Original subtitles

[reporter] Have you any idea what caused the fire yet?

[detective] No, we have no idea, we’re keeping very much an open mind.

[reporter] But it has been suggested it may have been started deliberately.

[detective] Well, that’s a possibility.

The New Cross fire was started, it was not an accident.

This whole thing was about youngsters being murdered.

[Sandra Ruddock] I just remember kids burnt till they were pink.

And a smell of burning flesh...

that will go to my grave.

[Alex Wheatle] The New Cross Fire, it just shocked everybody.

We could all relate, because that could have been any one of us.

You know, we were in parties all the time, so the horror, you can imagine,

the horror, it’s really frightening.

[Leila Hassan] When you went outside the house,

your mind had to kind of be a young person in a party

and being burnt alive in a house

and that of course, just fuels more anger and more rage.

[Sybil Phoenix] Why haven’t parliament said anything?

Children have been burnt.

Not West Indians, Black British!

That is what I want said!

They are burning our children!

["New Crass Massahkah" by Linton Kwesi Johnson plays]

[crowd chatter]

Our people united We'll never be defeated

Our people united We'll never be defeated

-What do we want? -[people] Freedom!

[Christopher Icha] My name is Christopher Icha

In 1981, I was 16.

and I remember going to college and somebody came and said,

"There's a march going on for the New Cross fire."

Instantly, we all came out of our lessons,

jumped on the bus,

sea of Black people was there already.

[reporter] Today, after weeks of growing resentment

at what is seen as police failure to bring charges,

Black groups staged a protest march through London

[Christopher Icha] It was an eye opener.

That’s where my political life really began.

Was the first march I ever went on.

[dub reggae music]

I grew up in Kennington, which is an area about a mile and a half,

maybe two miles from Brixton.

We had a sound system, we had a group of friends,

and most Saturdays, we’d be playing out on the street to test them,

stringing up the sound.

I was like... I was the technician guy, yeah. [laughs]

So I’d be soldering wires together, and that was our life.

Loads of fun. The sound system days were the best fun

You’re enjoying yourself, you’re not having to focus

about this outside shadow world.

[indistinct children chatter]

Kennington was a very racist area.

You know, "Niggers go home."

NF on the walls.

You saw that everywhere.

Even the little children would sing songs,

"Nig nog gollywog, go back to Brixton."

That’s how I found out what Brixton was, from that song they used to sing.

"Nig nog gollywog, go back to Brixton."

[indistinct chatter]

My name is Sheldon Thomas.

Me and Chris met in Kennington, and he was seven, I was six.

We were a close knit family, all of us were first generation,

born to west Indian parents,

and most of us had suffered some form of racial abuse as kids.

So we could all understand each other

because of what we was going through.

We lived in a block of flats...

and they were being redeveloped, 'cause they were falling apart basically.

So we all kind of moved out at the same time.

Moving to Brixton was like moving to a whole new country

that was like, not even a country, a galaxy.

It was like moving to a whole new planet.

It was completely different.

Everything was colorful.

There was music everywhere.

[indistinct chatter]

And everybody spoke with a Jamaican accent.

It was just so uplifting. You didn’t have to... hide.

I didn’t have to run no gauntlet no more.

[reporter] Brixton, where more than 20,000 West Indians now live

It’s always been a flourishing trade center,

and an area, which today, has all the color you’d see in a Caribbean market.

[Alex Wheatle] My first memories of Brixton Market,

well, um, I had to have a friend with me to identify what foods are what

because me coming from the children’s home in Surrey,

I sometimes... I didn’t know what a yam was

or a green banana was or a dasheen was.

The matoke comes from West Africa

right, but they grow yam and that out there,

and yam, green bananas...

okra. You know, okra is a thing that you put in your dinner.

[Ros Griffiths] They have a saying that it takes a village to raise a child.

And I was very much part of that village.

["Could You Be Loved" by Bob Marley plays]

My name is Ros Griffiths, and in 1981,

I was about 15 coming onto 16.

Brixton is where I became of age.

♪ Could you be loved? ♪

[indistinct children chatter]

♪ And be loved? ♪

Growing up on a council estate,

it was vibrant, there were people that looked like me.

I could play out with my friends, we had fun.

♪ Don't let them fool ya ♪

One thing for sure, morning, noon, and night,

reggae music would be played.

