Letter: What chance a people's police?

MARTIN LUTHER KING is commemorated by an American holiday not because he was struck down by an assassin, as Ros Howell implies ("Stephen's legacy for Britain", 28 February), but because of his accomplishments when alive, as a leader of America's civil rights movement.

In honouring the memory of a victim of racist savagery, we must always beware of turning victimhood into a praiseworthy trait in itself. Trevor Phillips is therefore right to suggest a Windrush Day that would honour all the accomplishments, past and future, of West Indians in the UK. Stephen Lawrence and other victims of racism can be commemorated on such a day. But to turn a bank holiday into a day devoted to mourning divisiveness - as opposed to celebrating cultural diversity - would be to risk perpetuating the very ills that people of goodwill are seeking to wipe out.

STUART SEMMEL

University of Pennsylvania