you can comment on the website