♪ Love would never Leave us alone ♪

♪ A-in the darkness Ya must come out to light ♪

[Alex Wheatle] When I first heard "Could You Be Loved" by Bob Marley,

for me, that made me reflect back on my own life

and what I had experienced all throughout my childhood.

Could I be loved?

♪ Could you be loved? ♪

But then I’d be up again, you know.

bouncin' on the street, feeling confident again.

"You know what? I'm valuable. I can be loved."

You know, it was very important for me, that song.

♪ We've got a mind of our own ♪

♪ So go to hell if what You're thinking is not right ♪

[Ros Griffiths] At the time, I was trying to figure out

what kind of woman I needed to go forward and be.

So I started to listen to the message.

♪ The road of life is rocky And you may stumble too ♪

Bob Marley, his music, his words,

it was all about knowing where you’re coming from...

in terms of who you are, as... as a people.

[Sheldon Thomas] For many Black boys at that time,

we were trying to find, "Where are we going to fit in?"

And that’s the reason why Brixton became so prominent to us.

Because we fit in to Brixton,

the whole thinking of Jamaican life.

[indistinct street chatter]

[Leila Hassan] We squatted a Victorian town house in Mail Road,

which is parallel with Railton Road.

When we moved there, Brixton was a poor neighborhood.

it was a rundown neighborhood, it was an immigrant neighborhood.

In my social life, if I said I lived in Brixton,

they’d be eyebrows raised. [laughs]

♪ I was born on the lane ♪

[reporter] For these young people, life on the streets of London is tough

and view outsiders, particularly the police,

with deep suspicion.

They think of Railton Road, in the heart of Brixton,

quite literally, as the frontline in a war zone.

Outside tensions bring the Black community together there.

[Leila Hassan] Railton Road was called the front line,

I think, because it was a place of... resistance.

You felt when you went down the front line

that you were very much kind of in a Black stronghold.

When you’re on the front line, you feel safe.

You know, they feel together, they feel like this is their home

There is no way that anybody's gonna take it away from them.

[Christopher Icha] So the weed was there, the Jamaicans was there,

the bars were there, and they had the club...

Shepherds.

Every Wednesday, every Friday, sound system... you would play there,

so we’d always be there.

Um... darkened spot.

[chuckles] Two rooms, chockablock, sweat pouring out the place.

Tune... My light, Gregory Isaacs!

♪ ...to make it quick ♪

♪ Whom attend to the sick ♪

Yeah, man, that’s... that's what I'm saying, man.

Can you imagine the vibe, the vibe there,

the music, the food, and you’re crabbing down with your girl.

♪ Night nurse ♪

"Night Nurse," oh, we loved that song.

That was called a rub down song.

♪ Tell her it's A case of emergency ♪

♪ There's a patient By the name of Gregory ♪

[Peter Bleksley] One night we was to go on a raid,

there was illegal blues party.

They were illegal, in so much as people got charged for alcohol.

This was regarded, almost as like crime of the century,

and had to be stamped down upon.

So we were briefed as to what to do.

Which quite frankly, was just go and break up or smash up this party,

and I was told to stick with a PC and not leave his side.

This is... this is nigh on my first experience of policing.

[sirens blare]

-So we stormed in. -[record scratches]

It was pandemonium.

I saw little bags of cannabis being ditched by people onto the floor.

And I saw police officers attributing them to whoever they fancied.

"You’re nicked," and dragging them out.

My PC, from inside his truncheon pocket,

he pulled out a knitting needle.

And then he went up to the speakers and pierced it

right through the center of one speaker,

went to the other big speaker and stuck it straight in.

That would have rendered the speakers irreparable.

He then stamped on just about each and every record, one by one.

Slamming his size tens down on to the records.

Well, for me in my hostel, in Elm Park,

which is opposite Brixton prison,

there was the house party.

Some neighbor complained about the noise and the police came.

They stormed in and arrested not just me, but many others.

I remember sitting in a cell.

And the owner of the sound system,

he was a man called Trevor.

He was in a cell next to me.

I mean, I am fresh to Brixton,

so I'm thinking, "Okay, they might want to scare us,

they might want to intimidate us."

And Trevor was a big guy.

He was a big guy, I have no idea how many officers came to assault him.

[cells unlock]

The sound I heard from him,

his voice...

raging and flinching and wailing in pain.

It's scarring to experience that.

Never forgotten it, and I don’t think I ever will,

you know, that was my first experience of real police violence.

