In April 1993, Stephen Lawrence, a sixth-form student, was murdered as he was waiting at a bus stop in Eltham, South London. Stephen was black and it has been determined that the murder was racially motivated.

The years since his death have witnessed a series of flawed investigations which have failed to bring anyone to justice over the murder. This case has seen accusations of institutionalised racism being levelled at the Metropolitan Police: They have had different excuses to be unable to investigate the Stephen Lawrence case close enough because of insufficient evidence and inadmissible witnesses. From that example it can be concluded that the police in Britain don’t take racially motivated attacks seriously enough.
 
 

The British population is very shocked about how the court decided in this case. Benjamin Zephaniah has written a poem which expresses their emotions and feelings about how the court handled racism in the Stephen Lawrence case.
 

We now quote parts of his poem: