POLICING THE 1981 BRITISH ‘’ Russell Hogg e following paper is based upon an rlier, unpublished paper entitled INTRODUCTION iots, Crime and Authoritarian litics in Britain" which was "If, as our researches show, esented at the 1982 ANZAAS confer­ Britain is moving towards 'two ee in Sydney. Whilst the original societies, one black, one white, per was concerned with several separate and unequal', the police pects of the 1981 'riots' in Britain will have had no small part to d their prehistory and aftermath - play in that polarisation.... ce, immigration, youth, economic Popular morality has come to cline, authoritarian politics - define black people out of is shortened version of the paper society as 'an alien wedge' cuses principally upon the question or as 'swamping' British culture, policing and the 'riots'. There and the police no longer just s been no attempt to exhaustively reflect or reinforce that morality: date the paper in the light of they re-create it - through stereo­ ents and debate since it was written, typing the black section of though it does include references society as muggers and criminals the more important recent contrib- and illegal immigrants. Deriving ions to what is a large and growing their sanction from popular terature on 'the riots'. The paper morality they are now to become Mike Brogden, elsewhere in this the arbiters of that morality...." sue of the ACJ, deals in greater, d more up-to-date, detail with (Police Against Black People, litical struggles around policing Institute of Race Relations evidence Merseyside both before and since to the Royal Commission on Criminal ly 1981. It demonstrates the local Procedure, 1979) d quite specific dimensions of this ruggle, and hence also of any analysis The subject of this paper is the ich would seek to inform it. This events of April and July, 1981, in ecificity is necessarily lost in the Britain, now collectively referred llowing account, which seeks to to as 'the riots'. I intend to focus entify the important general tend- upon developments in British policing, cies apparent firstly, in the and the policing of certain sections ganisation of urban policing in of the population in particular, as itain in the 70s and 80s, and one of the crucial precipitating condly, in the political responses forces relating to these events. The 'the riots'. Its general conclusions paper is necessarily rather general, not warrant serious modification schematic and uneven. light of the events since it was itten. The overall authoritarian By way of a preface to the description rust within British politics has and analysis of the relevant events epened, especially under the I would like to say a few words about fluence of the popular celebration the widespread use of the term '' Britain's imperialist past afforded to describe them. This is perhaps the Falklands war. And this aided more than of mere prefatory significance electoral consolidation of right- as the use of the term 'riot' is not m in the .198 3 national election, an innocent and neutral part of the wever, as Brogden's paper again interpretation of those events: it ows, local struggles over popular actively determines and constrains mocratic control of the police the form that interpretation will (an important element in that take. Employed alongside such terms thoritarian bloc) are also a central as 'the mob' and 'indiscriminate ature of British politics in the looting', as it was in the popular s . media at the time and since, the term 'riot' has powerful emotive connot­ ations, indicating a wholesale break­ down of social order and implicitly specifying and legitimating a particular set of repressive responses. 53 For those who would seek to interpret it will undoubtedly arise and when it the events from a greater distance does the language of 'riot', indiscrim­ and more sympathetically the term inate and senseless violence and so 'riot' is, however, no less constrain­ on will be trotted out to close off ing. It leaves the impression of any debate about what this squad does persons acting either spontaneously, and what role it plays in our daily wantonly and indiscriminately or life, and, in particular, in the as merely passive instruments of a daily lives of the more powerless larger set of economic and social groups among us. conditions: unemployment, urban decay, etc. This permits denunciation With these preliminary remarks in or disapproval of the actual behaviour mind, I would now like to move on to be allied to a liberal concern to to sketch in some descriptive details understand and remedy the underlying with respect to the events before conditions (see Scarman, 1981: para discussing the role of the police. 2.31). The problem becomes safely appropriated into conventional The 'Riots' of April and July 1981. political, academic and reform discourses. The focus is upon the The 4 major areas involved were Brixtor disorder and what to do to avoid its and Southall in , Toxteth in repetition. The complex pre­ and Moss Side in , histories, the accumulation of more all inner-city areas with large West mundane daily oppressions, which made Indian or Asian communities. By the events possible are expunged or mid-July there were, however, dis­ at least forced into the background. turbances involving street confront­ I would like to suggest that in ations between youth and the police seeking some understanding of these in many other cities and towns events we should be less concerned throughout the country. to offer remedies which deny the political significance and intell­ It is important to recognise that the igibility of the action in itself pattern of events in the different than to explore some of the areas was not identical and that historical processes which made them there are important local differences possible as meaningful, politically and factors. Care must be taken