The death of Stephen Lawrence, the black London teenager who was killed in an unprovoked, racially motivated, gang attack 30 years ago and the botched police investigation which followed became emblematic of entrenched discrimination within the Metropolitan police. Six years later the 1999 Macpherson Report into the failed investigation found there had been “institutional racism” in the Met and made 70 recommendations, aimed at improving police attitudes to racism. Roll on three decades and the recent Casey Report found exactly the same thing (racist, homophobic, mysogynistic). It took 20 years for two of Stephen’s attackers to be brought to justice, the others still walk free.
Stephen was born in London on 13 September 1974 to Jamaican parents who had emigrated to the UK in the 1960s. He excelled in running, competing for the local Cambridge Harriers athletics club, and appeared as an extra in Denzel Washington’s film For Queen and Country. When he died he was studying technology and physics, English language and literature at college, and was hoping to become an architect.
Stephen’s mother, then a special needs teacher and now in the House of Lords as Baroness Lawrence, said police officers can be “as brutal as they want” without being held to account. Black people are never seen as “people that should have justice”, she added. “I don’t know how many more inquiries and how many reviews you need to have to say the same thing – and still no changes, and still denials.”
What is eerie is how Stephen’s chart interconnected (in the wrong way) with the Met’s – 29 September 1829. Stephen’s Virgo Sun was conjunct the Met’s Mars; and more significantly. Stephen’s Pluto conjunct Mars was conjunct the Met Libra Sun and opposition the Met Pluto – so his can-be-victimised Mars Pluto ran smack into the Met’s contemptuous and controlling Sun opposition Pluto. A power imbalance. The Met’s self-important Saturn in Leo was also conjunct his Moon; and their evasive Neptune was opposition his Saturn.
A star-crossed screw-up all round.
The relationship chart was not showing much activity at the time of his death – which figures. But at the moment tr Pluto is opposing the composite Saturn for a determined pressure for change over this year and next; plus an undermining tr Neptune opposition the composite Sun Mars in 2024, which could go either way.
Doreen Lawrence, his mother, 24 October 1952, is a stalwart one degree Scorpio Sun so won’t give way easily and will keep putting on the pressure.
Sigh. Nothing ever seems to change. Lessons learnt —– blah blah blah.
The Windrush scandal in which thousands of legal residents in the UK who had arrived from the Caribbean between 1948 and 1971 were misclassified as illegal immigrants, has still not been sorted. Lenny Henry is staging a one man drama about it this year.
The Post Office computer debacle which wrongly accused postmasters of fraud imprisoning some, some committed suicide – still has not been fully resolved, with no top brass held accountable for a faulty IT system which they knew about.
ADD ON: Blair Peach, 25 March 1946 – 24 April 1979, a New Zealand teacher, was killed during an anti-racism demonstration in London. He was hit on the head, probably by a member of the Special Patrol Group (SPG), a specialist unit within the Metropolitan Police Service and died later that night.
An investigation concluded he had been killed by one of six SPG officers, with the others preserving their silence to obstruct the investigation. The report was not released to the public, and an inquest pronounced death by misadventure. No full inquiry was held but in 1989 the Met paid £75,000 compensation to Peach’s family. 20 years later a news vendor was killed by a member of the Territorial Support Group, the SPG’s successor organisation. In the ensuing furore the report into Blair’s death was finally published – 30 years after his death. The commissioner offered an official apology to Peach’s family.
Peach like Stephen Lawrence keyed into the Met astrology with eerie exactness. Blair was an idealistic Sun Mercury in Aries opposition Neptune which was suppressed by the Met’s Sun opposition Pluto exactly. The Met’s evasive Neptune was opposition Peach’s Saturn Mars in Cancer, as it was for Stephen Lawrence, born a Saturn cycle later.
When the assault took place the midheaven was at 14 degrees Leo with the Met’s self-important Saturn in Leo conjunct. The Met’s Saturn is in an attention- and loyalty-demanding Fire Grand Trine to an unyielding Pluto and an over-confident Jupiter, formed into a Kite by Pluto Opposition an ego-centric Sun.
I looked at the charts a few days ago and decided not to write a comment. As having an un-aspected Moon, apart from Quintiles to Saturn and Neptune and conjunct a Sagittarius descendent, I know I can be very cool about emotions. Stephen Lawrence’s death has become all about emotions. What struck me was the Met’s Saturn on Stephen Lawrence’s Moon. It was a group of people who attacked Stephen Lawrence. Thirty years ago would make it 1993. The race riots in London were in 1885. Those riots saw another vicious murder, whereby PC Blakelock was decapitated – in fact he had his had hacked off, by black rioters. One or some went prison. Yet both of these murders were vicious. Lone men, set on by group of people – racially motivated. One, in the line of duty, another unprovoked. The Policeman’s murder has never been called a racial murder, yet in essence it was. The dates of both murders are only 8 years apart. This is never mentioned when discussing the Lawrence murder. Saturn is authority – there would have been people outside and inside the Met, still aware of what happened to that Policeman, set on by a pumped up people: angry and full of hatred. I have always thought these two murder are connected, if not by groups, then by the very nature of being the wrong colour in the wrong place. Those Saturn Moon quintiles in my chart have always made me search out justice, or be very fair. Both these men deserve our heartfelt understanding. PC Blakelock is never remembered for his death, no media channel talks about him, maybe it is because he was a policeman, or just a white man yet his death is just as valid.
Correction the race riots were in 1985.
As I understand it (from wiki) PC Blacklock was with other police officers trying to contain a riot during a time of unusually high racial unrest.
