Murder of Ross Parker
Encyclopedia
Ross Parker from Peterborough
, England
, was a 17 year old
white
male murder
ed in an unprovoked racially motivated crime. He was stabbed to death and beaten with a hammer by a gang of Muslim
Asian youths of Pakistan
i origin described as a "hunting party" who were seeking a white male to attack. The incident occurred in in Millfield
, Peterborough, ten days after the 11 September attacks. Shaied Nazir, Ahmed Ali Awan, and Sarfraz Ali were all found guilty of his murder in unanimous verdicts and sentenced to life imprisonment
. A fourth defendant, Zairaff Mahrad, was cleared of murder and manslaughter
.
Parker's brutal murder is cited as an example of the lack of attention the media and society give to white sufferers of racist attacks compared to that given to ethnic minorities, with organisations such as the BBC
and some newspaper journalists later admitting failing to cover the case sufficiently. It is also suggested the case demonstrates how society has been forced to redefine racism so as to no longer exclude white victims.
at Jack Hunt School
, hoping to join the police
force when he was 18. He was nicknamed "Half-Pint
" due to his 5 feet 5 inch height and had twice broken his leg previously. Parker lived in the Westwood
area of the city and worked part-time at the Solstice Pub.
, Peterborough, near to Russell Street. Racial tensions in the area had been high, with the terrorist attacks on 11 September occurring ten days previously.
It was a warm night and Parker and Foot were holding hands as they walked to visit a friend of Foot's. They were confronted by a gang of up to ten Muslim Asian youths, some wearing balaclavas. Members of the gang had planned "to find a white male to attack simply because he was white" They warned Parker he had "better start running", but then blocked his path and quickly sprayed him in the face with CS gas
. He was punched in the stomach and stabbed from behind three times through the throat and chest with a foot-long hunting knife
. The knife penetrated right through his body on two occasions and as he was laying on the ground he was repeatedly kicked and struck with a panel beater's hammer. Foot ran to a nearby petrol station to find help and a man there gave her his mobile phone
so she could call the police. Whilst making the call she twice heard Parker cry out in pain. By chance she then spotted a passing police car and she entered the vehicle taking the officer to the murder scene. Although Foot had only been away for a few minutes, by the time she returned Parker had already bled to death
and the gang had disappeared.
After the murder, the four accused returned to a garage behind Nazir's parents' house which they used as their headquarters. Awan, brandishing the bloodied knife, exclaimed "cherish the blood". Parker's body remained at the scene during the day while it was examined by expert officers. A post mortem revealed Parker had died as a result of stab wounds inflicted by a bladed instrument.
put up by the local community to find the killers. This was later increased to £1,500. A number of those arrested were recorded chanting "Taliban, Osama bin Laden
" whilst being transported in the police van, also vandalising
the vehicle. Such chanting continued in the police cells. Detective Chief Inspector Dick Harrison, who was overseeing the case, praised the Muslim community for their involvement in capturing the murderers.
On 26 September 2001 Ali, Awan, and Nazir appeared in court charged with Parker's murder and a fourth person was charged the following day. However, by March 2002 all four defendants charged with Parker's murder had been controversially released from prison on police bail. Parker's sister, Leanne, stated "we can't begin to comprehend why they've been allowed out of prison at this stage". Parker's family were so concerned about such a decision that they wrote a letter of complaint to the Home Secretary
, David Blunkett
. No action was taken however and the men remained free on bail.
Crown Court
, pleading not guilty. The trial began in November 2002. Safraz Ali was given a reference at the trial by the Deputy Mayor
of Peterborough, Raja Akhtar. and Labour Party
councillor Mohammad Choudhary.
At the trial transcripts of covert police recordings of the suspects discussing the attack were adduced. The conversations took place in police vehicles when the suspects were arrested and were translated from Punjabi
. Nazir was heard describing Parker's death as a "bloodbath", and how the third blow from the knife had split the whole of his neck open. Awan and Nazir were both heard discussing the statements they had given to police and the plan they had "made up". Contents of a letter written by Mahrad were also presented in which he stated he would "pray
to Allah
for forgiveness".