in significant responses to social drawing general conclusions. There oppression. So much of what is are some common threads though. In usually taken for granted in liberal each case the specific events started and commonsense thinking has been out as, or ended up being, major unavoidably thrown into question by confrontations between local youth these events; I refer here part­ and the police. In , Toxteth icularly to the role of the police. and Manchester they arose out of specific incidents involving the Our task is not to shore up the common- police and the arrest of one or more sense, to paper over the cracks and (usually West Indian) youths. The reconstitute an image of police and attempted and sometimes successful state as the self-evident keepers of rescue of an arrested youth by order merely responding to the forces others led to a generalised confront­ of disorder. But rather to question ation involving the burning out of and break down further such self­ police cars and buildings, street evidences - to turn up the neglected battles, the looting of shops and the history of the state's presence in causing of serious and widespread the creation of disorder. I injuries on both sides and in one case the death of a disabled youth at I say this advisedly for having returned the hands of the police. Events in from England in late August of 1981 Southall differed in that the original one of the first things I read in the confrontation was between local Asian newspapers was the announcement of the youth and fascist skinheads who had formation in the N.S.W. police force bussed into the area to attend a conce: of a Tactical Response Group, not at a local pub. After some of them unlike the Special Patrol Group (S.P.G.) attacked a local Asian shopkeeper that has played such an infamous role the youth of the community besieged in the pre-history of the 1981 the pub and drove the fascists out of events in Britain. the area. When the police moved in This decision was taken seemingly as the struggle of the Asian youth a matter of internal technical shifted against them. The Southall reorganisation, without any wider events reveal one distinctive factor political or popular media debate. worthy of emphasis. They started Now that it is with us the need for out as a response to the perceived 54 ailure of the police to protect the the emergence of a new era of policing immunity from racist violence, and in Britain and discussion of this 3t simply as anti-police. This restructuring of policing will form rievance goes back a long way and the central part of this paper. ts basis is well-documented, specially for the Asian community Police and Black Youth in the 70s i Southall and also in relation d the other areas involved as well Since the early 1970's the police see, for example, Institute of have responded to developments in ace Relations, 1979). The Southall the West Indian communities - the /ents thus confirm the general growth of an oppositional street attern in that the crucial, unavoid- culture in particular - with a Dle issue was that of the police sustained campaign of surveillance id policing in these areas, but they and criminalisation of black youth idicate that the larger issue (see Scraton, 1982). The fact that arrounding the events was one of levels of street crime of a violent Lfferential policing rather than nature are high in these areas and are over-policing; i.e. the under- that the involvement of black youth, alicing of racist violence in these as of anyone, in such forms of Dmmunities and not merely the crime is a legitimate source of arceived systematic police harass- concern within and outside these ant of Asian and West Indians. communities is not sufficient to explain this response on the part E race is to be regarded as a common of the police. These are generalised iread in the events, this should forms of control which utilise Dt be allowed to obscure the fact legitimate fear of violent street lat large numbers of whites were crime as a pretext for their nvolved as well, especially in operation. This is revealed by Dxteth, and that the actions for internal police documents and the le most part were not directed at use of crime statistics by the police iites as such but at the police, since the early 1970's. The t visible symbols of racism and at persuasive statistic that muggings articular shops and pubs associated had increased by 129% between 1969 Lth racist practices in the past, and 1973 was widely publicised in i this respect, the violence and 1973 as the basis for a crackdown ttacks on property were not on street crime. Clearly, rrugging lolly indiscriminate. is not a legal category and the researches of Hall, et al revealed le final factor of general significance that it was not used, at least by lat should be noted is the police the media, to refer to any specific asponse in the course of the events. crime until August, 1972, at the ach of the areas has suffered a earliest (Hall, et al 1978: p.2-3). m g history of ’hard' policing Their exhaustive examination and irough special squads and a juggling of police statistics on articular style of 'saturation' reported crime for those years slicing which will be discussed failed to reveal the basis for the ater. However, the particular statistic and the police have never mfrontations of that summer saw made available the criteria for le full panoply of repressive selecting and defining crimes as slice technology and tactics muggings. A 1975 secret police itroduced onto the streets of the report on street crime in South ainland for the first time. Apart London repeated similar statistics :om the by then familiar use of for the period before and after iot shields, helmets and other 1973 and 'demonstrated' that it luipment, C.S. gas was employed in was young blacks who were largely >xteth for the first time in a responsible for