Page 160 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

Hearing what was being spewed by these characters made me think their
only desire was to see more trouble and excuse it as a revolt against an
oppressive system. The police represent the ruling class I would hear, which is
why it’s ok to encourage the mobs to attack officers. Looting was ok too,
because it’s seen as an attack on possessions. Hogwash! If they hated
possessions so much why would they take them. The motive is pure and
simple, opportunistic greed.

Deplorable housing conditions can quickly be discounted as a cause of riots.
However, among immigrants and their children there was evident a mood of
fellow-feeling with 'back home', whether in Asia or the West Indies. Those who
look to social conditions as a cause of unrest should look not at Handsworth
but at Jamaica, the spiritual home of reggae-youth. Shacks of corrugated
iron arranged roughly in the style of African huts and compounds, the far-
away slums of Trenchtown, the shanty area of Kingston, Jamaica's capital,
may have spread their evils far abroad, Air flights are cheap and there is
much to-ing and fro-ing, Jamaican fashions in music and ideas reaching
England almost at their conception. When Jamaica sneezes... .

Not all that long ago, Jamaica was swept by riots worse than anything seen
in Britain outside the mining areas. These were ostensibly over the increased
price of petrol.

Meanwhile, back in Lozell's Road, water-sprinklers moved up and down, and
most of the rubble had been cleared away. A barrier, always manned by
two policemen, barred the way to where the two Asian Post officer owners
had died. It was a horrific scene. Rows of charred roof timbers stood naked to
the sky, and the modern brick post office where two brave men had died
was roofless, its red sign still intact. I was to perform this duty a couple of times,
protecting the scene of the murder. We allowed nobody to pass, the only `no
go area' In Handsworth. At the barrier a West Indian lady begged to know
what had happened to the children who had lived at the post office. She
was the local District Nurse. The children were being cared for by relatives.
`So sad. . .' the District Nurse murmured, close to tears.
On Lozell's Road further down, a warehouse and a corner of a row of modern
shops had been gutted by looters and petrol bombs. Shop proprietors were
being interviewed by officer investigating the looting which was more
organised than it sporadically appeared. They must have had a van or lorry
nearby because looters were seen carrying out rolled-up carpets and larger
electrical goods. Nowhere in the groups of bystanders were West Indians
standing near Indians. Neither race appeared to see the other one, but both
Page160
nationalities seemed deeply troubled.