"Heaven help us if all our police officers carry guns"

Baroness Doreen Lawrence reflected on the events in Ferguson, Missouri, from a mother's perspective. She empathised with how Lezley McSpadden, whose son Mike Brown was shot and killed by a police offer in 2014, might be feeling at this time of year.

"I find Christmas very difficult" she said. "It’s like somebody’s always missing."

Baroness Lawrence recalled what Nelson Mandela said to her following the murder of her own son - “in South Africa, Black lives are cheap; I didn’t expect that to be here.”

Stephen Lawrence's death was the catalyst for the Macpherson report which branded the Metropolitan Police 'institutionally racist'.

Despite the positive outcomes from the investigation, Baroness Lawrence remarked "Why should we have to lose our son for this country to change?"

Credit: Ben A. Pruchnie / Stringer