the increasing crime lblic order situation in mainland rates. However, it also indicated ritain. And it was the use of what that only a very small proportion 5 known as the 'mobile pursuit tactic' (4%) of young blacks were involved lat killed the disabled youth in in crime in any serious way (Sunday jxteth. This involved driving Times 19.4.81). It has been the ihicles at high speed at crowds former statistics only, and the l an attempt to force them off the assumptions they supported, that have :reets. It was systematically been relied upon to adopt a specific nployed in both Toxteth and style of policing in relation to mchester. Plastic bullets were young blacks since the early 1970's. Lso on hand but went unused. There The , along with 5 no doubt that the events confirmed other forces, have consistently 55 sought to reproduce the image of a crime or even that there was young blacks as muggers, and mugging anything to steal. Their subjective as the principal threat to social impression was usually sufficient to order on the streets. This is again found a conviction. In 1976 over obvious in the criminal statistics 300 persons were imprisoned or sent produced since the events of 1981 to a detention centre for 'sus' year in which the Metropolitan convictions (Ibid: p.35). West police singled out the rise in Indians were disproportionately reported street crimes (including represented in 'sus' prosecutions. muggings) as being of special concern The extent to which it was collective] and even broke down the particular perceived as a systematic form of highlighted statistic by district oppression can perhaps be gleaned and colour of the offender. The from the fact that the samples in fact is that upon closer examination two court studies of 'sus' prosecutior the category highlighted in this way revealed not guilty plea rates of constituted a mere 3% of the total 82% and 97% respectively(ibid; ALARM, crime rate, the smallest percentage undated), despite the difficulties of all categories, and by no means of mounting a defence in such cases. represented the one in which the A concerted and ultimately successful steepest rises had taken place. campaign for the repeal of 'sus' was No racial or area breakdown, however, mounted from within the communities. was given for other categories of Conspiracy to rob and attempted theft crime (Guardian Weekly, 21.3.82). charges were also widely used against Other facts about so-called muggings black youth indicating the pre-emptivs which the Home Office chose not to role of the police and their publicise widely included the fact sensitivity, not so much to crime, as that the victims of muggers tended to the mere presence of young blacks to be young rather than old, male on the streets. In the early mugging rather than female and were unlikely scare it was often the police them­ to be seriously hurt (Guardian selves who turned out to be the Weekly, 28.3.82). 'victims' of the attempted theft. The police also periodically employed The struggle being waged since the what has come to be called 'saturation early 1970's between police and black policing in these areas. This usually youth has been less about crime than involved sending in the Special about the use of public space. Such Patrol Group (S.P.G.) for massive struggles, by the way, are not by 'stop and search' exercises. I say any means new. A glance back to the more about the Special Patrol Group nineteenth and the early part of this later. It is a specialist squad, century would reveal that the police riot-trained and equipped and used had to wage the same sorts of struggles widely as part of a fire-brigade over many years in working class style of policing in which such highly communities (see Storch, 1981 Cohen mobile squads are sent into particulai 1979. And, it might be added, such trouble-spots to suppress the appareni struggles are never finally resolved sources of trouble. The S.P.G. were as events, especially in Toxteth, used in South London increasingly have recently revealed. over the 1970's to saturate particulai areas and systematically stop and The strategies employed by the police search people on the street. This against young blacks do reveal the often involved the setting up of nature and object of the struggle road-blocks and extensive raids on being waged. This is especially poorer housing estates as well. The so of police tactics adopted in South 1976 figures on S.P.G. stop and searcl London (where Brixton is located) reveal that out of almost 61,000 since the early 1970's. The police less than 4,000 arrests were made have sought to impose a virtual (about 6%). (See Friend and Metcalf, curfew on young blacks through the 1981: p.163). Such operations were, use of the notorious "sus" laws (now however, used for low level intelligei repealed) and the employment of gathering operations and to maintain saturation policing involving massive a constant level of intimidation in 'stop and search' expeditions. the streets. This style of policing "Sus" refers to section 4 of the led to an enormous deterioration in 1824 Vagrancy Act which makes it police-black relations throughout the an offence to be 'a suspected person latter half of the 1970's. This loitering with intent to commit an reached a pitch at the 1976 Notting arrestable offence' (see Demuth 1978). Hill Carnival (an annual West Indian The police under the provision did cultural event) and again in the not have to prove intent to commit following year at Lewisham in 56 ?outh London where police protection In the week before the :or a blatantly provocative National events in Brixton the local police pront march through a large West conducted a massive stop and search Indian area led to massive confront­ exercise in the area, called ations with demonstrators and the "Swamp 81". The police instructions lse of riot shields for the first for the operation are quoted in the :ime in mainland Britain. I have Scarman Report (1981: p.57): ilready suggested that these forms 5f policing were collectively "The purpose of this Operation experienced and collectively resented is to flood identified areas on ey West Indian youth. This was "L" District to detect and reflected in the growing tendency arrest burglars and robbers. for bystanders and other members of The essence of the exercise is :he community to mobilise and seek therefore to ensure that all :o effect a rescue when police officers remain on the streets rried to arrest a black person and success will depend on a [ibid: p.157). The police were concentrated effort of "stops" indeed experienced as an army of based on powers of surveillance )ccupation, and were increasingly and suspicion proceeded by responded to as such. persistent and astute question­ ing . "

