Racist Britain: A thing of the past?-The Big Story-02-01-2012

The callous murder of 18-year old Stephen Lawrence on a south east London street by a gang of white racists shocked the country but it was the bungling of the case against his killers that proved, perhaps, the biggest shock.

Evidence was mislaid, key witnesses mishandled, a casual approach taken to a racist murder that spoke of the total disregard to Stephen's fate by the authorities.

After several trials, a failed civil prosecution and a report on the Metropolitan Police Service that branded it 'institutionally racist' due its handling of the case, has there been sufficient change? Can ethnic minorities have confidence that attacks on them will be investigated properly?

Cases involving ethnic and religious minorities are under-reported and under-prosecuted and the Stephen Lawrence case highlighted this in startling detail.

The McPherson Report into the Metropolitan Police Service branded it 'institutionally racist.' Now with the judge jailing Stephen's killers for 30 years, what's the next move for the authorities trying to repair their battered reputation? How do minorities try and have faith in a system that continually fails them?

For many civil rights campaigners in the UK, the Stephen Lawrence trial and conviction is just the tip of the iceberg. For them, the UK is still a place where to be an ethnic minority is not to have the judiciary and police on your side. Attacks are not investigated properly and racists allowed continuing their activities due to the silence of authorities.