Baroness Doreen Lawrence has said the Metropolitan Police has failed to change in the 30 years since the murder of her teenage son, Stephen Lawrence. Speaking to BBC News, she stated that officers can be 'as brutal as they want' without being held to account.
The comments come weeks after the Casey Review found evidence of continuing systemic racism, homophobia and misogyny within the force. Baroness Lawrence said the findings did not surprise her, adding that black people are never seen as 'people that should have justice'.
Eighteen-year-old Stephen was killed in an unprovoked racist attack in Eltham, south-east London, in 1993. Two of his five suspected killers were jailed for murder nearly 20 years later. The 1999 Macpherson Report into the failed investigation found 'institutional racism' and made 70 recommendations, but Baroness Lawrence said little has changed.
'I don't know how many more inquiries and how many reviews you need to have to say the same thing - and still no changes, and still denials,' she said. She told the BBC she did not believe she would ever see full justice for her son's murder, and that without her family's constant pressure, even the two convictions would not have happened.
Baroness Lawrence has also been involved in legal action against the publisher of the Daily Mail over alleged illicit information gathering, and previously discovered that police officers were spying on her and her family. She said that as long as the police deny wrongdoing, there will be no change.
Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has acknowledged severe shortcomings but insisted the force is not the same as it was 20 or 25 years ago. Baroness Lawrence countered: 'I think the public should be the judge of that and not him.'
