In normal speak this would mean that British justice is racist. A harsh indictment, but one that is true so long as Black and Asian people in Britain get no justice for crimes committed against them because of the colour of their skins, or get convicted for crimes they did not commit because of the colour of their skin, or get longer sentences than White people for identical crimes.

The Labour Government has made a start by making all racially-motivated crimes a specific offence allowing for a tougher sentence. But there is a long way to go before the criminal justice system adequately acknowledges the extent of racist crimes.

A number of studies conducted over the past eight years have found that Black people in Britain are more likely to be stopped and searched by the police without a good cause. Although they are 5.5 per cent of thepopulation they account for 37 per cent of those stopped and searched. The studies also found that ethnic minority members convicted of crimes receive are liable to get much longer sentences than White people for an equivalent crime.

Often no concessions are made for first-time offenders. There are also a larger number of Black people who have died in police custody or while being `restrained' by the police. This is a finding that has been commented on by human rights groups and the United Nations. To make matters worse the head of the prison services, this week, said on national radio that Black people were physiologically more prone to asphyxiation while being restrained than White people. He justified his claim on the basis of a sample study that found that a Black person had died while being restrained by the police, the fact that the victim suffered from sickle cell anaemia may have made him more prone to asphyxiation.

More than all this, there has been one case that has focused attention on howBritish justice fails its ethnic minorities. A public inquiry began this week to investigate why the murderers of black teenager Stephen Lawrence have not been caught and convicted. Lawrence, a high-school student who planned to go to University to train as an architect was stabbed to death as he waited for a bus in south London in 1993. Five years after his death his killers are still free. What is even more amazing is that five named and identified White youth are widely accepted as having committed the murder, they have never been convicted. The Stephen Lawrence case has remained in the public sphere through the determination of his parents, and a supportive team of lawyers.

The public investigation, which was instituted as part of Labour government's effort to make British justice more equal for its citizens, heard this week that police officers investigating Stephen's murder: 1. Failed to treat it as a "racist attack" despite the fact that a friend who was with Lawrence witnessed the attack, and saidthat they had been attacked by five White youth 2. They concentrated their inquiry on trying to establish that Lawrence was involved with gangs or had links with crime: in short working with the stereotype that young Black men are prone to criminal activity. 3. Although the names of the five youth, were making the rounds of the local community, and members of the public approached the police with information, they failed to question them or search them as would be normal when police are looking for suspects. By the time they got round to it any evidence there was had vanished and identification by the public was considered to be "contaminated" by hearsay.

The five White men, have been caught on surveillance cameras discussing ways of killing Blacks and demonstrating the right way with kitchen knives.

What underlines the unbelievable lack of will on part of the British criminal justice establishment to repair the damage is the speed with which they got a conviction in the case of one high-profile murder ofa White youth by a group of Bangladeshis. Richard Everitt was killed, near Kings Cross Station in London, it is alleged, in a manner not dissimilar to Lawrence.

On the night of Everitt's death police charged into the local Asian Centre and picked up anyone they could find, including Badrul Miah.

They questioned upwards of three hundred Asians.

Traces of Richard's blood were found on Miah's clothes. On the same day that a judge in London threw out the private prosecution brought by Lawrence's parents on the grounds that the main identification witness was inadmissible, another judge convicted Badrul Miah for "taking part" in Everitt's murder, but not of dealing the fatal blows. The judge effectively said that Miah was being made an example of: this is what happens to you when you attack a White boy. These two cases represent the extremes, the Black and White as it were, of injustice in Britain. They illustrate what almost half of the British public feel: that Black people are more likely than Whitepeople to suffer miscarriages of justice.

Colour crimes

These men were also attacked because of the colour of their skins. Their killers and attackers walk free:

Michael Menson: A 29-year-old musician was burnt to death by four White youth.

Ali Ibrahim: A 21-year-old Sudanese student was stabbed through the ear in Brighton by a White man.

Manish Patel: A 16-year old, kicked and beaten to death by two White youth.

Quddas Ali: He was 17 when he was beaten by eight White men. He survived but was left permanently brain dead.

Mukhtar Ahmad: Survived an attack by a gang of White youth. He has been left permanently disfigured.