The jury heard how the murder weapons had been found in a shed at Nazir's house along with two bags of bloodied clothes. DNA
belonging to Nazir was found on the hunting knife and Parker's blood was found on the hammer. His blood was also found on the clothes of two of the accused, along with Nazir and Mahrad's DNA. Three balaclavas were also recovered from the property, again containing traces of Parker's blood. Nazir's younger brother Wyed told the court he had seen his brother cleaning the murder weapon on the night of the killing and witnessed all four defendants with blood on their clothing.
In court Nazir admitted to seeing the victim laying on the ground, attempting to spray him with CS gas and kicking him. He also admitted washing the murder weapon and stated that Sarfraz Ali had hit Ross with the hammer and Awan used the knife. Mahrad had also admitted to be present at the murder scene, and claimed that the blood stains found on his trousers occurred as a result of him accidentally falling across Parker. Awan and Ali both denied being at the scene.
On 19 December 2002 Nazir, Awan and Ali were all found guilty of murder in unanimous verdicts. The judge summarised the murder during sentencing:
The judge concluded that Awan had wielded the knife, was the ringleader of the group and had intended to kill. The three received life sentences, with Awan to serve a minimum of 18 years and the others at least 16. Mahrad was cleared of murder and manslaughter
.
After the trial it was revealed that Nazir had previously been cautioned for using threatening behaviour in 1999 and fined for resisting arrest. It also emerged that Awan was a police informer
.
Awan and Nazir appealed against their jail terms in January 2008 but the original sentences were upheld, with judge Justice Davies stating he had taken into account "moving" statements from Parker's family. After the appeal Parker's father suggested that the killers of his son should never be freed.
. The BBC
later admitted that "it was a mistake not to report the case of Ross Parker more extensively", noting the "stark" parallels with the Walker case though also suggesting the story had been "squeezed out" by other news such as a conviction of the killer of Danielle Jones. However it was noted that in hindsight that the crime was "worthy of coverage" "by any standards". Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
and Kelvin McKenzie expressed similar sentiments, with the latter criticising newspapers including his own employer, The Sun. He stated, "if you believe you're a victim of an ethnic minority and you're white there is nowhere to go. Editors are so liberal that they are scared to be seen that they're moving to the right
of their paper". Parker's mother Davinia Parker expressed similar concerns that white vicitms of race crime are ignored stating "because we are white, English
, we didn't get the coverage" In 2006 a Times
article by Brendan Montague on racist murders in Britain stated searching newspaper archives shows "an almost total boycott
of stories involving the white victims of attacks" whereas "cases involving black and minority ethnic victims are widely reported".
Others have noted that the lack of coverage is not simply a media issue. Peter Fahy
, the spokesman on race issues for the Association of Chief Police Officers
states “a lot of police officers and other professionals feel almost the best thing to do is to try and avoid [discussing such attacks] for fear of being criticised. This is not healthy.”. Montague suggests the lack of police appeals in cases involving white victims may be a cause of the lack of media coverage.
The organisation who did cover the case also faced some criticism. The Government office for the East of England produced a controversial secret report by Dr Roger Green examining race relations in Peterborough. The document suggested that the Peterborough Evening Telegraph
had a history of insensitivity and coverage of the case was "possibly adding to any climate of racial and communal unrest". However such concerns were completely rejected by the police and local community representatives who praised the newspaper's approach.
firms stopped work early in the days after the attack in fear of reprisals. In November 2001 Home Secretary David Blunkett
banned all marches in Peterborough for three months as it was feared violence would be caused by the Anti-Nazi League
and National Front
who both sought to hold protests on the same day.
Parker's death also had a major impact on his family. His mother, Davinia, was unable to work for three months after Parker's funeral and came close to attempting suicide on a number of occasions. Parker's room was left untouched even a year after the incident, with his parents unable to bring themselves to tidy it, describing it as a place they "feel close to Ross".
painted near the murder scene two years after the incident reading "no go area for whites", "Paki powa" and "death to whites".
