London's police have been accused of institutionalised racism in a Government report on the police investigation into the murder on a London street in 1993 of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.
His parents' long fight for justice after police failed to catch and successfully prosecute his killers has attracted massive public sympathy in Britain and led many to question the assumption that racism is dying out.
Lawrence's alleged killers were widely known and even attended an inquiry into the police investigation of the murder.
Doreen and Neville Lawrence, the parents of Stephen, sat a few metres (yards) away on the guest benches of the House of Commons as Home Secretary (interior minister) Jack Straw said the report should serve as a watershed in British attitudes.
"Madam Speaker...any parent faced with the death of their son in such circumstances would have been devastated.But for Stephen's parents...Doreen and Neville Lawrence, their sense of despair has been compounded by the failure of our Criminal Justice System to deliver them justice to secure the conviction of those responsible," Straw told MP's.
Despite the report's devastating criticism of London's once-admired Metropolitan Police Service, Straw said he had asked its head Sir Paul Condon to stay in his job until he retires early in 10 months time.
"The main findings of the first enquiry are these...and I quote...the conclusions to be drawn from all the evidence in connection with the investigation of Stephen Lawrence's racist murder..there is no doubt there were fundamental errors.The investigation was marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership by senior officers....a flawed metropolitan police review failed to expose these inadequacies," Straw added.
Condon apologised to the Lawrence family for the failed police investigation.
"I...we in the Met feel a sense of shame of the incompetence of that first investigation and for how the family were let down.As Sir William has made quite properly clear we failed..we could and should have done better in this case," he told a media conference.
British Prime Minister, Tony Blair speaking in the House of Commons said the report had very important lessons for the people of Britain.
"The publication of today's report into the killing of Stephen Lawrence is a very important moment in the life of our country.It is a moment to reflect, to learn, and to change.
It will certainly lead to more laws, but more than that it must lead to new attitudes, a new era in race relations and an inclusive and tolerant Britain," Blair said.
Doreen Lawrence attacked the police and accused them of behaving like slave masters towards Black people.
Stephen's father Neville told a media conference the report must bring a positive change in racial attitudes.
"For the very first time a lot of people are now aware of the situation and we hope that because people are aware of the situation we will not just sit back and say we are aware but try and go out and do some good in the name of my son..thank you," he said.
Set up by Straw in 1997 to investigate why the killers of Stephen were never successfully convicted, the inquiry chaired by Sir William Macpherson, a retired judge, held 69 days of public hearings, heard 88 witnesses and received 100,000 pages of evidence.
It blamed the failure of the initial police investigation into Stephen's murder at a bus stop by a white gang on "a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership by senior officers".
After hearing evidence from British blacks it came to the conclusion that institutional racism was alive and well not only in Condon's force but elsewhere in Britain.

MOTHER OF STEPHEN LAWRENCE, DOREEN LAWRENCE SAYING: My son was stabbed and allowed to bleed to death on the night of the 22nd of April 1993 while police officers looked on. They treated the affair as a gang war and from that moment on acted in a manner which could only be described as white masters in the time of slavery. Since Paul Condon took over the role of Commissioner he has spent a lot of time defending his officers while those he was employed to protect were vulnerable and at the mercy of the racist officers who walked the streets in the name of the law.

 FATHER OF STEPHEN LAWRENCE, NEVILLE LAWRENCE SAYING: "A lot has been said about what we would have liked to have come out of the report. We have only got a small amount out of it. I think if we take what we have got and try and go forward and get some more...to try and start to do something for the problem we have. For the very first time a lot of people are now aware of the situation and we hope that because people are aware of the situation we will not just sit back and say we are aware but try and go out and do some good in the name of my son..thank you"

MANCHESTER POLICE: RACISM

The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police has said he thinks his force is inherently racist. Speaking at the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, which has moved to Manchester, David Wilmot said he believed society in general was racist, and the police were no exception. Date: 13/10/1998