Racism in the Metropolitan Police Force as a Cause of the Brixton Riots

Racism in the Metropolitan Police Force as a Cause of the Brixton Riots

The riots that occurred in the south London neighborhood of Brixton in April 1981 were of momentous importance in British history, and historians continue to disagree about their primary cause. For three days, the rioters (who were predominately young, black men) fought police, looted shops, and set fire to vehicles. Instead of pulling out of the area, the police charged in with riot shields, which only made the situation worse . More than 300 people were injured, 61 police vehicles were attacked, and the damage caused came to an estimated value of £7.5 million . It is important to clarify that the 1981 Brixton riots were not incited by one specific incident, but rather by a long history of racism and unfair treatment by police officers in the neighborhood. As University of Leicester professor John Benyon writes in his book, A Tale of Failure: Race and Policing, "integrity and impartiality of the police need to be assured in order to win and sustain the confidence, trust, and cooperation of ordinary citizens" . Unfortunately, this was far from the reality in Brixton at the time.

One important characteristic of the constitutional state is that the citizen, regardless of ethnicity, color, or religious beliefs, has the right to full protection of the law, and if necessary from the law itself . Regrettably, the black citizens of Brixton did not enjoy this protection. Racist attitudes were harbored among many of the members of the police force, and the police singled out the neighborhood of Brixton for unfair treatment. Brixton had been subject to roadblocks, morning raids, and random street checks by the Special Group, a unit of the Metropolitan Police force . Thus, the riots that occurred in April 1981 were simply an escalation of years of poor relations between the black citizens and the police. In this paper, I will discuss the various ways in which the police treated the black citizens of Brixton unfairly, and I will argue that institutionalized racism within the Metropolitan Police force was the primary cause of the Brixton riots of 1981.

Although the Race Relations Act had been established by Parliament in 1976 to ameliorate hostilities within the United Kingdom, the daily activities of the police were hardly affected by its stipulations. Many young, black men believed that officers discriminated against them, particularly through the use of the Suspected Persons or "Sus" law, as it was known. Under this law, anyone could be stopped and searched if officers merely suspected they might be planning to carry out a crime . Basically, this meant that an individual could be searched at any time, for no reason other than the officer's own whim. If the individual was then arrested, the offense could only be tried in the magistrates' court, so there was trial by jury. Furthermore, the "sus" charge put the burden on the defendant to prove that he or she was not acting suspiciously, a very difficult task . Judges were rarely sympathetic toward blacks charged with crimes. Many studies, such as the one done by the Policy Studies Institute, show that police powers of stop and search were applied disproportionately to black people . In fact, one study done by Home Office, a government department that deals with immigration and police issues, showed that a black person was fifteen times more likely to be arrested under the "sus" law than a white person . Kwame Kwei-Armah, a British writer and actor who grew up in Brixton, recounts that he did not know a single black man in the neighborhood that had not been stopped by a police officer at least once under this law .

The police also used a tactic called over-policing in Brixton, which "involves having a really large and visible police presence on the streets [in areas populated by minorities] to make sure there is no trouble" . Paradoxically, over-policing typically leads to more trouble because it makes the residents of the particular area feel anxious and victimized. The elevated level of policing was seldom, if ever, justified by the levels of crime in the areas in which it was used . Police also regularly carried out raids on places where black people gathered socially, such as cafes and pubs. These raids were executed under the guise of searching for missing persons, or claims of excessive noise, but often there was no justified reason for them . Additionally, the lack of racial diversity in the police force was an issue which may have contributed to racist behaviors. There were only 107 black or Asian officers among the Metropolitan Police force at the time of the Brixton riots . This was more likely due to fear on the part of minority individuals to be viewed as "traitors," rather than discriminatory hiring practices. Because many people in the ethnic