Stephen Lawrence's father says Grenfell spirit can tackle knife crime

Campaigner: Neville Lawrence says: “We all want peace ... we all have to find ways to get along.”
Justin Davenport6 July 2017
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The reaction of Londoners to the Grenfell Tower fire should set an example in the fight against knife crime, Stephen Lawrence’s father said today.

Neville Lawrence, whose 18-year-old son was stabbed to death in a racist attack in 1993, praised the way people came together to donate food, clothing and cash to survivors and relatives in the days after the fatal blaze on June 14.

He said: “I was so impressed by the reaction of people to the Grenfell fire — people came with food and clothes, that’s how people should behave, they help people in difficulties.

“We are all living in the same world. We all want peace, it is one world, we have to live in this world and we all have to find ways to get along.”

Devastating blaze: A woman views flowers left as a tribute to those killed and missing in the Grenfell Tower fire
AFP/Getty Images

This week it was announced that Mr Lawrence, 75, will lead a working group on finding solutions to London’s knife crime epidemic. He will also receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Portsmouth for his work with young people and campaign for justice for his son. After an initial failed police investigation, two members of the gang who attacked Stephen in Eltham were finally convicted of murder in 2012. At least four others were also involved.

Mr Lawrence said: “We have had some justice and that is better than none. I used to say to people that to pursue something you have to have something to drive you. One of the things that I had to drive me was the fact that I used to love to dance. When all this happened I decided I was not going to dance.

“I went to a lot of parties over the years at weddings and things and I just sat and watched other people dance. Then after these two first people went into prison, about a week after that I went to a friend’s birthday party and someone asked, ‘Why aren’t you dancing ?’ So I danced. And I smiled, because people used to say that in all the years they have never seen a smile on my face.”

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