From the ashes
I am currently writing about my intense experiences during the Brixton and Tottenham Hale Broadwater Farm protests in London in 1985. They will be an important part of my upcoming novel From the Ashes set to be published this fall.
The institutionally racist London police struck again.
It's almost 40 years ago, but I remember it vividly. It was basically my first close encounter with a thoroughly violent and racist police force, and a major wake up call. They, like all police had no concern for the people they were supposed to serve. I discovered that was common everywhere.
I and a friend were visiting a friend of a friend in Brixton. This was only my third visit to London, and I was looking for an inexpensive place to stay. The man that I in the novel gave the name Stuart Elliott lived in one of the poorest parts of the city. His apartment was exactly the tiny-sized space I describe in the book, only a kitchen, a bed and a living room in one room.
We experienced the visible unrest before we entered the apartment, and heard the commotion grow loud on the street from the apartment. «Stuart» explained the situation to us. A woman, Dorothy Groce, an immigrant from Jamaica, had been shot by the police in her bed, in her own apartment. They had been looking for her son, but found her, with three of her children. The rumor was that she had died from the wound. We joined others of all colors and creeds walking to her house, and walked from there to the police station in Brixton Road. The «racial tensions» had been present for a long time, and there had been several major incidents in 1981, and people were angry. Ted Knight, a local council leader stated straight up that the heavy police presence «amounted to an army of occupation».
The uprising began. People shouted MURDERERS outside the police station, and demanded that the shooter was punished. There was no notable immediate response, and people grew even angrier. The destruction of property began not far away. Cars and buildings were set on fire. Windows were broken. Some businesses were relieved of goods. People in the area saw those businesses as part of the occupation of their neighborhood.
A massive police force attacked those standing outside the police station, including those of us from the apartment and Dorothy’s house. The police, as usual basically attacked everyone. There was no respite from the brutal assault anywhere in Brixton and Lambeth. I was totally unprepared for it. So were many others. Fortunately, there were some seasoned veterans there able to teach us, give us a crash course of the basics.
If the police wanted to regain any control of the area by their relentless brutality, they failed completely. The uprising raged on for the night and for days. We always saw it as a miracle that we escaped from the area without serious injuries.
In Broadwater Farm, in Tottenham Hale, North London a week later another Afro-Caribbean woman, Cynthia Jarrett died of heart failure after sustaining rough treatment from the police.
London exploded in rage. History repeated itself again. Many protesters were arrested and assaulted and maimed. I wasn’t there, but others from the Brixton uprising were. I received an extensive report later. It was bad, really bad. I became numb and enraged simultaneously, but I’m happy to say I never became comfortably numb.
+++
«Stuart Elliott» and other community leaders were arrested for instigating the unrest.
Bernie Grant, the leader of the Labour-controlled Haringey Council stated loudly that the police was «out of control», drawing lots of criticism for it.
Patricia Jarrett claimed later that the police knew about her mother’s frailty, but treated her badly anyway.
No policeman was charged with the death of Cynthia Jarrett.
The 1999 Macpherson report concluded that the police force was institutionally racist.
In 2014, the police finally apologized for the shooting of Dorothy Groce. She was paralyzed from the waist down, and an inquest concluded that the shooting caused her death in 2011.
Detective Inspector Douglas Lovelock, the shooter was never convicted of anything.
The London Metropolitan Police’s reputation hasn’t improved in the almost forty years that has passed. There have been numerous occasions of police brutality, murders and assaults. In 2011, another uprising ensued in London and across England after an unarmed Mark Duggan from Tottenham Hale was shot dead by the police.
Duggan’s death was later deemed «lawful» by two inquests.
Ian Tomlinson was struck by a police officer and collapsed and died. Simon Harwood was dismissed from the police because of «gross misconduct».
Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by a number of police officers, a victim of a «botched security operation». Officers were fined for the killing. The gold leader of the operation, Operation Kratos, Cressida Dick was promoted several times, until eventually becoming Met commissioner.
Approximately ninety people have been killed by the London police since the events in Broadwater Farm