BRITAIN -
A Racist Force.
Voiceover: February 2000 and the British police force is still reeling from the crisis that engulfed it last year, when an independent inquiry branded the police 'institutionally racist'.
On the first anniversary of that report we ask: has anything changed? Or is there still an underlying assumption in police investigations that black lives are cheaper than white?
Voiceover: Back in October 1997, 20-year-old computer science student Ricky Reel went for a night out with three friends. They were attacked by two young white men and the friends ran in different directions. When Ricky failed to return home later that night, his mother contacted the police.
Sukhdev Reel: My husband, my brother and the witnesses who were attacked went to the police station and said we were attacked, they said we were racially attacked, they didnt want to know, they didnt want to take a statement. They didnt want to know. And instead of saying to the family were sorry, well do what we can, they started abusing us, saying Rickys probably run away with a girlfriend or a boyfriend.
Voice-over: The police refused to launch an immediate investigation. So Sukhdev's family and friends did the job themselves:
Sukhdev Reel: For example going into late night buses with Rickys photograph, going into shops, clubs. We formed a human chain and looked for our son. How many white families do these kind of investigation? Whereas we were left to look for our son, for Ricky, ourselves.
Voice-over: On the second day, they located crucial security camera footage of the night Ricky disappeared. The police, meanwhile, were pursuing other lines of enquiry.
Sukhdev Reel: Second or third day, lots of police officers just barged into my house - no explanation given even up to now. They started searching my house. What were they searching for? That Ive killed my son and hid him somewhere?
Voice-over: The week after Ricky was last seen, the news they feared came.
Sukhdev Reel: A police officer came in and said they found my sons body from the bottom of the river. I dont remember very much because at that time I passed out. When I went in I found out there were two police officers in my house. They did not wait for my return, they just went into my house and told my 11 year old son that they had found his brothers body from the bottom of the river. (break) And my 17-year old daughter who was with him had an asthma attack right in front of the two police officers who continued to laugh and joke about I dont what they found it amusing. (break) So how many families, how may white families have suffered that fate? No one, to my knowledge.
Voice-over: The police investigation concluded that Rickys death was accidental - he had fallen whilst trying to urinate into the river.But in November last year, an inquest was held and the jury decided that no one could be sure how Ricky had died. They delivered an open verdict. The family felt theyd won a small victory, but that the police had still failed them.
Sukhdev Reel: Our family did not get the level of service which we had every right to expect and my own conclusion is that I, er, didnt get that service because Im black.
Voice-over: The Reel family are represented by human rights barrister Michael Mansfield who has worked with many other black families over the last 10 years:
Michael Mansfield QC: Theyre all saying the same thing. One, theyre not taken seriously by the police force thats investigating, unfortunately in many cases, the death of a loved one. They feel isolated. They feel demeaned, they dont get answers to the questions they ask. And even when they do provide information, that information isnt acted upon.
Voice-over: Resentment towards the police had been building throughout Britains ethnic minorities since the 1980s. The widely-held view was that the police did not value black life as highly as white. And with almost a quarter of Londoners being non-white the police was seen to be failing a large proportion of their citizens. It was in February last year that this resentment came to a very public showdown, after yet another bungled police investigation into yet another murder of a young black man.
Voice-over: At 10.30pm on April 22nd 1993 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence waited with a friend for a bus in Southeast London. A gang of five white men shouting racial abuse approached them. The two friends ran, but Stephen was caught and stabbed in the chest. He died on the roadside surrounded by a crowd of police officers, none of whom administered even the most basic first aid. The police investigations into his death were so flawed that none of the killers have ever been brought to justice.
Doreen Lawrence: I just couldn't sit back and allow the police, the justice system to say 'I'm sorry, there's nothing else we can do'. I wanted more.
Voice-over: So began her fight for justice. Together with her husband Neville, Doreen Lawrence fought a six-year campaign which resulted finally in the new Labour Government ordering an independent inquiry into the bungled police investigation. The year-long inquiry uncovered a catalogue of errors: evidence lost, leads not followed, witnesses ignored, suspects not arrested. In February last year the Inquiry published the Macpherson Report with its devastating conclusion: The police failings were not due solely to incompetence, but also to a deep-seated racism running throughout the British police force - Institutional Racism.
Michael Mansfield QC : Its not a difficult concept - all its trying to convey is that this kind of racism is inbuilt into a system, its systemic. In other words, its a set of reactions that people have towards a situation in which they are discriminating against somebody because they are black.
Voice-over: Londons police chief grudgingly accepted the findings of the report, admitting that they were institutionally racist and did need to change. But inside the police stations, opinion was divided:
David Michael: When I joined the Met was an openly racist organisation in which racist language was the norm in every aspect of the organisation.
Scott Hamilton: Ive not seen any officer in 12 years being out-and-out racist. Because he wouldnt last five minutes. Particularly today, he wouldnt last five minutes because were so politically correct now, we dont know whats happening, you dont know who to trust, who to speak to.
Voice-over: The Macpherson Report made seventy recommendations for change and improvement. One year later, the new chief of Londons Metropolitan police, Sir John Stevens, defends their progress:
John Stevens: What I can tell you is this
that the Metropolitan police is not the same, and nor should it be. It has changed and developed across the board. However we are determined to go further and turn the Metropolitan police into a truly anti-racist police service. But our work in building a multicultural police force to serve a multicultural city must go on, and it will go on, you have my word for that.