-[crowd clamoring] -[car horn honking]

♪ A suffering man in the ghetto ♪

♪ He must carry this Heavy load now ♪

[reporter] Riot-equipped police are descending on

the West Indian community in Bristol

to try and quell what is probably

the worst street violence the city has ever seen

[reporter 2] The trouble began mid-afternoon

when an angry crowd hurling bricks, bottles, slates,

anything they could lay their hands on.

Police had come to raid a café

but the police decided to pull out and abandon the area.

♪ We want to see the light ♪

♪ So we got to unite ♪

[Alex Wheatle] After the riots in Bristol, it made people think

that wow, that the police actually withdrew,

so if something kicks off in Brixton, would they do the same?

[male] When you come down in such a force,

it doesn’t look like you’re out to raid a café right?

And you put the wrong impression on people.

[reporter] The point being emphasized over and over again

is that last night’s rampage was not a race riot.

It was a boiling over of Black anger against the police.

We are angry about it, and what I am saying is not a local thing.

It’s a conspiracy with the government, and the police.

[Leila Hassan] We were aware that there was

a growing hostility to the police, that we did expect to blow.

So Bristol for us, was a sign that that hostility

was really coming to the fore.

And then I think in '81,

the atmosphere in Brixton after New Cross,

feelings were running extremely high.

[reporter] It's understood the report rules out,

a racial motive for the blaze

and it's unlikely that there will be any prosecutions.

[Leila Hassan] We all know why.

The police had round up Black youth

in order to negate the racist attack theory.

And that fuels more anger about how this fire was being treated

and how we as Black people were being treated within the society.

The New Cross fire happened on January the 18th.

And on the 13th of March,

the coroner told us that he was going to hold an inquest,

in the interests of racial harmony.

This is madness.

How can we hold an inquest, we haven’t invest...

you know, we’ve not fully investigated this.

You made the case come forward

and say for racial harmony.

Racial who? How?

The coroner called in the inquest early.

I think it was an absolute knee-jerk reaction

to the Black people's day of action.

It's politics, isn't it?

Thousands have been mobilized on this issue.

We need to be shown to be doing something. We better get on with the inquest.

I was laying in a hospital bed,

one leg cocked up in the air, two arms hanging off the side of the bed.

Can’t do anything. I can’t go on these marches,

I can’t help anybody.

How did I feel about it?

I was mad. I was angry.

[reporter] In the past few years,

many people in London have warned of an increasingly hostile relationship

between the police and the Black and Asian communities.

[indistinct chatter]

The biggest problem is sus,

the controversial suspected persons charge,

which allows police to arrest anyone they suspect is about to commit a crime.

[Leila Hassan] Sus gave the police carte blanche really,

and you could just feel... I mean, you could feel the... in the air,

that it was getting tenser and tenser.

-[questioned man] Nothing to say! -Okay.

[interviewer] If a police officer calls a black man a nigger,

shouldn’t he be dismissed?

No! Why should... No. Indeed not.

Like everything else, why should he...

Why should he be dismissed for calling him a nigger?

[interviewer] Because it’s a term of abuse.

That’s a matter of opinion.

[Cecil Gutzmore] Here was the Metropolitan police,

in the aftermath of what had happened in Bristol the year before,

thinking that what happened there

couldn’t happen successfully in London

days after this massive march of Black people,

out of racist over-confidence,

mounting this operation, named in celebration

of a racist Margaret Thatcher speech.

This country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture.

[Peter Bleksley] As Operation Swamp was largely a stop and search operation,

whereby every officer that could be cobbled together,

was put out on to the streets of Brixton

with the instructions that if it moved, stop it, and search it.

[Len Adams] Our own view about the control of street crime

is as many officers on the street as possible.

[Juliet Alexander] It was almost like a show of strength.

They said, "Whatever you think you are

whatever you think your reasons for demanding justice,

we are here to say that, you know,

we can do what we want with you."

It was as if the... the whole Black community

was back against the wall, was on trial.

[Alex Wheatle] At the height of Operation Swamp,

there was one particular day I was stopped three times.

The first time was when I walked down Brixton Hill.

I was asked to empty my pockets.

For no reason.

They searched me. I went about my business.

I signed on at the dole office. I came out. Then I was stopped again.

They said they was looking for someone who fitted my description

And then I was stopped again.