What sticks in my mind though it sounds trivial enough – is I have driven a car since I was 18 in Scotland and in London and never once been stopped by police. Not once in decades. Whereas black drivers seem to get stopped multiple times in a year which must grind deep in resentment. And that will be reflected in other police behaviours apart from cars.
What can I say the British people with their phlegmatic approach to life wait for someone to sort things out and meantime things just run out from under their feet and the vulnerable and helpless at the receiving end of this sleepy approach.
I see Stephen Lawrence’s fate as a call for society’s awakening to the uneven ground which some of the most vulnerable citizens have to tread, it is they who at the bottom of the pyramid hold up the rest.
The Met’s natal Moon square Neptune seems to indicate the general public’s (Moon) unrealistic expectations of the institution. The Met is not full of aliens, they are some of ‘Us’, men and women who have chosen to deal with criminals, ranging from mild to extremely dangerous, and their victims, everyday, on our behalf. It takes a certain type of person to cope with that, I know I could’nt do it.
Unfortunately Claire, far too many of ‘us’ in the Met have been revealed as corrupt, misogynistic and racist.I’m not too sure, however, that corruption and abuse on the scale referred to in this thread doesn’t occur in other countries where, similarly, nothing is done about it??
It’s the ongoing battle between good and evil is’nt it ? We just have to keep on digging out what’s rotten, but like the weeds, they’ll be back again.
Whilst on the subject, Blair Peach’s killer was never identified – although it is almost certain that it was a uniformed Metropolitan Police officer.
A somewhat ridiculous and implausible theory that a ‘skinhead wearing a police helmet’ fatally fractured Peach’s skull has been floated – no doubt by certain interested parties …..
It would be interesting to see the astro tie in of the date of Peach’s fatal injury with the Met. horoscope to throw some light on the matter.
As the legendary Scotland Yard chief Sir Robert Mark once remarked, ” The definition of a successful police force is one which has fewer criminals operating inside it than outside it “. In this instance he was remarking on the mid 1970s Jimmy Humphries/Flying Squad pornography bribery case, in which some very senior Met. detectives were imprisoned for accepting enormous bribes from leading Soho pornographers.
Thanks. It is spooky how he meshes with the Met – and how appalling their cover up went and for how long.
Thanks Marjorie. Baroness Lawrence is absolutely right when she says “still no changes, and still denials”. This, very sadly, has been the case for many, many years. It involves not only the police, but social services and many other organisations who refuse to listen, communicate, or address institutional malaise and prejudice. I wonder whether Pluto in Capricorn will have a last hurrah as it dances between Capricorn and Aquarius. By this, I mean a massive shake-up – if such a thing is even possible.
So many murders of black people have not been investigated properly. And then, there are all the murders and attacks on women where the woman is blamed in some subtle, or not so subtle way – she was out on her own, he’d been her boyfriend, she went on a date with him, she got into his cab etc etc. Heaven help you if you also happen to be a black woman.
The recent case of Stephen Port, a gay man who murdered four young men in Barking in 2014-5, and attacked many others, was so badly handled by the Met it led to – yes! – an enquiry. Initially, despite glaringly obvious clues, they said “the crimes were not linked”.
Back in 1973 tr Pluto was at 4 Libra at the beginning of the year, beginning to put pressure on the Met’s Sun/Pluto opposition. Although the awful murder of Maria Colwell, aged 7, took place in Sussex on 4th January 1973, I think it is relevant here simply because it highlighted all the same failings we still see today in so many of our institutions. Such failings are all linked, and have been for over fifty years. The Met’s chart may act as a symbol for other police forces, or ‘services’ as they are now called.
“The Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Care and Supervision Provided in Relation to Maria Colwell identified three main contributory factors: the lack of communication between the agencies who were aware of her vulnerable situation; inadequate training for social workers assigned to at-risk children; and changes in the make-up of society.”
Sorry to say, the above quote might have been written yesterday, about almost any part of the country.
There’s another horror story about abuse in children’s care homes which had been reported multiple times and nothing done. And one of the same outfits is still running homes for the vulnerable. Unbelievable. But we get enraged and then move one – and not much happens.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65323711
Thanks Marjorie – just read that report, and it is horrifying. All these stories, crimes, and subsequent reports into what happened/went wrong repeat the same themes over and over again. For institutions, nobody wants to listen to whistleblowers, for crimes nobody wants to acknowledge inconvenient witness information or consider a range of possibilities when investigating. Yes, lack of training or money or whatever does play a part. However, I’d argue that something deeper is wrong. It is, generally, very hard to complain/report effectively about anything since people tend to close ranks – whether you’re reporting a faulty machine, a crime, or unacceptable living conditions – mould, leaks, fire hazards……the response tends to demonstrate the same psychological mechanisms.
And another – “Cover-ups and lies in maternity care keep happening, says Donna Ockenden
The senior midwife whose review produced a scathing indictment of maternity services in England fears lessons have not been learnt after new scandals.”
In the composite chart, the Moon is beseiged between malefics Mars & Saturn,….
Moon, his mother’s suffering, in fighting for justice.
Fixed Star, Zosma, appears frequently in charts of victims. His natal Zosma is conjunct
his natal Sun, which squares his natal Neptune, another victimization indicator.
Accountability – Soooo 20th Century, Dahlink.
Thank you Marjorie, I find his case quite moving, he had just completed his first moon return of 18 years, 7 months and 6 days, so perhaps karmic in nature, a victim on behalf of others?
The institutions with their vested interests walk over people but it is also a societal malaise of the “others”.
How right you are about societal malaise of the others. The great congealed mass of ‘nice’ people who can’t be bothered to make a difference.