Some, such as Mark Easton
cite the Parker case as demonstrating how society has been forced to redefine racism
and discard the erroneous definition of "prejudice plus power" – a definition which had only allowed ethnic minorities to be victims. Others such as Alibhai-Brown condemned the double standards of racial equality
campaigners in relation to the case, suggesting black
activists should "march and remember victims like Ross Parker", stating "our values are worthless unless all victims of these senseless deaths matter equally". She went on to write that "to treat some victims as more worthy of condemnation than others is unforgivable and a betrayal of anti-racism
itself".
took place at Peterborough Crematorium in Marholm on 23 October 2001 with over 400 mourners attending. His Netherton United football shirt was draped over his coffin and he was described as "a beacon of light who inspired so many people" and "an extremely popular young man". The murder received little attention from politicians although in 2003 Peterborough
Member of Parliament
Helen Clark
made a statement in Parliament
sending condolences of Parker's family, paying tribute to Peterborough community and in particular Ross' school with her words echoed by John Denham.
A plaque was installed in Netherton in Peterborough as a memorial to Parker, and a further memorial is located at Peterborough Crematorium. His former football team mates also play a match every May in his memory and formed a team called "Ross' Rangers".
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, was a 17 year old
white
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
male murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ed in an unprovoked racially motivated crime. He was stabbed to death and beaten with a hammer by a gang of Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
Asian youths of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i origin described as a "hunting party" who were seeking a white male to attack. The incident occurred in in Millfield
Millfield, Peterborough
Millfield is residential area of the city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom. For electoral purposes it comprises the main part of Peterborough Central ward...
, Peterborough, ten days after the 11 September attacks. Shaied Nazir, Ahmed Ali Awan, and Sarfraz Ali were all found guilty of his murder in unanimous verdicts and sentenced to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
. A fourth defendant, Zairaff Mahrad, was cleared of murder and manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
.
Parker's brutal murder is cited as an example of the lack of attention the media and society give to white sufferers of racist attacks compared to that given to ethnic minorities, with organisations such as the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and some newspaper journalists later admitting failing to cover the case sufficiently. It is also suggested the case demonstrates how society has been forced to redefine racism so as to no longer exclude white victims.
Background
Parker was born in Peterborough to Davinia and Tony and was one of two children. He was a keen footballer, and had completed a GNVQ in business studiesBusiness studies
Business studies is an academic subject taught at higher level in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom, as well as at university level in many countries...
at Jack Hunt School
Jack Hunt School
Jack Hunt School is a co-educational foundation comprehensive school and specialist language and sports college in Netherton in the city of Peterborough in the United Kingdom. The school currently has 1,466 pupils on the roll, aged 11 to 18...
, hoping to join the police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
force when he was 18. He was nicknamed "Half-Pint
Pint
The pint is a unit of volume or capacity that was once used across much of Europe with values varying from state to state from less than half a litre to over one litre. Within continental Europe, the pint was replaced with the metric system during the nineteenth century...
" due to his 5 feet 5 inch height and had twice broken his leg previously. Parker lived in the Westwood
Westwood, Peterborough
Westwood is residential area of the city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom. For electoral purposes it forms part of Ravensthorpe ward. Manufacturers of industrial machinery, Baker Perkins, relocated here from London in 1903...
area of the city and worked part-time at the Solstice Pub.
Murder
Parker was murdered shortly after 1.15am on 21 September 2001 when walking home from work with his girlfriend Nicola Foot. The attack took place on a cycle path alongside Bourges Boulevard in MillfieldMillfield, Peterborough
Millfield is residential area of the city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom. For electoral purposes it comprises the main part of Peterborough Central ward...
, Peterborough, near to Russell Street. Racial tensions in the area had been high, with the terrorist attacks on 11 September occurring ten days previously.
It was a warm night and Parker and Foot were holding hands as they walked to visit a friend of Foot's. They were confronted by a gang of up to ten Muslim Asian youths, some wearing balaclavas. Members of the gang had planned "to find a white male to attack simply because he was white" They warned Parker he had "better start running", but then blocked his path and quickly sprayed him in the face with CS gas
CS gas
2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile is the defining component of a "tear gas" commonly referred to as CS gas, which is used as a riot control agent...