The report goes on to outline the results of the operations:

"In the course of the operation, the ten squads between them made some 943 "stops" as a result of which 118 people were arrested. Slightly more than half of the people stopped were black. More than two-thirds were aged under twenty-one. 75 charges resulted from these "stops": these covered a variety of alleged offences, but included only 1 for robbery, 1 for attempted burglary and 20 charges of theft or attempted theft." (ibid)

If this is typical of the style of policing that had created an extremely volatile situation in the black community of South London on the eve of the events in Brixton, it would be a mistake not to recognise the connections between these many developments and the more generalised conflict which followed in July. Simon Frith has argued that police-black relations represented in many respects merely a more intense version of a struggle going on generally between working class youth and the police for the use of public space (1981: p.13). Although in the case of Southall there is a specific background to the events which I have not traced through in any detail, Frith's analysis would explain the rapidity with which major outbreaks of conflict took place elsewhere in the country.

57 histories. The themes of race and the largest force in the country, and youth have a complex relation has always been the most influential according to Frith. White working over general developments. During class youth, although often racist, the 60's most of the forces were is still locked in a struggle with amalgamated so that by the end of the police and authority in general, the decade there were only 43 forces and the path this struggle has taken in England and Wales. These changes has arguably been influenced by were coupled with the increased black youth: those who in a authority, through funding and different setting are their enemies a greater formal co-operation between (see Gilroy, 1982: p.217-19). The the forces, of the Home Office and complexity of these connections the Metropolitan police. Other should be a warning not to see the changes such as increased specialisatic Toxteth events optimistically as and an increased reliance upon some resolution of racial differences intelligence and the computerisation within this working class area of records and information have also (cf Bunyan, 1982) whilst giving us substantially aided the tendency, to cause to see how a shared outlook centralisation, co-operation and and response is possible at particular uniformity in police practice. moments (even in the context of wide­ These changes consequently curtailed spread racism). the authority of the local police committees which, whilst retaining Policing and "Law and Order" the responsibility to appoint the Chief Constable and maintain (through The police have not merely reacted funding of 50%, the force in an to problems presented by youth and efficient state, exercise little race but have played a crucial role, power in fact over their local alongside other agencies and organ­ forces. The precise extent of isations such as the media, judiciary, the legal powers of the police government and a host of pressure committees has been the source of groups, in actively defining or considerable debate in recent constituting youth and blacks as years, especially in Liverpool the "problem" (see Gilroy, 1982). where the Committee, in response to A specific aspect or example of this local pressure has sought increasingly has already been referred to: the to call the force to account over use of statistics and internal police some of its policies and practices. reports in the construction of the particular problem of black street During the 60's, the British police crime. However, the police also became increasingly specialised definition of, and response to, through the formation of specialist events that have been described squads and units whose role was only possible given more funda­ departed from that of traditional mental changes that had been taking policing by routine patrol and place since the 1960's in the internal peace-keeping and moved toward that structure of the police and its of specialist crime fighting, external relation to wider political surveillance and the collection processes. I will discuss these in of intelligence. After an internal turn. debate about the necessity of a third force between police and army, the The British police have, since the Special Patrol Groups(S.P.G.'s) Royal Commission on the police in were set up in 1965 in the metropolita] the early 1960's, been undergoing police. The aim was to provide highly a major restructuring along two lines - mobile squads which would be avail­ those of centralisation and special­ able to back-up the ordinary uniformed isation. The British police have a force where necessary. As has already unique historical and legal structure been suggested, the S.P.G.s have which from the creation of the modern since carved out a specialist forces during the course of the role for themselves in the 'fire- nineteenth century has been based brigade' policing of public order upon their local organisation and and 'high-crime rate' areas (see control through partly elected generally Baldwin & Kinsey, 1982: local authority police committees. ch.2). They have also been widely Before the re-organisation of the used in strike and picket situations, mid-1960's there were several most notably at Grunwicks in 1977, hundred such local forces, apart and in raids on squatters (see Rollo, from the London metropolitan police. 