Institutional Racism and the Police: Fact Or Fiction?

Sir William Macpherson's inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence claimed to find evidence of 'institutional' or 'unwitting' racism in the Metropolitan Police Service. However, the inquiry's findings were controversial. No evidence was produced - at least in the sense in which evidence is understood in a court of law. The definition of racism which Macpherson devised was contentious because it was unprovable, and Macpherson failed to give weight to alternative explanations for the way in which Stephen Lawrence's killers escaped prosecution.