The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

Stephen Lawrence: the media united

For once, the Sun and Socialist Worker have the same front page.

By George Eaton Published 04 January 2012 11:40

It's a rare day when the Sun and Socialist Worker run near-identical front pages. But the conviction of Stephen Lawrence's killers has seen an unusual outbreak of unity across the media. Jonathan Freedland has a fine column in today's Guardian on why tabloid newspapers can be a force for good, rightly describing the Daily Mail's Lawrence campaign as the paper's "finest hour".

But it's worth noting something which few did yesterday. Mail editor Paul Dacre took a particular interest in the case because Lawrence's father, Neville, had worked for him as a plasterer. As Dacre told the Leeds Student in 2006, "he had done several days plastering work in my house some years previously". This detracts nothing from the Mail's principled campaign but at least partly explains why Dacre pursued this cause with such tenacity. Would that the Mail's formidable resources were always deployed in the services of justice.

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Tags: Daily Mail

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13 comments

Tue, 2012-01-10 08:57 — Dave (not verified)

The two men found guilty of Stephen Lawrence’s murder, may be guilty, but they were not convicted on the evidence, because there was none.

The evidence presented to court amounted to no more than two microscopic fibres on both suspects clothing and a microscopic blood spot on one suspects clothing.

The fibres, taken from the suspects clothing, appeared the same as fibres taken from clothing worn by Stephen Lawrence.

This does not prove they came from Lawrence’s clothing, but only from similar material.

The blood-spot found on Gary Dobson’s clothing was smaller than a full (.) stop and the court was told this was Lawrence’s blood.

However could this be the result of contamination after the suspects clothing had been stored in the same room as the victims clothing, for many years?

Also DNA cannot be taken from red blood cells, only white cells. Therefore is it possible for Lawrence’s DNA to be extracted from a blood spot smaller than a full (.) stop?

In the absence of any other identification, it seems perverse that the jury returned a guilty verdict for murder.

Thu, 2012-01-05 16:44 — Fergus Pickering (not verified)

The problem with the working class is that they are ignorant and stupid. That is the leftie position, is it not?

Wed, 2012-01-04 23:10 — joetheplumber

Society is institutionally racist and don't we love it when we find scapegoats for our collective guilt?

It the state of society that matters - not legal convictions that merely reinforce our complacency in the face of racism. We are and will remain racist whilst society is governed from Westminster by a selfish and elitist oligarchy

Thu, 2012-01-05 00:09 — Fergus Pickering (not verified)

Stephen Lawrence was murdered. So were half a dozen people over the last few days. What makes his murder worse? Institionalised racism? Did the police kill him? Nope. Did I kill him? Nope. Some low life working class boys killed him. To what institution do they belong?

Wed, 2012-01-04 11:52 — Livers (not verified)

I'd wager that if the Mail always "did the right thing" they'd lose half their readership of reptilian-brains.

There is a reason their bile is popular.

Wed, 2012-01-04 12:20 — Robert Taggart

When there be political unanimity - we have reason to be fearful !
When there be 'meedya' unanimity - we have reason to be frightened ?
The big question arising from this trial (whatever the forum) is which is worst... murder or racism ?
One fears in this madcap country the later be now considered the worse.

Wed, 2012-01-04 12:48 — bat020 (not verified)

There doesn't seem to be any mention of police racism on the Sun's front page. Funny that.

Wed, 2012-01-04 13:35 — Hugh Markey (not verified)

If much of the public and a majority of the Conservatives had had their way these two would be condemned men facing capital punishment - oh sorry, under the age of majority. Mighty glad these young timers are not in the Great State of Texas. Of course Texas folk are more caring - they use the injection not the old hemp necktie.
Hope the police don't do a Bently on any eighteen-year-old who may have been in the pack. Nasty!
And Teresa May and Softy Kenny Clarke - what a let-off.

Rough Justice

Wed, 2012-01-04 13:43 — Freeman2

The police have put their hands up for racism - because the alternative is corruption. If Stephen Lawrence had been white the result would have been the same - bent coppers unable to find the culprit. Follow the money.

Wed, 2012-01-04 15:46 — john woods (not verified)

The black underclass have been running amok, free of fear of arrest, for over a decade now because of Lord MugPherson. All my family have moved out. The only long term hope for London now is black on black crime: hopefully the Afro-Carribean underclass will wipe itself out. Operation Trident should be cancelled and the resources spent elsewhere.

Thu, 2012-01-05 19:22 — Hugh Markey (not verified)

The FBI and the CIA had a theory that black on black crime would solve the racial problem.

Hey, man! Obabma for Prez again; and Denzil, Eddie, and a heck of a lot of other black dudes, yea rappers too, have got those bozos to thank for putting their thinking caps on. US Intelligence! Man, ain't that sumthin!"

Some likely candidates for PM or even Prez ( when it comes about ) are beginning to show their hand on the Tory backbenches. Just you wait!

Step 'N Fetch It

Thu, 2012-01-05 13:23 — john woods (not verified)

The deaths of Richard Everitt and Stephen Lawrence:

compare and contrast

Robert Henderson

The Death of Richard Everitt (see below) is an article I wrote in 1994. Compare and contrast the elite response to his death and that of Stephen Lawrence.

Richard was knifed to death by an Asian gang approximately 300 yards from my front door. The gang was large, perhaps as many as 15 members. The gang was known as the Drummond Street Posse and had gone out that night specifically looking for a “white boy” to attack because they felt they had been “wronged” by a white boy (http://www.mamaa.org/infalre.html).

The gang were arrested the same night for a separate incident and blood was found on 19-year-old Badrul Miah. This turned out to be a match for that of Richard. Miah, later boasted that he had “stabbed up some white boy”. http://www.mirror.co.uk/life-style/kids-and-family/2008/10/1...

After nine months the police had arrested 11 people in connection with the murder. The 11 dropped to six and after a committal hearing the number fell to 3. Eventually only two came to trial, Badrul Miah and Showkat Akbar. Akbar was found guilty of violent disorder and sentenced to three years, of which he served 18 months. Miah was sentenced to life but let out on licence after 11 years despite the trial judge describing it as an unprovoked racist attack (see Mirror link above).

The parents of Richard suffered beyond the loss of their child: “After the trial Mandy and Norman tried to move on but were the victims of threats and racial abuse. They had to leave the home where they raised their children and move out of London to Essex.” (http://www.mamaa.org/infalre.html)

Those are the bare facts of the Everitt murder. Compare the elite response to his murder with their response to that of Stephen Lawrence:

1. Only one person was convicted of the murder even though all were guilty of joint enterprise.

2. There has been no media campaign to bring the others to justice.

3. There has been no public inquiry into Richard’s murder.

4. The one person was convicted of Richard’s murder was released after 11 years without any media or political uproar.

5. There has been no concerted media campaign stretching over nearly two decades to bring the others in the gang to justice.

6. Unlike the Lawrence case where the Daily Mail accused the five suspects of murder in 1997 (http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/frontpage/lawrence.h...) , no representative of the national press or broadcasters called any other member of the gang which murdered Richard a murderer.

7. The gang members who attacked Richard were older than those accused of attacking Stephen Lawrence.

8. Unlike the Lawrence murder, British politicians from the word go not only refused to adopt the tone of moral outrage which they routinely do when the death of Stephen Lawrence is discussed, but actively tried to play down the racist aspect. Considerable pressure was put on Richard’s parents at the time to go along with the usual Maoist pc line that they were not racist and so on. The local MP, Frank Dobson, was most notable for his silence.