Page 94 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

1981 The 1981 Handsworth riots were three days of rioting
that took place in the Handsworth area of
Handsworth Birmingham, England in July 1981. Handsworth
was then based on the ‘C’ Division and is
riots boundaries joined ours at the northern end of the

D3 sub division. As a neighbouring police area,
criminals living on the ‘C’ who had no respect for
boundaries, would often appear on our patch. By the same token, our villains
would often pop over the boundary into Handsworth to extend the reach of
their activities.

The major outbreak of violence took place on the night of Friday 10/11 July,
with smaller disturbances on the following two nights.

In his subsequent report, Lord Scarman called the Handsworth riots
‘copycats’ of those that had taken place in London, Liverpool and
Manchester, though many policy officers closer to the ground would dismiss
this as generalisation.

Everything kicked off with an attack on a locally well-known Police
Superintendent who was trying to calm rumours of an impending march by
the right-wing National Front. The disturbances that followed resulted in 121
arrests and 40 injuries to police officers, and widespread damage caused to
property.

Local Black youths later disputed the claim that relations with the police had
been amicable. Around 40% of them had been stopped and searched over
the previous 12 months. Handsworth comprised a mixed population of white,
black and Asian residents, but surveys after the riots showed little evidence of
any significant racial tension, so the cause of the rioting had no apparent
racial undertones. The most common reasons for the riots reported by
participants were unemployment, boredom and the imitation of events
elsewhere.

For the three days over which the riots took hold in Handsworth, I was posted
to a serial (a team of officers who operated as a group, travelling in transit
type vehicles). Much of the time was spent ‘on standby’ at Queens Road
police station as we’d missed the main disturbances of the 1 night and the
st
remaining two nights saw only flashpoint outbreaks of violence, no prolonged
pitch battles.

Other than a couple of hours standing on Soho Road, Handsworth, more as a
deterrent team than a proactive force our serial did not come face to face
with any situations requiring our intervention. In chatting to older West Indian
residents, their mood was apologetic on behalf of their younger folk. Neither Page94
skin colour or race came into our conversations and the elders were scathing