I think I just looked into a jewelry shop or... or something,

just looking at jewelry.

They said that I was acting suspiciously.

Suspiciously? What?

I can’t even look into a jeweler's window?

When people talk about Operation Swamp, sus, and all of that,

what people are failing to understand is the brutality that comes with that.

People think it's, "Oh, you know, I just want to check your pockets,"

It wasn't like that.

When they stopped you, there was a punch first.

[shouting]

And that’s when I realized this is war.

I am going to go out of my way to hurt you.

My name is Stephen Margiotta.

In 1981, I was a probation police officer

at Brixton Police Station.

I had been there about six months, after I finished at Hendon.

-[street chatter] -It was warm, I remember that much

because I was in shirt sleeves most of the week.

Just like any other day, going to work.

I just called up and accepted a call of, um,

criminal damage further down Railton Road.

[Sheldon Thomas] So that day, from the afternoon,

all we talked about was Shepherds

because we’re all dance hall people, innit?

So on the Friday night, we was going to go loosen up.

I made my way down to Railton Road.

And then, I think I heard someone shouting.

And I looked back down the road

and I saw this guy come running towards me.

Quite certain by even my naïve experience

that he was being chased by somebody.

And I thought this can’t be right,

and I could see his shirt lifted up and he had a huge...

huge gash in his back.

It was bleeding.

So, "Oh, bugger, what’s happened here?"

I tried to talk to him.

But I was immediately surrounded by people

asking me what I was doing and why I was doing it,

and what’s he done?

And I got on the radio and I called the station,

and I said that this guy was seriously hurt.

Unless someone gets to him very soon, he’s going to die

because he’s losing so much blood.

Uh, and that was it, he was off again.

I couldn’t chase him anymore.

[Sheldon Thomas] We’re coming out of Shepherds Youth Center,

walking down Atlantic Road.

and then that’s when we saw the police

surrounding a Black guy... who had been stabbed.

and for us, the argument was take him to the hospital.

I can’t remember how long later it was

and the van unit called up and said that the van had been surrounded by people

and assuming they were doing him harm,

greater harm than had already been done to him.

And then they asked for urgent assistance,

and, uh...

then it all kicked off from there.

[indistinct police chatter]

[Peter Bleksley] In the late afternoon, an urgent assistance call came up.

Railton Road. Yeah, we’ll have a lump of that.

[sirens wail]

When we got there, it was bit of a chaotic scene.

There were some angry people.

Nobody was really clear what was going on.

"Leave him alone. Blah, blah, blah."

You know, that kind of shouting thing.

But then somebody threw a brick.

And then I threw a brick.

And then we all threw bricks.

Things started getting slung at us,

bits of rubble, the occasional half a house brick.

A little skirmish took place.

Nothing serious, I would say.

But that’s when I think people started saying,

"We are going to have to do something, we can’t have this no more."

Not very long into this, a call came up,

which was issued from Brixton police station,

that told us to patrol in a convoy in a never-ending loop,

which went down Railton Road, back down a bit of Brixton High Street,

-and round again. -[police siren]

And we did that, quite literally, for hours.

At one point, a lady flags us down.

-So we stop. -[indistinct radio chatter]

One of our colleagues opened the back door,

and she slid a crate of light ales.

Turns out she was the landlady of a pub.

She said, "There you go boys, thank you very much for what you’re doing,

have a drink on me."

"Thank you very much," we thought.

And off we went again.

Round and round and round.

Antagonizing people endlessly.

[EKG beeps and flatlines]

[reporter] The violence had broken out in Brixton in south London,

when about a hundred Black youths surrounded policeman,

questioning a youth who had been stabbed in the back.

Community leaders have complained of tension

between Brixton’s Black community and the police for several years now.

[Alex Wheatle] That morning, on the 11th, I got up early.

And I walked down to Brixton from about 9:00

and even from that point in the morning,

there was an increased presence of the police.

Things were getting serious, they were everywhere now.

[Patrick Bishop] It was Saturday morning, I went into work as usual

and was told there had been some trouble overnight in Brixton

and I was sent down there with a photographer, Neil Libert.

When we got there, you could sense that trouble was in the air.

There were lots of police on the street.

And quite a lot of young men looking at them suspiciously

There was a sort of standoff, if you like.

[Alex Wheatle] I think it was round about lunchtime

that I saw a wave of people moving towards Atlantic Road.

