Britain riots: Who's guilty?

Police guard a burnt-out shop in Brixton: Closer to homeFor the past three years and more the British have sat many an evening, supper tray on lap, watching scenes of violence on the nine o'clock television news. Stone-throwing mobs, petrol bombs, riot police, army action, blood and gore - it was all there.But it was all happening in Northern Ireland, so they could afford to be placid. Suddenly the petrol bombs were falling in the streets much closer at home, in Liverpool, in Manchester, and in London. The July riots lasted about two weeks and caused more tearing of hair and beating of breasts than any other event in recent British history.Friday, July 3. Three busloads of skinheads gathered in a pub in the Southall area of London for a pop concert. A visit to the nearby Maharajah Grocery Store by some of the skinheads resulted in the abuse of the proprietor's wife, Nirmal Kalhan. "There was a young girl with the group who hit me with her fists, I had to cover my face with my arms," said Kalhan.The skinheads broke shop windows as they strode along the main shopping area. As the Kalhan children spread the alarm, hundreds of Asians gathered outside the Hanborough Tavern where the skinheads were listening to a pop group called the '4-Skins'. Violence soon broke out.When the police arrived shortly afterwards the battle was at its height. In the course of two-and-a-half hours of fighting between Asians and skinheads the pub was gutted and many shops had their windows broken. At the height of the battle, the skinheads, says a Sunday Times report, were running up and down a quiet residential street asking white residents where the Indians lived.The last occasion Southall had been at the centre of racial violence was in April 1979 when New Zealand school teacher Blair Peach was killed, while he and 3,000 others demonstrated against a National Front meeting in the area.Affected Areas: The same Friday evening, the arrest of a teenage black (of West Indian origin) motor-cyclist in Liverpool triggered off a disturbance which developed into a full-scale riot the next day. The worst hit was the Toxteth area which has a predominantly black population.Rioting then spread over the following week to Manchester, Bradford, Birmingham, Leeds, Lancashire, Blackburn and parts of London again. These later riots were labeled 'copycat' riots and involved black, Asian and white people often joining hands against the police.The Toxteth area of Liverpool saw five days of intermittent rioting during which 250 policemen were injured and over 200 people arrested. Police used plastic shields to hold back more than 500 rioters. Some were reported to have their faces covered in balaclava masks - an ominous imitation of the Irish Republican Army on the streets of Belfast.Shocked residents of Liverpool compared the scenes of burning buildings and smashed cars to those of 1941 during the German bombing of Liverpool. Police used the controversial CS gas, which acts as a blinding and disabling agent, for the first time in Britain to control the mob.Nearly every town and city affected by the violence has a substantial immigrant community both from the Indian subcontinent and the West Indies. But the violence in most cases, with the exception of Southall, was directed against the police."They harass us," was the general cry from many black youngsters, "there is nothing for us here, we are left on the streets and the police hassle us." Forty seven per cent of the black people are unemployed in the Liverpool area alone and the relationship between the police and the black community in Britain has always been a hair-trigger one.Reactions: The involvement of white people in the riots was a factor which took many people by surprise, and television showed pictures of middle-aged and even elderly white people looting shops.In the Handsworth area of Birmingham the rioters were on the whole multiracial and the main target of the stone-throwing and looting were the well-to-do Indian and Pakistani owned shops. Said a wealthy clothing manufacturer, D. Malhi: "They broke my shop windows. I'm sure most of the young people who were doing this were Asian."At the beginning of the rioting Margaret Thatcher, compared to Marie Antoinette in a Guardian article, declared that no one had really believed that this sort of thing could happen in England. What England did she know, asked the article.Inquiries: A Times editorial summed up the attitude of many people in Britain today: "Britain is a multiracial society with a good deal of racial hatred. The evil of racialism will not be resisted by preaching integration. Tolerance does not require that every Englishman should have a black man for his neighbour or that every Asian should forget his cultural identity." The Times ideal was not integration but equal opportunity, accompanied by cultural diversity in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance.Although outwardly all is the same in Britain again, the riots have made a big dent in British self-esteem. Now it seems to be a period of questioning and explaining. But nobody, least of all Mrs Thatcher's Government, is willing yet to put their hands over their hearts and say 'guilty'.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 14, 2013 11:37 IST--- ENDS ---

Download App

Get 37% off on an annual Print +Digital subscription of India Today Magazine

Britain riots: Who's guilty?

For the past three years and more the British have sat many an evening, supper tray on lap, watching scenes of violence on the nine o'clock television news. Stone-throwing mobs, petrol bombs, riot police, army action, blood and gore - it was all there.

PUBLICATIONS

TELEVISION

EVENTS

RADIO

GAMING

USEFUL LINKS

PRINTING

WELFARE

DISTRIBUTION

SYNDICATIONS

WEBSITES

EDUCATION