Comments on: Brixton and the riots in 1981

By: Robert Wood

Robert Wood — Sun, 02 May 2021 21:57:22 +0000

The photo of the two young ladies with extreme anger on the faces is amazing. I saw this many years ago in an office somewhere and it has stayed with me ever since. Does anyone know anything about them?

By: south london stress

south london stress — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 08:39:39 +0000

Sorry to be pedantic, but there were more than two more riots, and there wasn’t one in 1991. There was (at least) a mini-riot in ’82, September 85 (after the cops shot and paralysed an elderly black woman in her home while looking for her son), two small riots against the poll tax in March 1990, the big second national anti poll tax demo in October 1990, where the police rioted in revenge for Trafalgar Square and kicked our heads in, and a riot in December 1995, after the police killed Wayne Douglas in the police station. Plus a small riot in August 2011. That’s not counting smaller pushing and shoving incidents, of which there were numerous, after events, fairs, just because the cops felt like it…

Yes some of ’81 and other riots were nasty, but they all happened for reasons – mostly because the police pushed people beyond the tipping point. And lots of them were fun – we broke the bounds of daily shite and liberated ourselves as well, for a short while.

Finally, to the twat who moved here 4 years ago and thinks there’s to many foreigners here – wise up. If the BNP EDL or UKIP even got into power, then after they’d ‘dealt’ with the africans, asians, (along with any folk of political suspiciousness, or lesians and gays, who you also probably think should be liquidated?), you don’t think they’d start on the eastern europeans, or wherever you are from? This city, and in wider terms, this ‘country’ thrive on the mix of peoples – its what makes it what it is.

By: cabe

cabe — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:08:32 +0000

Portrait Of Handsworth Riot in 1985 – Pogus Caesar – BBC1 TV . Inside Out.

Broadcast 25 Oct 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey7ijaXv6UQ

Birmingham film maker and photographer Pogus Caesar found himself in the centre of the riots and managed to document these images. The stark black and white photographs featured in the exhibition ‘Handsworth Riots – Twenty Summers On’ provide a rare, valuable and historical record of the raw emotion, heartbreak and violence that unfolded during those dark and fateful days in September 1985.

By: alex

alex — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 13:26:44 +0000

anonymous what a dumb as comment

By: Ang

Ang — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 07:13:28 +0000

Anonymous – you really need to educate yourself a bit more about the BNP before you start saying things like that, particularly if you aren’t British! Try looking a bit harder at what causes the racism in the first place – comments like yours certainly don’t help.

Great blog, thank you.

By: jack

jack — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:32:26 +0000

That sounds like a pretty nasty riot.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 21:33:00 +0000

Here we are, 27 years later, London is really “swamped by people of different culture” (I’m one of them). Children speak Jafaikan and stabbing rate is flying high. Who cares? We’ve got “positive discrimination” and life can be sweet if you’re one leg black lesbian. It’s a Guardian reader paradise.
I move to Britain 4 years ago, I’m neither racist nor homophobe.I try to integrate, but I already hate political correctnes, cultural, ethnic and religious gethos. Who knows, one day I may even vote for BNP.