And when I got there, there seemed to be this standoff.

There was a swell of Black people by that point.

[indistinct chatter]

[Patrick Bishop] Neil and I were standing in Atlantic Road

when suddenly out of nowhere,

these two thuggish-looking guys

darted into the crowd and grabbed ahold of a young Black man.

We immediately realized these were undercover policemen.

And with the immortal words, "You’re nicked,"

they dragged him towards a police van.

[Alex Wheatle] And the police were very arrogant

about the way they were manhandling this, um, Black man,

and I don’t think they expected what happened next.

Because by that time, there were so many of us,

that there was a rush to free this man who was arrested.

[Patrick Bishop] The police were completely taken by surprise

I think they weren’t expecting this reaction at all.

It was an incredibly stupid thing to do.

It really was asking for trouble,

and they certainly got trouble.

-[reggae music plays] -[people clamoring]

We were in the garage playing our music,

testing our sounds, building our amps.

And then, we heard a helicopter...

virtually on the roof of my house. [laughs]

That’s what it sounded like.

So we opened the garage to look what this noise was.

And then number two bus come down his road.

No buses never come down Chris’s road.

It’s a side road.

So we knew something was up.

So we just switched off all the equipment,

went out to Brixton...

When we got to the high street,

Wow.

I... I have to say...

it’s one of the proudest moments in our life.

-[indistinct shouting] -Hundreds of us,

all my age group,

15, 16, 17, 18 year old...

Hundreds.

♪ Are you ready to stand up And fight the revolution? ♪

♪ Do you know what it means To have a revolution? ♪

I didn’t know what it meant.

But I found out. [laughs]

I was so shocked and surprised but excited at the same time.

You see people turning over cars, and go and help.

You just join in, you know?

People are smashing shop windows so you join in.

You pick up a brick and you smash some shop windows.

♪ Are you ready to stand up And fight the revolution? ♪

[reporter] From early afternoon, gangs of youths, some White,

but predominantly Black, held the police at bay.

Petrol bombs, stones, and bottles were thrown,

buildings and vehicles wrecked and set on fire.

The only way to defuse the situation

is by decreasing the presence of police within the area at the present time.

Because they see the police as their target

[Brian Fairbairn] They want police withdrawal, you see,

-and I'm not prepared to do that. -[reporter] Why not?

Why not? I mean, is that not a reasonable...

No because I think if, um, if we withdraw

then we shall allow them to do as they wish.

There is looting going on already and I'm not prepared to extend that.

[man] What they wanted us to do, all right,

they wanted us to disperse, but we live in Brixton!

They don’t live in Brixton, okay?

So we asked them to disperse, but they wouldn’t disperse.

We got called in and all hell was breaking out.

The windows on our people carrier disappeared fairly quickly.

Once the windows had gone, what we did,

was duck our heads down, so that we were beneath the windows.

So hopefully we wouldn’t be hit if anything else came in.

And we would stick our hands out with our truncheons,

and we would flail them and batter ‘em

and would you feel it whack something from time to time.

You didn’t know if that was a person or a thing.

This was a war zone, we’re in a battle for our lives here.

And if someone’s going to cop for it, so be it.

That was my attitude... for a while.

[Clive Driscoll] I can only describe as we drove into Cold Harbor Lane,

it was like watching a sea,

a crowd that were, you know, stoked up.

And you could almost feel the tension.

You could feel almost hysteria.

That’s really when the missiles started.

Bricks being thrown, bottles being thrown.

They have low front walls in front of their, um, their terrace housing there,

and I remember people kicking them down.

They wanted the bricks for ammunition.

We began to get poles, scaffolding, bricks, baseball bats, dustbin lids.

We wanted to hurt the police any which way we could.

Remember, the first time I heard a policeman say the word gollywog,

I am nine. The next time...

man’s holding me up on my neck, I'm eleven!

People need to understand I felt that the police brutality

that I faced as a Black boy,

was enough of a justification

for me to hurt one of them.

There was like a cinema playing in my mind of all the indignities

that I had experienced with the police.

Especially remembered Trevor’s assault

and his screams and his wails.

And there I was with the opportunity to get some revenge.

And I have to admit, it felt good.

And that Bob Marley song kept playing in my head.

"Slave Driver. The tables are turning.

You catch a fire, you’re gonna get burned."

