Equal Opportunities

Forty-seven Race Murders in Britain Since Macpherson

Figures released by the Institute of Race Relations show that there have been forty-seven murders with a known or suspected racial element since the publication of the MacPherson report in 1999.

With its similarities to the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the racist murder of Anthony Walker in Huyton, Liverpool, on 30 July 2005 resonated strongly in the national conscience. But there have been forty-seven murders with a known or suspected racial element since February 1999 and most have received little publicity; in many cases too, the response from the criminal justice system was inadequate.

While many of these cases were investigated by the police as possible racial crimes, the racial element was, on occasion, not acknowledged in the trial or in the sentencing. In many cases, murders received scant attention in the national media and the families of the victims were left to campaign for justice without the wider support that the media attention brings. A very good example of disproportionate air-time given to similar crimes involving differing ethnic backgrounds is the recent terrible murders of 18-year old Sally Anne Bowman and the murder of 15-year old Rochelle Holness. It is accepted that the killer of Sally Anne Bowman is still on the loose so this would attract more media air-time. However, for 3 days both murders were unsolved in the sense that no-one had been charged and in that time there was a very disproportionate amount of air-time given to both the killings.

Following the bombs in London on 7 July, there has been evidence from police forces and community organisations across the country of an increased number of racist attacks. Just days after the London bombings, a 48-year old Pakistani man, Kamal Raza Butt, was murdered; he was allegedly taunted with the word 'Taliban' as he was punched to the ground by a gang of youths in Nottingham. In London, police figures show a six-fold increase in crimes motivated by religious hate, mostly against Muslims, since the bombings. There were 269 'religious hate crimes' in the three weeks after 7 July compared with forty in the same period in the previous year.

The CWU Race Advisory Committee wanted this info published in order that the profile of this issue raised accordingly amongst the CWU Branches.

For more info on the above report please go to: http://www.irr.org.uk/2005/august/ak000005.html