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| 1981 Brixton riot | |
|---|---|
| Part of the1981 England riots | |
 Police with riot shields form a cordon across Atlantic Road at its junction withColdharbour Lane, 11 April 1981 | |
| Date | 10–12 April 1981 |
| Location | Brixton,South London, England |
| Methods | Rioting,looting, arson |
| Casualties and losses | |
| 279 police officers injured 45 members of the public injured | |
The1981 Brixton riot, orBrixton uprising,[1] was a series of clashes between mainlyBlack youths and theMetropolitan Police inBrixton,London, between 10 and 12 April 1981.[2] It resulted from racial discrimination against the Black community by the mainly white police, notably over the police's increased use ofstop-and-search in the area, and tensions resulting from the deaths of 13 black teenagers and young adults in the suspiciousNew Cross house fire that January.[2] The main riot on 11 April, dubbed "Bloody Saturday" byTime magazine,[3] resulted in 279 injuries to police and 45 injuries to members of the public;[4] over a hundred vehicles were burned, including 56 police vehicles; almost 150 buildings were damaged, thirty of which were burnt out, and many shops were looted. There were 82 arrests. Reports suggested that up to 5,000 people were involved.[5] The Brixton riot was followed by the1981 England riots in July in many other English cities and towns. TheThatcher government commissioned an inquiry, which resulted in theScarman Report.
Brixton inSouth London was an area with serious social and economic problems.[6] The United Kingdom was affected by arecession by 1981, but the localAfrican-Caribbean community was suffering particularly high unemployment, poor housing and a higher-than-average crime rate.[7]
In the preceding months there had been growing unease between the police and the inhabitants of Lambeth, the borough of London in which Brixton is located.[8] On 18 January 1981, thirteen Black youths died in afire during ahouse party inNew Cross, in the nearby Borough of Lewisham. Although authorities stated that the fire started inside and was accidental, the public believed it was an arson attack and criticised the police investigation as inadequate. Black activists, includingDarcus Howe, organised a march for the "Black People's Day of Action" on 2 March.[9] Accounts of turnout vary from 5,000[10] to 20,000[11] to 25,000.[12] The marchers walked 17 miles (27 km) fromDeptford toHyde Park, passing theHouses of Parliament andFleet Street.[11][13] While the majority of the march finished in Hyde Park without incident, there was some confrontation with police atBlackfriars. According to ProfessorLes Back, "while the local press reported the march respectfully, the national papers unloaded the full weight of racial stereotyping."[8][13]The Evening Standard's front-page headline had displayed a photo of a policeman with a bloody face juxtaposed with Darcus Howe's quote about the march being "A good day". A few weeks later, the police arrested some of the march organisers and charged them with the offence ofriot, but they were later acquitted.[11]
In 1980, 30,805 crimes were recorded in the borough of Lambeth, with 10,626 of those taking place in the Brixton division. Between 1976 and 1980, 35% of all crimes in the borough, and 49% of robbery and violent theft offences, occurred in Brixton. The police recognised the rising crime, at the beginning of April, the Metropolitan Police beganOperation Swamp 81, aplain clothes operation to reduce crime (named after prime ministerMargaret Thatcher's 1978 assertion that the UK "might be rather swamped by people with a different culture") and uniformed patrols were increased in the area.[14][15] Officers from other Metropolitan police districts and theSpecial Patrol Group were dispatched to Brixton, and within five days, 943 people were stopped and searched, with 82 arrested, through mass use of what was colloquially known as the "Sus law".[16] This referred to powers under theVagrancy Act 1824, which allowed police to search and arrest members of the public when it was believed that they were acting suspiciously and not necessarily committing a crime. The African-Caribbean community accused the police of disproportionately using these powers against Black people.[17]
Public disfavour came to a head on Friday 10 April. At around 5:15 pm apolice constable spotted a Black youth named Michael Bailey running towards him, apparently away from three other black youths. Bailey was stopped and found to be badly bleeding, but broke away from the constable. Stopped again on Atlantic Road, Bailey was found to have a four-inch stab wound.[18] He ran into a flat and was helped by a family and the police constable there by putting kitchen roll on his wound. A crowd gathered and, as the police then tried to take the wounded boy to a waiting minicab onRailton Road, the crowd tried to intervene thinking the police did not appear to be providing or seeking the medical help Bailey needed quickly enough. As the minicab pulled away at speed a police car arrived and stopped the cab. When an officer from the police car realised Bailey was wounded he moved him into the back of the police car to take him to hospital more quickly, and bound his wound more tightly to stop the bleeding. A group of 50 youths began to shout for Bailey's release, thinking the police were arresting him. "Look, they're killing him," claimed one. The crowd descended on the police car and pulled him out.[citation needed]
Rumours spread that a youth had been left to die by the police, or that the police looked on as the stabbed youth was lying on the street. More than 200 youths, black and white with predominantly Afro-Caribbean heritage, reportedly turned on the police. The police decided to increase the number of foot patrols in Railton Road, despite the tensions, and carry on withOperation Swamp 81 throughout the night and into the following day.[19]
It was inaccurately believed by the local community that the stabbed youth died, and that it was a result of police brutality. This fuelled tensions throughout the day as crowds slowly gathered. Tensions first erupted around 4 pm, as two police officers stopped and searched a mini cab in Railton Road. By this time Brixton Road (Brixton High Street) was reportedly filled with angry people and police cars were pelted with bricks. At around 5 pm the tension escalatedand the 9 pmBBC News bulletin that evening reported 46 police officers injured, five seriously.[20] Shops were looted on Railton Road,Mayall Road,Leeson Road,Acre Lane andBrixton Road. The looting in Brixton reportedly started at around 6 pm. At 6.15 pm the fire brigade received their first call, as a police van was set on fire by rioters in Railton Road, with the fire brigade being warned "riot in progress". As the fire brigade approached the police cordon, they were waved through without warning, driving down Railton Road towards 300 youths armed with bottles and bricks. The fire brigade met the crowd at the junction between Railton Road and Shakespeare Road and were attacked with stones and bottles.
