Brixton Riots

Causes

In the 1970s the black community in Britain were becoming disillusioned, the second generation who had been brought up in a system in which they felt discriminated against were particularly angry. After Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood speech’, a movement known as Powellism grew which felt white British born people deserved superior treatment.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the National Front grew in popularity, this was a political group that wanted all non-white immigrants to return to their country of origin. Although there were now Race Relations Act many non-white British people felt unrepresented by the government. In 1976 there had been the Battle of Lewisham, violent clashes sparked by a National Front rally through the borough. The black community were angry that the police allowed this march to happen. The National Front complained that a multicultural society is ‘evil’.

Development

By 1981 anger amongst the black community in the inner cities had grown for four main reasons.

1976 Battle of Lewisham
Economic hardship
Stop and search or sus laws
Operation swamp 81 (this swamped Brixton with plain clothes policemen)

In Brixton in April 1981 1000 people were stopped and searched due to operation swamp. Anger at the racial profiling associated with this led to anger boiling over. The arrest of a young black man on 10 April 1981 sparked the riot where for 3 days young black people fought the police. Buildings and cars were set on fire. Further riots took place in Birmingham, Toxteth, Manchester and Bristol.

To deal with the issues in the aftermath of the riots the Government asked Lord Scarman to investigate.

Consequences

Lord Scarman’s report found that institutional racism did not exist within the Metropolitan police. However, he suggested that making racially prejudiced behaviour a criminal offence. This report led to the end of the ‘sus law’ and the creation of the Police Complaints Authority. These improved relations between the black community and the police. In 1993 a black teenager Stephen Lawrence was murdered, an investigation showed that the Metropolitan Police did not investigate this fully due to institutional racism. This led to further reforms.

Significance

Short: Hated stop and search (sus) laws were ended. After the Scarman Report relations between the police and black community improved. There was still distrust from the black community towards the police.

Long: The Scarman Report and Stephen Lawrence investigation has led to reforms within the police service and better relations with the black community. A 2017 report by Lord Lammy found black and Asian people are more likely to be imprisoned. The black community make up 3% of Britain’s population but 9% of the prison population.