Allegations that police attempted to smear the family of murdered
teenager Stephen Lawrence must be fully investigated, the Church of
England has said.
Lawrence was 18 when he was killed in a racially-motivated attack by a
gang of white youths as he waited at a bus stop in Eltham, south-east
London, in 1993.
Former undercover police officer Peter Francis told the Guardian
newspaper that he was asked by superiors to find "dirt" to use against
the Lawrence family.
The Church of England's Committee for Minority Ethnic Anglican
Concerns (CMEAC) said a full and independent investigation was necessary
to ascertain whether the allegations pointed to a "few bad apples" in
the police force or "a rottenness at the core of UK policing".
"If it is indeed the case that a cohort of officers has been
complicit in a prolonged cover up, hiding the truth from the Macpherson
enquiry and from the groups both within the Home Office and UK policing
that were set up in the wake of Stephen Lawrence's murder and which
sought to address the structural failings in how we police our society,
then the integrity of all that well intentioned work is called into
question, and we would be forced to conclude that a conspiracy of
silence has continued until 2013 to prevent the full truth from
emerging," the CMEAC said.
The CMEAC went on to say that the allegations resonated with the
belief of many black and minority ethnic Anglicans "that institutional
racism within UK policing is not simply an entry in the history books,
but a sickening reality today".
"We applaud the significant steps forward made in many parts of the
country in recent years through sensitive Neighbourhood Policing
programmes," it said.
"However, we are now presented with serious allegations that our
police services remain tainted by the presence, across the ranks, of
those who are prepared to collude, right up to the present day, in a
cover up of massive proportions.
"We the Church, with 25 years' experience of addressing racism in our
structure, stand ready to play any part we can in the process of
discovery, admission of fault, penitence and commitment to finding a new
and better future which lies at the heart of all that we, as
Christians, stand for.
"This is the way forward to which we now urgently commend all with responsibility for our policing."