“I had to be the model citizen, right? Because if I fall into that trap, and make a real bad decision on a particular day, and commit some kind of crime, then it always comes back to Stephen. In such traumatic situations, people often self-medicate with drink or drugs, but Brooks could not be that person, he says.

We believe that Mr Brooks’ colour and such stereotyping played their part in the collective failure of those involved to treat him properly and according to his needs.” The Macpherson report also concluded that Brooks “was stereotyped as a young black man … whose condition and status simply did not need further examination or understanding. For years after the attack, Brooks suffered from undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder. They accused Brooks of stealing a Coke and breaking a window at the police station when he came in for questioning that night (both untrue). At the scene of the crime, they seemed convinced that the two boys must have done something to provoke the incident. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesĪlthough Brooks had been a victim of the attack, and a witness, the police treated him almost as a suspect in Lawrence’s murder. London policing is back in the spotlight as a result of the Casey review, whose findings on the Met’s recent failings are depressingly similar to those of the 1999 Macpherson report, published in the aftermath of Lawrence’s death, which famously judged that the Met was “institutionally racist”.īrooks and Neville Lawrence, Stephen’s father, attending a public inquiry on the use of undercover police in England and Wales in 2015. Dressed in a suit and tie, he is energised and passionate, and eager to discuss his plans, even if, over the course of the next two hours, we find plenty to disagree about. On the same day as Lawrence’s memorial, he announced that he was planning on running for mayor of London in next year’s election, as the Conservative candidate. When we meet at the Royal Festival Hall cafe, on London’s South Bank, Brooks is keener to talk about the future than the past. It’s never really out of the press.” But, he says: “I’ve managed to come out the other side.” “In things that we do, discussions that we have. “I remember Stephen all the time,” he says.

Mr. Confidence by Rahiem Brooks