Page 161 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

We were often asked who the men in white were, combing the burnt-out
shops. 'Those are forensic experts,' we would say. 'If you or I were to go in
there, particles from our clothes might contaminate the evidence.'

I’m not going to pretend I know any of the answers to why the Handsworth
Riots took place. What we were aware of though, was a strong resentment
felt by young blacks against Asian shopkeepers who worked long hours and,
as was their right, hoarded their wealth. Early television reports gave the
impression that the blacks were out to get the Asians before they turned on
the police which only reinforced that view.

The black youngsters were known for blowing their money, wages or benefits
early in the week, whilst the Asian cautiously preserved his assets.

The Asian shopkeepers feared the West Indian gangsters and occasionally,
that fear would kick back in retaliation.

As Lord Dear was to observe, community spokespeople, perhaps fearful
themselves of confronting the true cause of the explosive riotous behaviour,
i.e. the racial tension between two very different ethnic mindsets, erroneously
placed some of the blame for the riots on over zealous policing.

Personally, I witnessed nothing of the sort.

Handsworth wasn’t the only region to suffer grievous results of inner-city
rioting. In London, events were to have fatal and tragic consequences.

Police Constable Keith Henry Blakelock, QGM

The summer 1985 was a time of tensions in the black communities of England
and the police, and effectively the year became known as the year of the
riot and in the latter part of 1985 there were three very serious disturbances,
one of them led to the brutal murder of Police Constable Keith Blakelock.

Keith Blakelock was a London Metropolitan Police constable who was
murdered on 6 October 1985 during rioting at the Broadwater Farm housing
estate in Tottenham, north London. The trouble broke out after a local black
woman died of heart failure during a police search of her home and took
place against a backdrop of unrest in several English cities and a breakdown
of relations between the police and black communities.
PC Blakelock was a home beat officer in Muswell Hill, north London and had
been assigned on the night of his death to Serial 502, a unit of 11 constables
and one sergeant dispatched to protect firefighters. When the rioters forced
the officers back, Blakelock stumbled and fell. Surrounded by a mob of
around 50 people, he received over 40 injuries inflicted by machetes or
similar and was found with a six-inch-long knife in his neck, buried up to the Page161
hilt.