1980). A range of other specialist The latter, however, being politically squads were established from the mid accountable through the Home Secretary 60's onward, including several 58 ntelligence units (see Bunyan, 1977). These internal shifts in the organ­ hese developments in the metropolitan isation and direction of policing olice influenced or led to occurred with very little in the imilar changes in all or most of way of wider political debate as he other police forces over the to their necessity, implications, 970's (on the spread of S.P.G.s merits and demerits. This was ee State Research Bulletin, No.13). possible because of the essentially t the same time, the routine officer bi-partisan approach of the major n the beat was being placed at a political parties to policy in the reater distance from the community criminal justice area. As Kettle in hrough the use of electronic radio particular has pointed out, this nd the greater use of patrol cars insularity from wider debate has n place of foot patrol. Against a permitted the various agencies of >eace-keeping model of policing, in control, particularly the police, to rhich the police relied upon a develop an autonomous political role egree of consensus and co-operation within which they have not only rithin the community being policed, determined, as a matter of internal re witness the encroachment of a policy, their responses to events tyle of policing in which general but also played a crucial and urveillance, intelligence gathering growing role in the public signif­ nd pre-emptive control assume a ication and definition of these luch more significant role. events (Kettle, 1980a and 1980b; see also Reiner 1979). Particular f these are the structural dimensions police chief officers, Mark being »f the changed organisation of the perhaps the most well-known, and >olice without which the policing the police organisations (Police >f the inner-cities in the 1970's Federation and the Association of nd 19 80's could not have taken the Chief Police Officers) have played orm that it did, there were an increasingly active role over :ertain other related internal the 70's in law and order debates, ►olicy shifts that were equally elections and the process of law :rucial in the creation of the new reform. As I have tried to argue ;tyle of policing. Most of these such debates have increasingly late from the early 1970's, a period ranged over subjects such as race >f considerable political instability and youth and it has been the ind enormous industrial unrest particular success of the police :entred upon the industrial relations that they have managed to intervene >olicies of the Heath Government. strongly on all such issues without :t was at this time that Robert Mark, encountering widespread criticism :he new Metropolitan Commissioner of of a political nature or even the ‘olice introduced tactics developed formal argument that as part of the >y the army in Northern Ireland into executive branch of Government they :he training of increasingly larger are acting well outside their Lumbers of police officers (see proper sphere of influence. Robert lunyan, 1982: p.165-7; Rollo 1980: Mark provides the best example of >.176). The S.P.G.s were trained the active political role assumed .n 'riot-control techniques', by the British police over the snatch squad' methods (for the 1970's. As Commissioner of the irrest of ringleaders), 'flying Metropolitan Police from 1972 to /edges' (to disperse crowds) and 1977 he pioneered this new role. :he random stop and search and road- After his appointment he immediately )lock techniques that have already set about reconstructing police- >een referred to. Joint police/army media relations. He publicly :raining and exercises were intervened, most notably in the :onducted and in 1973 Police Support 1973 Dimbleby Lecture, to decry the Jnits began to be set up for the way in which criminal procedures mrpose of having more highly protected guilty criminals and to :rained and equipped police available attack the jury system. Mark :o deal with public order situations effectively constructed a central .n any part of the country when they role for the police in defining trose. So the training, style and "the reality of criminal Justice" sthos associated with special squads whilst mounting a successful campaign in particular, the S.P.G.) was against critics of the police, such .ncreasingly permeating the rest of as the National Council for Civil :he police, but not without some Liberties in particular, labelling rarning voices being raised from them as self-appointed minority groups, rithin the police itself (Bunyan, politically motivated, anti-police .982: p. 167-8) . and anti-law and order. But Mark 59 was outspoken and widely reported authoritarian politics in Britain on other issues as well, including during this period. It is important trade unions, political demonstrations, to emphasise that the police have race, etc. He commented widely on played a specific and autonomous Grunwicks, a small factory in London part in these developments at a employing mainly cheap Asian labour, number of levels. The wide-ranging which was in 1977 the scene of mass and quite fundamental internal pickets aimed at supporting the reorganisation