. He was punched in the stomach and stabbed from behind three times through the throat and chest with a foot-long hunting knife
Hunting knife
A hunting knife is a knife used during hunting for preparing the game to be used as food: skinning the animal and cutting up the meat. It is different from the Hunting dagger which was traditionally used to kill wild game....
. The knife penetrated right through his body on two occasions and as he was laying on the ground he was repeatedly kicked and struck with a panel beater's hammer. Foot ran to a nearby petrol station to find help and a man there gave her his mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
so she could call the police. Whilst making the call she twice heard Parker cry out in pain. By chance she then spotted a passing police car and she entered the vehicle taking the officer to the murder scene. Although Foot had only been away for a few minutes, by the time she returned Parker had already bled to death
Exsanguination
Exsanguination is the fatal process of hypovolemia , to a degree sufficient enough to cause death. One does not have to lose literally all of one's blood to cause death...
and the gang had disappeared.
After the murder, the four accused returned to a garage behind Nazir's parents' house which they used as their headquarters. Awan, brandishing the bloodied knife, exclaimed "cherish the blood". Parker's body remained at the scene during the day while it was examined by expert officers. A post mortem revealed Parker had died as a result of stab wounds inflicted by a bladed instrument.
Arrests and charges
During the weekend following the murder, twelve Asian people were arrested on suspicion of murder, with a £1,000 rewardBounty (reward)
A bounty is a payment or reward often offered by a group as an incentive for the accomplishment of a task by someone usually not associated with the group. Bounties are most commonly issued for the capture or retrieval of a person or object. They are typically in the form of money...
put up by the local community to find the killers. This was later increased to £1,500. A number of those arrested were recorded chanting "Taliban, Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
" whilst being transported in the police van, also vandalising
Vandalism
Vandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...
the vehicle. Such chanting continued in the police cells. Detective Chief Inspector Dick Harrison, who was overseeing the case, praised the Muslim community for their involvement in capturing the murderers.
On 26 September 2001 Ali, Awan, and Nazir appeared in court charged with Parker's murder and a fourth person was charged the following day. However, by March 2002 all four defendants charged with Parker's murder had been controversially released from prison on police bail. Parker's sister, Leanne, stated "we can't begin to comprehend why they've been allowed out of prison at this stage". Parker's family were so concerned about such a decision that they wrote a letter of complaint to the Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
, David Blunkett
David Blunkett
David Blunkett is a British Labour Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, having represented Sheffield Brightside from 1987 to 2010...
. No action was taken however and the men remained free on bail.
Trial
Shaied Nazir, 22, Ahmed Ali Awan, 22, Sarfraz Ali, 25, and Zairaff Mahrad, 21 all of Peterborough, stood trial for Parker's murder at NorthamptonNorthampton
Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...
Crown Court
Crown Court
The Crown Court of England and Wales is, together with the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, one of the constituent parts of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
, pleading not guilty. The trial began in November 2002. Safraz Ali was given a reference at the trial by the Deputy Mayor
Deputy Mayor
Deputy mayor is an elective or appointive office of the second-ranking official in many local governments. Many elected deputy mayors are members of the city council who are given the title and serve as acting mayor in the mayor's absence...
of Peterborough, Raja Akhtar. and Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
councillor Mohammad Choudhary.
At the trial transcripts of covert police recordings of the suspects discussing the attack were adduced. The conversations took place in police vehicles when the suspects were arrested and were translated from Punjabi
Punjabi language
Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...
. Nazir was heard describing Parker's death as a "bloodbath", and how the third blow from the knife had split the whole of his neck open. Awan and Nazir were both heard discussing the statements they had given to police and the plan they had "made up". Contents of a letter written by Mahrad were also presented in which he stated he would "pray
Pray
Pray may refer to:* Prayer, an active effort to communicate with a deity or spiritIt may also refer to:-Places:Italy* Pray, Piedmont, a comune in the Province of BiellaUnited States* Pray, Wisconsin, an unincorporated community-People:...
to Allah
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
for forgiveness".
