The extensive vandalism of the £10m Stephen Lawrence centre, opened last week in honour of the teenager murdered in a racist attack, has caused wide shock and sadness.
I've already taken one call from a reader who said she was so moved by the incident that she wanted to send a letter of sympathy to the Stephen Lawrence charitable trust.
Lawrence's murder, in 1993, and Scotland Yard's bungled attempts to bring the killers to justice became a seminal moment in British policing. The 1999 Stephen Lawrence inquiry, often referred to as the Macpherson report, found the Met police to be beset by "institutional racism".
Despite attempts by the Lawrence family to bring the suspects to justice, the gang members remain at large in south-east London.
Richard Stone, one of the advisers to Sir Ian Macpherson, this morning told me the time had come for a review of the report's findings. He particularly wants to see an investigation into the level of endemic racism that remains in other institutions and in British society at large.
Our review focused on the Metropolitan police and we could not go beyond that. We need to be looking at racism in other institutions and other areas in society. Racism must not be allowed to drop down the agenda.