of policing that workers in their attempts to unionise. occurred from the 1960's onward Mark supported the owner of Grunwick provided the pre-conditions for, for what he saw and stated was his indeed dovetailed with, the honing stand against "politically motivated of the tools of a new authoritarianism, violence". Mark's politics were a new discipline to be imposed clearly those of the Right but he from above by the State. And the was very effective at lending the reconstruction of the external attitude of the police the authority political role of the police of commonsense, equating it with a provided some popular legitimacy presumed public interest and at for both the wider political shift, times even suggesting that it was and some of the specific changes, the only voice that transcended entailed in the adoption of an sectional interests in an increasingly authoritarian state posture. It unstable world: also ensured that within these processes the particular interests, "The police are....very much on influences and definitions of the their own in attempting to police have been central in determin­ preserve order in an increasingly ing what law and order means in the turbulent society in which Britain of the 1980's and to whom Socialist philosophy has changed it will be directed. Their particular from raising the standards of success at insulating themselves the poor and deprived to reducing from effective criticism and the standards of the wealthy, political debate has been remarkable the skilled and the deserving and the cracks in this protective to the lowest common denominator." wall are only now just beginning (Mark, 1979: p.258-9) to show. Mark's successor, David McNee, and many other Chief Constables through­ Responses to the 'Riots' out the country followed in his footsteps, often arguing for All the various elements and specific changes to the law factors that were present in 'the and always couching such riots' had long been apparent to demands in a neutral, commonsense those who cared to look. Warnings language which concealed the had been coming both from inside and actively political role that they outside the communities for years. were engaged in. The Police Major confrontations with the Federation has similarly been police had occurred on several actively mounting law and order occasions, notably in Southall in campaigns since 1975, demanding 1979 when the S.P.G. killed Blair the reintroduction of capital Peach and in Bristol in 1980 when punishment, the substantial a full dress rehearsal of the follow­ amendment of the Children and Young ing year's events was provided. Yet Persons Act, 1969, and a range of the immediate reaction was by and other illiberal changes. The large one of absolute amazement and Federation formed a crucial part of shock that the events could take the law and order lobby during the place on mainland Britain, and this 1979 election (see generally Kettle, was so across the political spectrum. 1980a: p.27-31). Despite the above, With a few exceptions the formal it would be incorrect to see the responses reflect this short-sightedne police in monolithic terms and as this refusal to view the events as offering a unified view on all an intelligible and understandable issues. There are clear differences part of the reality of life in and tensions and I will refer to some Britain in the and to accept of them in discussing responses to the implications of this. This is the 'riots'. not surprising as the responses tend to be confined within the very Law and Order has been a general perspectives which were constitutve political issue throughout the of many of the conditions which made 1970's and has played an important the 'riots' possible in the first role in the emergence of an place. I wish to point here to three 60 types of response, what I will call response was apparent in the in turn authoritarian, liberal and reactions of many in the Labour popular democratic. Party, the centre parties, parts of the Conservative Party and the The Authoritarian Response: Liberal press, such as . It was also the approach taken by Much of the response of the police, Lord Scarman in his report on the media and Conservative Party to the Brixton Disorders. The problem riots was in strictly law and order is here regarded as the economic terms. A debate immediately and social conditions prevailing opened up around the need for a in the inner cities and the and a third para-military deteriorating police-community force other than the S.P.G.s and relations that were associated in their provincial equivalents. a secondary way with these primary There are divisions on these matters economic and social factors: though, even amongst those who see high unemployment, poor housing, the issue in essentially law and etc. are said to lead to increased order terms. The Government immed­ tension and alienation, reflected iately committed itself, however, to in higher crime rates and disorder the provision of army camps to hold on the streets, which in turn those convicted of offences arising lead to poor police-community out of the 'riots'. It also agreed relations. The police are seen to the provision and use by chief as essentially reactive; their constables of CS gas, water cannon systematic role in respect of and plastic bullets in public order the populations of the inner situations. city areas and its wider connections New protective helmets and with economic and social crisis clothing and armoured cars were is not addressed. Indeed, the provided to police and more Scarman Report formally denied police were riot-trained. Plans that "the direction and policies for increased stop and search of the Metropolitan Police...." powers were also announced. Even were racist and was only prepared with these measures for increasing to implicate the police in further the repressive machinery