The jury heard how the murder weapons had been found in a shed at Nazir's house along with two bags of bloodied clothes. DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
belonging to Nazir was found on the hunting knife and Parker's blood was found on the hammer. His blood was also found on the clothes of two of the accused, along with Nazir and Mahrad's DNA. Three balaclavas were also recovered from the property, again containing traces of Parker's blood. Nazir's younger brother Wyed told the court he had seen his brother cleaning the murder weapon on the night of the killing and witnessed all four defendants with blood on their clothing.
In court Nazir admitted to seeing the victim laying on the ground, attempting to spray him with CS gas and kicking him. He also admitted washing the murder weapon and stated that Sarfraz Ali had hit Ross with the hammer and Awan used the knife. Mahrad had also admitted to be present at the murder scene, and claimed that the blood stains found on his trousers occurred as a result of him accidentally falling across Parker. Awan and Ali both denied being at the scene.
On 19 December 2002 Nazir, Awan and Ali were all found guilty of murder in unanimous verdicts. The judge summarised the murder during sentencing:
The judge concluded that Awan had wielded the knife, was the ringleader of the group and had intended to kill. The three received life sentences, with Awan to serve a minimum of 18 years and the others at least 16. Mahrad was cleared of murder and manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
.
After the trial it was revealed that Nazir had previously been cautioned for using threatening behaviour in 1999 and fined for resisting arrest. It also emerged that Awan was a police informer
Informant
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...
.
Awan and Nazir appealed against their jail terms in January 2008 but the original sentences were upheld, with judge Justice Davies stating he had taken into account "moving" statements from Parker's family. After the appeal Parker's father suggested that the killers of his son should never be freed.
Reporting
The media was criticised for their lack of coverage of the Ross Parker case in comparison to similar racist murders occurring in the UK, such as the case of Anthony Walker and that of Stephen LawrenceStephen Lawrence
Stephen Lawrence was a black British teenager from Eltham, southeast London, who was stabbed to death while waiting for a bus on the evening of 22 April 1993....
. The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
later admitted that "it was a mistake not to report the case of Ross Parker more extensively", noting the "stark" parallels with the Walker case though also suggesting the story had been "squeezed out" by other news such as a conviction of the killer of Danielle Jones. However it was noted that in hindsight that the crime was "worthy of coverage" "by any standards". Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown MBE is a Ugandan-born British journalist and author, who describes herself as a "leftie liberal, anti-racist, feminist, Muslim, part-Pakistani...a very responsible person"...
and Kelvin McKenzie expressed similar sentiments, with the latter criticising newspapers including his own employer, The Sun. He stated, "if you believe you're a victim of an ethnic minority and you're white there is nowhere to go. Editors are so liberal that they are scared to be seen that they're moving to the right
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
of their paper". Parker's mother Davinia Parker expressed similar concerns that white vicitms of race crime are ignored stating "because we are white, English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
, we didn't get the coverage" In 2006 a Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
article by Brendan Montague on racist murders in Britain stated searching newspaper archives shows "an almost total boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
of stories involving the white victims of attacks" whereas "cases involving black and minority ethnic victims are widely reported".
Others have noted that the lack of coverage is not simply a media issue. Peter Fahy
Peter Fahy
Peter Fahy QPM is the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police , the United Kingdom's third largest police force.-Personal life:Fahy holds a degree in French and Spanish from the University of Hull, and a Masters degree from the University of East Anglia.-Police career:He joined the police in...
, the spokesman on race issues for the Association of Chief Police Officers
Association of Chief Police Officers
The Association of Chief Police Officers , established in 1948, is a private limited company that leads the development of policing practice in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.ACPO provides a forum for chief police officers to share ideas and coordinates the strategic...
states “a lot of police officers and other professionals feel almost the best thing to do is to try and avoid [discussing such attacks] for fear of being criticised. This is not healthy.”. Montague suggests the lack of police appeals in cases involving white victims may be a cause of the lack of media coverage.
