CHAPTER 4 - Eyewitness in Brixton

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the eyewitnesses in the Brixton riots of 1981. The 1981 Brixton riots were not a rebellion in the sense of an organized attempt to overthrow the lawful government, for they were an unpremeditated outburst of anger and resentment against the police in a context of social and economic deprivation. Although Lord Scarman stressed that nothing could justify or excuse “the terrifying lawlessness of the crowds,” he found that reforms and improvements are necessary. In April 1982, one year after the Brixton riots, a conference was held at the University of Leicester to consider Lord Scarman's diagnoses and prescriptions. The reason for Lord Scarman's Report was that in Brixton one Saturday evening in April 1981, 300 or 400 young people, most of them black, attacked the police. They did so after what they saw as considerable provocation. The trouble was mostly confined to a number of back streets. It lasted for four and a half hours. Intermittently during that period, the crowd attacked the police with stones, bricks, bottles, and, in particular, petrol bombs. They set fire to buildings, destroyed vehicles, particularly those belonging to the police, and many shops in the centre of Brixton were looted. For much of the time, the police stood in defensive cordons behind their riot shields. Subsequently, the statistics showed that 279 policemen had been hurt and also 45 members of the public, and 28 buildings were damaged or destroyed by fire. The following day, there was more trouble but nowhere near as serious.