Black people are still treated as second-class citizens in Britain and promises of police reform have been broken, Stephen Lawrence's father has said.
Dr Neville Lawrence threw his support behind anti-racism protests in the UK following the killing of George Floyd in the US.
Twenty-seven years after his son was killed in a racist attack by a gang of white youths in south-east London, Dr Lawrence said the global demonstrations were necessary because people of colour were still being treated as second-class citizens "not only in this country but all over the world".
After the original police investigation into Stephen's death was hampered by prejudice, incompetence and alleged corruption, the subsequent Macpherson Report into the 18-year-old's case concluded the police were guilty of "institutional racism".
Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick last year declared this was no longer true, saying "this is an utterly different Metropolitan Police."
But Dr Lawrence said he believes promises of police reform following the Macpherson Report have not been kept.
"We should not be talking about it 21 years later," he said in an interview with the Guardian. "They have fallen way, way short. Twenty-one years short."
Dr Lawrence added he "totally" disagreed with Dame Cressida's comments, citing 2019 figures showing the Met stopped and searched more black people than white, despite black people comprising just 12 per cent of London's population and white people 59 per cent.
"I totally disagree with her," he said. "Yes, the police are institutionally racist."
His remarks came as the Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said “we still have a long way to go” and noted the importance of “highlighting the differences” between policing in the US and UK.
In an internal message to colleagues, He said: “We are not the same, because unlike America we overwhelmingly police by consent, and not by force. And so we cannot directly compare policing in the UK to that of our counterparts in the USA.”
“But what we are seeing in America, and here in the UK, too, is anger directed not just at police brutality but the racial bias built into the very fabric of our institutions and society - perhaps best illustrated in the UK by the huge disparity in young black men in the criminal justice system.”
He added: “I want to say a profound thank you to those officers policing these protests in the UK, and for the restraint, dignity and empathy many showed under real pressure. You walked the thin blue line with grace, and I salute you.
“UK policing is built upon the values of courage, integrity, professionalism and compassion. But these words only carry meaning if we act on them.
“Professionalism, born out of experience, skill and training, prevents us from applying pressure in a dangerous way when restraining suspects and people in mental health crisis.”