Voice-over: Fine words, but has anything really changed for black victims of crime? In the months following the publication of the Macpherson report a new case emerged, in Telford near Birmingham, a town that is overwhelmingly white. For two years, 42-year-old Errol McGowan had been complaining to the police that he was being racially abused:
Sharon Buttery: And when Errol came to the phone they said youre a dead nigger.
Clifton McGowan: As they walked past they would say, you know, youre a dead nigger.
Sharon Buttery: It got to the stage where there was writing on the wall: Errol, youre a nigger.
Voice-over: Errol made numerous complaints to the police, but they seemed to fall on deaf ears. His partner of 15 years - and mother of his two children - remembers how disturbing the harassment was:
Sharon Buttery: He was scared stiff. He had me up for six weeks, crying, in the night. And, er, he got to the stage and he said Sharon, its like a time-bomb waiting to go off. And I said Well what do you mean?. And he said Well, I dont know when its going to happen, he said, but I know Im going to get murdered.
Voice-over: On the 2nd of July last year Errol didnt turn up at work. His sister, Doreen, helped the police search:
Doreen McGowan: I pushed past the police and went straight into the house and as I went in, Errol was slumped against a door. So I went straight over - I thought he was asleep and started shaking him to wake him up. (break) When I shook him I saw his head go to the side and I saw the flex and I was literally sick. I ran outside cos I was just sick.
Voice-over: Errol was found dead, hanging from an inside doorknob, with the cord of an electric iron around his neck. The police at the scene concluded that no further investigation was necessary as Errol had committed suicide.
Icyline McGowan: I know he never. And to me, the police they know, but they doesnt cares. Thats what I think. They dont care.
Voice-over: The West Mercia police should have been aware of an important result of the Macpherson Report - the agreed definition of a racist incident, quote any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person.
Errols death could have come under this new definition, in which case it should have been investigated as a racist incident. But the police didnt even carry out the proper forensic tests on his body.
Doreen McGowan: We met with the police on the same day and asked them dont they think with all the harassment Errol was having should not theyve done forensic
and everything that they know
yknow and they just went down the one way. We said cos the family are asking so much should they even do forensic for the familys peace of mind, and they said no.
Voice-over: The police respond, in a press statement, quote: West Mercia Constabulary recognised immediately that the death of Errol McGowan was a serious incident and extensive resources were employed from the outset.
Voice-over: Unsatisfied with the police response to his uncles mysterious death, Errols 20-year-old nephew, Jason, decided to start an investigation himself. As his new wife Sinead describes:
Sinead McGowan: He asked about people whose names Errol had mentioned to do with the threats. Hed gone around and found out about where they drank, what kind of people they were, whether or not they were that serious that they could kill somebody.
Voice-over: Six months later, Jason took time out to celebrate the new millennium with his wife and friends in a local pub. Just before midnight, he popped out for some air, saying that he would be back in five minutes. Early in the morning, Jasons body was found hanging from railings a short distance from the pub.
Icyline McGowan: I felt like the whole world collapsed on me and Im telling you, I begin to thump the table and I run out the kitchen and I take up the phone. I, I, I couldnt tell you how I felt. I couldnt believe it.
Voice-over: The family assumed that the police would see the sinister link between the two deaths and the history of racial harassment.
Sinead McGowan: Theyve gone there and looked at the scene without taking anything else into consideration and thought, oh, theres a lad hanging off a railing
hes hung himself, thats all they thought. (break) He had no reason. Hed blatantly said to his friends he was 100 per cent happy with his life. He said Im not making any resolutions this year, Ive got everything I want. He was happy with his family. He loved his mum dearly and he wouldnt put his mum through that again.
Doreen McGowan: The strangest thing is he was found hanged the same way Errol was
within six months. It just doesnt add up. Its very suspicious.
Voice-over: The West Mercia police argue in a press statement that theyve done everything they can...quote: Our exhaustive enquiries have not revealed any evidence to suggest the direct involvement of a third party in either death. But they have now agreed to hold a second investigation looking into possible links between the two deaths.
Sharon Buttery: They said theyre going to do this second investigation, thorough. But we all think they cant be trusted. I mean its happened once, we got nowhere, so whats going to be so different the second time?
Voice-over: So is the McGowan case a one-off aberration or does it indicate that the police have not improved in the twelve months since Macpherson? Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Grieve, head of the Racial and Violent Crimes Task Force:
John Grieve: I mean Im not going to talk about individual cases, but (break) I suppose for every case like that I could find you lots of cases where we had managed to answer peoples problems.
Mike OBrien: I don't think we can judge er the broad based change that's being undertaken now by individual cases. What we can do is say that er the government and not just the government, I think British society as a whole, is committed to making change.
John Grieve: I would be foolish to say that it was a perfect picture. Weve got 1700 years of black people in this country and a long history of racism for us to deal with. So I would never pretend it was perfect. I just think the world looks very different to me to the way it looked twelve months ago.
Voice-over: The world looks very different to the McGowan family as well. Two of their family lie side by side in the local graveyard, the earth piled still high over Jasons coffin.
Icyline McGowan: Well I tell you it affected me everlasting. Because I cant bring them back, but Im fighting for justice. And thats what I want. Justice.
Sukhdev Reel: We want justice and thats a basic right. Were not asking them for any favours.
Sukhdev Reel (poem): With these tears that fall, dear RickyEach task becomes a weightWhat had you done in your life so brief to have been given such a fate?With these tears that fall dear Ricky, I promise you with each oneAs long as I have lifeI will get justice for you, my dear son.
Sukhdev Reel: The killers of Stephen Lawrence are at large, Rickys killers are at large, there are other families whose loved ones have died, the killers are at large, simply because here the police think black life is cheap.