The organisation who did cover the case also faced some criticism. The Government office for the East of England produced a controversial secret report by Dr Roger Green examining race relations in Peterborough. The document suggested that the Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Peterborough Evening Telegraph
The Peterborough Evening Telegraph, or ET as it is known locally, is the local newspaper for the city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom...
had a history of insensitivity and coverage of the case was "possibly adding to any climate of racial and communal unrest". However such concerns were completely rejected by the police and local community representatives who praised the newspaper's approach.
Impact
Parker's murder lead to increased racial tensions in Peterborough. There were problems at Parker's school where three Asian pupils were suspended for an attack on a pupil. A number of taxiTaxicab
A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...
firms stopped work early in the days after the attack in fear of reprisals. In November 2001 Home Secretary David Blunkett
David Blunkett
David Blunkett is a British Labour Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, having represented Sheffield Brightside from 1987 to 2010...
banned all marches in Peterborough for three months as it was feared violence would be caused by the Anti-Nazi League
Anti-Nazi League
The Anti-Nazi League was an organisation set up in 1977 on the initiative of the Socialist Workers Party with sponsorship from some trade unions and the endorsement of a list of prominent people to oppose the rise of far-right groups in the United Kingdom. It was wound down in 1981...
and National Front
National Front
The name National Front is used by a number of political parties and coalitions.* Albania — National Front * Belarus — Partyja BPF* Belgium — National Front * Botswana — Botswana National Front...
who both sought to hold protests on the same day.
Parker's death also had a major impact on his family. His mother, Davinia, was unable to work for three months after Parker's funeral and came close to attempting suicide on a number of occasions. Parker's room was left untouched even a year after the incident, with his parents unable to bring themselves to tidy it, describing it as a place they "feel close to Ross".
Legacy
As a result of the murder of Parker, local authorities set up a unity scheme, whereby gang members from different communities were trained as youth workers in order to ease racial tensions and reduce violence. However, some problems still persisted, with racist graffitiGraffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
painted near the murder scene two years after the incident reading "no go area for whites", "Paki powa" and "death to whites".
Some, such as Mark Easton
Mark Easton
Mark Richard Erskine Easton is the Home Editor for BBC News broadcasting on national television and radio news. He also writes a blog for the BBC, which was a finalist at the in 2009 and winner of the award for statistical excellence in journalism in 2010...
cite the Parker case as demonstrating how society has been forced to redefine racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and discard the erroneous definition of "prejudice plus power" – a definition which had only allowed ethnic minorities to be victims. Others such as Alibhai-Brown condemned the double standards of racial equality
Racial equality
Racial equality means different things in different contexts. It mostly deals with an equal regard to all races.It can refer to a belief in biological equality of all human races....
campaigners in relation to the case, suggesting black
Black British
Black British is a term used to describe British people of Black African descent, especially those of Afro-Caribbean background. The term has been used from the 1950s to refer to Black people from former British colonies in the West Indies and Africa, who are residents of the United Kingdom and...
activists should "march and remember victims like Ross Parker", stating "our values are worthless unless all victims of these senseless deaths matter equally". She went on to write that "to treat some victims as more worthy of condemnation than others is unforgivable and a betrayal of anti-racism
Anti-racism
Anti-racism includes beliefs, actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism. In general, anti-racism is intended to promote an egalitarian society in which people do not face discrimination on the basis of their race, however defined...
itself".
Tributes
Parker's funeralFuneral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
took place at Peterborough Crematorium in Marholm on 23 October 2001 with over 400 mourners attending. His Netherton United football shirt was draped over his coffin and he was described as "a beacon of light who inspired so many people" and "an extremely popular young man". The murder received little attention from politicians although in 2003 Peterborough
Peterborough (UK Parliament constituency)
Peterborough is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, formally styled The Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Helen Clark
Helen Clark (UK politician)
Helen Rosemary Clark, previously known as Helen Brinton, is a politician in the United Kingdom...
made a statement in Parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
sending condolences of Parker's family, paying tribute to Peterborough community and in particular Ross' school with her words echoed by John Denham.
A plaque was installed in Netherton in Peterborough as a memorial to Parker, and a further memorial is located at Peterborough Crematorium. His former football team mates also play a match every May in his memory and formed a team called "Ross' Rangers".