causing the riots to the degree of the state the then Home Secretary, of suggesting that some officers Whitelaw was under pressure from were occasionally guilty of racial the Tory right-wing and sections prejudice and that some police of the police and popular press actions, such as Swamp '81, were (the Daily Mail and the Murdoch ill-considered. The fundamental papers in particular) to take a shifts in the organisation and tougher stand. The Chief Constable style of policing and the specific of Greater Manchester, James Anderton, and systematic role that the went so far as to call for the police have played in respect of abolition of the locally elected these communities was ignored. police committees and the Police Alongside the pleas for special Federation has stepped up its government expenditures to be campaign for the reintroduction directed at the revival of the of capital punishment (Guardian economic and social fabric of Weekly, 28.3.82). Not all chief the inner cities (as if this constables share the hardline position existed in isolation from the that is reflected in this response or national and international are enthusiastic about equipping capitalist economy), there were their forces with a new array of recommendations for better race repressive powers and technologies. relations training, improved However, the trend in the urban complaints procedures and the forces is clearly towards arming establishment of statutory up for confrontation. It will require police/community liaison a much more fundamental debate about committees. the organisation and political accountability of the police to upset The Scarman approach is supported the logic of this response, largely by some Chief Constables, in orchestrated and carried through by particular John Alderson, the the police themselves in alliance Chief Constable of Devon and with other forces of the Right. Cornwall police, who is well known as a major proponent of The Liberal Response: what is now popularly known as 'community policing'. (See What might be called a liberal Alderson, 1982: Interview in 61 Marxism Today, April, 1982). Statesman, 26.3 .82) . Without The notion of Community policing downplaying the seriousness of has little to do with political all the other dimensions of the accountability or a return to inner city 'problem' it is beat policing. Rather it significant that this response emphasises a co-ordinated has focussed directly upon the strategy by the police and question of policing. In both other social agencies, involving Liverpool and Manchester the local co-operation, monitoring, and police committees set up their own the pooling of information in inquiries, not being content to respect of particular communities leave this to Lord Scarman or their and the organisations, families local police forces. These inquiries and individuals within them. proceeded without, for the most It is an attempt to reconstruct part, the co-operation of the the control of the community b^ Chief Constables. Both these the police outside of the purely committees have for some time been repressive mode that is now waging a struggle to bring about represented in 'fire-brigade' more effective accountability at policing. Whilst this position the local level through the police represents a serious alternative committees (see Simey, 1982). to the law and order posture, Although, as I have suggested and cannot be simply regarded before, they have limited powers, as its liberal face (see Hall, they are looking at ways of 1982), there is the potential exercising control over or for some of the strategies it influencing general police policy specifies to complement rather without interfering in the day to than contradict the repressive day direction of the police. One strategy (see Baldwin & Kinsey, means being considered is through 198 : Ch.8). For the point their contribution to police remains in relation to the capital expenditure. They are liberal response that for all also seeking an increase in their that it dwells on environmental formal powers. conditions and police/community relations, it still sees the In London, where the police are immediate and pressing problem accountable directly to the Home to be that of containing potential Office, the Greater London Council disorder emanating from within has set up a police committee with these communities. a support unit to monitor police activities and is campaigning The policing of this disorder for legislation to bring the consequently remains an essentially Metropolitan police under G.L.C. technical matter, the province of control (see Bundred, 1982) . They those with the necessary professional are also funding police monitoring expertise and experience; in committees in the boroughs on a short, it remains for the police large scale. Many such local and other agencies of the state monitoring organisations have to determine the correct response, sprung up throughout London in taking care, of course, to consult the past year (see State Research and inform the community of what Bulletin, no. 28) . The National they are doing. So, logically Council for Civil Liberties is enough, Scarman supports the also working on concrete proposals continued use of the S.P.G., for the reorganisation of local increased riot training, the control over policing. The police introduction of CS gas and the committees have the responsibility other extraordinary measures that to maintain their forces without have already been mentioned. Thus any clear legal guidance as to there is in the liberal response what powers they may exercise to a refusal to confront the issue do so. It is widely argued and of policing as a political accepted that the Chief Constable question, perhaps the central has sole control over 'operational' political question surrounding matters and in this respect is 'the riots'. accountable, along