Earlier this week Gary Dobson and David Norris was convicted of the racist murder of the black teenager, Stephen Lawrence way back in 1993.The incompetence of the original investigation led to an inquiry which shook the British police service to the core, and there is no doubt that the Macpherson Inquiry, published in 1999, led to a culture change in British policing. Not only did it find a failure of leadership by senior Met Police Officers but the report’s most explosive and controversial finding was that the police were ‘ institutionally racist ‘. The Macpherson team said that it had not heard evidence of ‘overt racism or discrimination’ but, there was an ‘ unwitting, unintentional and unconscious ‘ racist attitude against non-white people. The report called on the entire public sector to tackle racism and there after the police and the public sector in general began to declare themselves ‘ institutionally racist ‘. At that time, working as a public servant, a firefighter, I became concerned as an employee of a British public body and almost two years later, a month after the devastating September the 11th terrorist attacks in the USA, I chose to study a politics degree at the University of London in order to make an inquiry. I met and befriended a member of the Macpherson team, Dr. Richard Stone, who practically mentored me and helped me with my dissertation before I finally accomplished an honours degree as a mature student. But my personal inquiry did not end there. First I had to make an inquiry into my own behaviour because my my persistent complaining almost cost me my career, relationships and most importantly my health — physically, mentally and emotionally. Once I got authentic about that I then took a look at the possibilities of creating leadership in a very complicated political situation in the fire service. Well, central to my leadership capability for my employer at the London fire Brigade are the values of Fairness, Integrity, respect, service and trust which sit at the heart of all leadership principles. As a manager and fire brigades union representative I am in a position to lead others in order to motivate, inspire and maximise team and individual performance. One thing that can be said is that transformational leadership was always going to be difficult in this area because the recommendations of the Macpherson Inquiry could never be completed. This week the past became complete in the conviction of Gary Dobson and David Norris. This now can create some space for the leadership in not only the British police, but all British public bodies for clear vision of the future. It’s time for future based conversations within an environment for those conversations to take place and from thereon, any positive future visions institutionalised. This could never have been possible if it was not for the perseverance and nineteen year long hard fight for justice by Doreen and Neville Lawrence against the tragic racist murder of their son Stephen Lawrence. To watch last weeks BBC documentary on the untold story of the murder that changed Britain ( which includes Dr. Richard Stone ) please click here
Justice at last for Stephen Lawrence and his family
