A sit down with Nazir Afzal - The first Muslim CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) Chief Prosecutor in England & Wales

<div> <p style="text-align: center;"><strong>The Black Spy Podcast</strong></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><strong>A sit down with Nazir Afzal - The first Muslim CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) Chief Prosecutor in England & Wales</strong></p> <p>This week Carlton King explores the life and times of Nazir Afzal, the renowned first Muslim Chief Prosecutor of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in England & Wales’ (North West Region).</p> <p>The nearest equivalent body to the CPS in the United States is the District Attorney’s office.</p> <p>We also learn about Nazir’s tough up-bring in inner city Birmingham in the 1970’s, his distrust of the police and other English institutions of state in the era and the depth of feeling this created within the young Nazir.</p> <p>We are made to understand why he decided to become a lawyer, rather than the doctor or engineer his parents hoped he’d become. And we learn about Nazir’s journey into prosecuting on behalf of the British state.</p> <p>We also, discuss the all encompassing racism Nazir was subjected to from his very early life onward, to his somewhat more comfortable rise to the top of his profession. Finally, the men discuss a plethora of current and systemic problems suffered by the contemporary British state.</p> <p>Carlton points out that the CPS very rarely takes responsibility for its decisions and cites the Stephen Lawrence case as a prime example of this, noting that after Stephen Lawrence’s murder the Met police within ten days had arrested four suspects, however, the crown prosecution service told police that in their opinion, their was not enough evidence to gain a conviction at court therefore police would have to release them!</p> <p>The suspects would all remain free for several years thereafter.</p> <p>The Met police would suffer greatly for not having arrested Stephen’s murderers and were taunted as incompetent and institutionally racist.</p> <p>However, the CPS who prevented the four suspects taken to trial, took none of the blame or derision for the