with the police generally, to the law only. The The Popular Democratic Response; N.C.C.L. are seeking to draw some practical distinction within the There is an organised political sphere of 'operational* matters response coming from the communities between day-to-day operations themselves (see generally New (which would remain the province 62 of the Police) and general policy of criminal behaviour that have questions. occurred in the period. A The latter might include such recent piece of research matters as the choice between commissioned by the Home Office foot patrols and use of cars, argued that much of the apparent the allocation of technology, rise in the youth crime rate, etc. (See Hewitt, 1982: p.65-70). especially since the 1960s, is illusory; that it is the Conclusion result of inflation, increased reporting and increased use of These latter developments represent formal cautions by the police the opening up of a debate about (see New Statesman, 22.1.82). the organisation and control of Moreover, the report argued that the police which is unprecedented a detailed profile of the juvenile in Britain in this century. It delinquent would reveal that completely rejects the view of the almost all children fit the police as impartial and apolitical delinquent label. Needless to servants of the law and seeks in say, the Home Office has not concrete ways to bring the police published this research. Yet, under a more effective local the political and popular use democratic control. It is not of official statistics has mindlessly anti-police in its played a critical role in thrust, but rather seeks to legitimating the intensification address itself to workable mechanisms of the policing of youths, blacks for making the police and policing and the urban poor in general, genuinely accountable and responsive thus arguably setting in motion to the community. Such mechanisms a self-fulfilling and spiralling would not remove the need for mechanism within which the improved complaints procedures difference between cause and and other methods of bringing police effect is lost. It is doubtful to account for individual abuses whether this increased policing and transgressions, but the debate of whole communities has I am referring to here transcends always, or even consistently, these concerns and poses much more given priority to the protection fundamental questions about the of individuals from the genuine police. threat of crime within them.

This focus upon the police role This connects with the second in the 'riots' is not artificial point, which relates to the or abstract. It comes from within failure of the police to provide the communities, and amongst the protection of the black and Asian elected local politicians, who communities against racist were directly involved. They violence. A recent Home Office experience and understand more report on this problem revealed than others the problems which that,proportional to their afflict these communities, including numbers in the population, the importance of doing something Asians were 50 times, and other about street crime. It is crucial, blacks 36 times, more likely to as I have sought to emphasise be the victims of 'racial attacks' throughout this paper, to separate than white people (Home Office out the real dimensions of the 1981). The report referred to problems presented by harmful "a tendency within the police and criminal behaviour from the local authorities to regard the processes of criminalisation that ethnic populations as a homo­ sections, at least, of these geneous group, in which the communities have been subjected attacks experienced by the Asian to. I communities were considered in some sense to be offset by the I would like to conclude by alleged anti-social activities recalling and reinforcing two of young West Indians" (para 39). connected aspects of the policing/ This licensed victimisation of crime problem as it relates to blacks and Asians is merely one the 'riots'. In the first place, side of the twin mechanism whose the increased official crime rates other is the process of criminal­ over the last 20 years in Britain, isation and containment that I especially amongst the young, have discussed in detail throughout do not necessarily indicate this paper. In each case, policing the real changes in the levels has not been directed at the 63 control of crime and the protection Frith, S. (1981), "Youth in the of the community but rather at Eighties", in Marxism Today, utilising crime as a pretext to November. control communities more generally and reproduce major social divisions Gilroy, P. (1981-2), "You Can't within them. I have tried in Fool the Youths... race and class this paper to point to some of the formation in the 1980's", in wider political, economic and Race and Class, vol.23, nos. 2-3. ideological processes with which this is connected. Gilroy, P. (1982), "Police and Thieves", in Centre for Contempor­ It is these processes which were ary Cultural Studies (ed), The at the heart of the'riots'in the Empire Strikes Back, Hutchinson, various forms they took and which London. parts of the community are now seeking to resist on a number of Hall, S. & others (1978) levels and through a number of Policing the Crisis, initiatives. The demands are MacMillan, London. not utopian, they are not anti­ police and they do not entertain Hall, S. (1982), "The Scarman romantic notions about crime. Report", Critical Social Policy, Rather they are for a police vol. 2, no. 2. which genuinely protects its Hewitt, P. (1982), The Abuse of community against harmful and divisive behaviours and which Power, Martin Robertson, Oxford. would therefore diminish, rather than deepen, divisions of a Home Office (1981), Report of the racial and generational nature. Home Office Study on Racial Attacks

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