The police put out emergency calls to police officers across London, asking for assistance. They had no strategy, and only had inadequate helmets and non-fireproof plastic shields to protect themselves with while clearing the streets of rioters. The police reportedly also had difficulties in radio communication. The police proceeded in clearing the Atlantic–Railton–Mayall area by pushing the rioters down the road, forming deep shield walls. The rioters threw bricks, bottles, andpetrol bombs. At 5.30 pm the violence further escalated. Non-rioting members of the public attempted to mediate between the police and the rioters, calling for a de-escalation by withdrawing police from the area. The destructive efforts of the rioters peaked at around 8 pm, as the attempts at mediation failed. Twopubs, 26 businesses, schools and other structures were set alight in the riots.
By 9.30 pm, over 1,000 police were sent to Brixton, squeezing out the rioters.[21] By 1 am on 12 April 1981, the area was largely subdued, with no large groups – except the police – on the streets. Thefire brigade refused to return until the following morning. Police numbers grew to over 2,500, and by the early hours of Sunday morning the rioting had fizzled out.[4]
During the disturbances, 299 police were injured, along with at least 65 members of the public. 61 private vehicles and 56 police vehicles were destroyed. 28 premises were burned and another 117 damaged and looted. 82 arrests were made.[16] Between 3 and 11 July of that year, there was more unrest fuelled by racial and social discord, atHandsworth in Birmingham,Southall in London,Toxteth in Liverpool,Hyson Green inNottingham andMoss Side in Manchester. There were also smaller pockets of unrest inLeeds,Leicester,Southampton,Halifax,Bedford,Gloucester,Wolverhampton,Coventry,Bristol, andEdinburgh. Racial tension played a major part in most of these disturbances, although all of the riots took place in areas hit particularly hard by unemployment and recession.
The Home Secretary,William Whitelaw, commissioned a public inquiry into the riot headed byLord Scarman. TheScarman report was published on 25 November 1981.Scarman found unquestionable evidence of the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of 'stop and search' powers by the police against black people. As a consequence, a new code for police behaviour was put forward in thePolice and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and the act also created an independentPolice Complaints Authority, established in 1985, to attempt to restore public confidence in the police.[22] Scarman concluded that "complex political, social and economic factors [created a] disposition towards violent protest".[23]
The 1999Macpherson Report, an investigation into the murder ofStephen Lawrence and the failure of the police to establish sufficient evidence for the prosecution of the charged suspects, found that recommendations of the 1981Scarman Report had been ignored. The report concluded that the police force was "institutionally racist".[24] This report, which did not cover the events of the Brixton Riots, disagreed with the conclusions made by Scarman.[25] On 25 March 2011,BBC Radio 4 broadcastThe Reunion, a programme featuring reminiscences by participants, including police and black Brixton residents.[26]
On 13 April,Margaret Thatcher dismissed the notion that unemployment and racism lay beneath the Brixton disturbances claiming "Nothing, but nothing, justifies what happened". Unemployment in Brixton stood at 13 per cent, with 25.4 per cent for ethnic minorities. Unemployment among black youths was estimated at 55 per cent. Rejecting increased investment in Britain's inner cities, Thatcher added, "Money cannot buy either trust or racial harmony.".Lambeth London Borough Council leader,Ted Knight, complained that the police presence "amounted to an army of occupation" that provoked the riots; Thatcher responded, "What absolute nonsense and what an appalling remark ... No one should condone violence. No one should condone the events ... They were criminal, criminal.".
Small-scale disturbances continued to simmer throughout the summer. After four nights of rioting inLiverpool during theToxteth riots, beginning 4 July, there were 150 buildings burnt and 781 police officers injured.CS gas was used for the first time on the British mainland to quell the rioting. On 10 July, there was more rioting in Brixton. It was not until the end of July that the disturbances began to subside.[22] The recommendations of the Scarman Report to tackle the problems of racial disadvantage and inner-city decline were not implemented.[23] Rioting broke out again in the1985 and1995 Brixton riots.
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51°27′35″N0°06′37″W / 51.45985°N 0.11038°W /51.45985; -0.11038