♪ Slave driver ♪

♪ The table is turned ♪

I mean, wow. When you hear that as a teenager,

you’re thinking... [exhales sharply]

♪ Slave driver ♪

♪ The table is turned ♪

♪ Catch a fire ♪

[shutter clicks]

[Clive Driscoll] I do remember there was a man standing on the roof

and I remember him shouting,

"I am going to watch you be humiliated in your defeat."

[shutter clicks]

Then it just seemed to be... relentless.

[Peter Bleksley] A lot of chaos...

a lot of coppers getting hurt.

I feared for my life.

And for the lives of my colleagues.

It was that... ghastly...

-[indistinct shouting] -[glass breaking]

to see a substantial number of people

that clearly, as I saw it,

had the intention to kill me.

Not because of me as an individual

but because of the cloth that I wore.

The symbol that I represented.

It was like... what is this all about?

I can only speak personally. I was terrified

-[glass breaking] -[indistinct shouting]

At one stage, I couldn’t see beyond just in front of the shield.

The flames were that high that you couldn’t see past them.

I'd been an ambulance officer, prior to becoming a police officer.

And I had picked up several people with third degree burns

So loads of people often ask me, "Did you think you were going to die?"

I actually didn’t, but did I think I might end up

with third degree burns? Yes, I did.

And anyone who’s ever had the misfortune even to have that injury,

would know that is life-changing forever.

[George Rhoden] We’d make our way to Brixton,

from Piccadilly Circus Regent Street.

On the way there, you can hear comments,

like, uh, "These BBs," these Black Bastards,

You know, they're rioting down there.

You know, why don’t we just let them riot?"

I come thinking, "Don’t they realize that I’m in here?"

And as we hit Brixton High Road,

then I can see, the flicker of flames in the distance.

You can hear shouting and screaming

and you can hear glass breaking.

Then all of a sudden, people are shouting and screaming,

looked up, and saw my face.

Oh, my God, the next thing you know, the bricks... whack.

One of the windows went in.

I could see the fire bombs coming around, the Green Goddesses.

This was a determined effort, I think,

you know, to get to me.

Brixton station was just there.

The officers got off. I could see them pushing off people.

You could see that on either sides of the doors,

the shields were there.

I came out. Some of the officers, they escorted me

into Brixton Police Station

under heavy bombardment.

And all I can say is that those officers,

you know, I didn’t hear one racist comment then.

I mean, all they did was ask if I was all right.

And at that moment, I looked, and I thought,

"All this stuff I’ve been hearing, on the way down here,

was making me angry because I am amongst these people.

Then they are protecting me, um, and I thought, "Wow,"

you know, this... "What a turnaround."

[man] Ladies and gentlemen... it’s very difficult work.

[Clive Driscoll] I remember we were still in our line

and all of a sudden from nowhere,

a vicar run alongside and he was screaming,

"It’s all your fault. It’s all your fault.

Now this is all your fault."

[Peter Bleksley] Including the places that were on fire

was the pub, where the landlady

had given us the crate of light ales the night before.

It was deeply shocking.

We had some affection towards that lady because of how she treated us.

Her pub was literally burnt to the ground.

[Alex Wheatle] The flames, when you have a fire like that,

you really thought... I don’t think people quite understand

how you could feel it so much.

For me, it was kind of a bit of karma.

I remember people saying to me, that, um,

they don’t like serving Black people

My father, I remember once I was united with him,

we had a conversation about how he was denied entry

to so many pubs in South London.

And how he felt less than a man because they would not serve him.

But to turn around and see that on fire,

I thought...

[Leila Hassan] I had complete understanding

as to why The George was burned down.

We used to call the George "Rhodesia."

It was not really a place that welcomed Black people so, it's targeted.

They've taken down The George.

Um, and that was at the end of my road,

so I saw the George go up in flames.

[Wayne Haynes] I don’t take fires very well

even now, because it does... it tears at my heart strings.

But do you know what?

they were good fires.

[man] Watch out!

[man exclaims]

They were fires of freedom.

People were breaking the chains.

[George Rhoden] I understood why it was happening

better than I understood anything else really.

But I was in this courtroom of "I understand what my people's about,

they shouldn’t really be violent about it, but they have to make a stance."

There I am as a police officer, to protect the law,

"Blimey, I’ve got to do my job."

[Peter Bleksley] We always thought we were in charge.

We always thought we bossed it.

It was always about winning the battle against the bad guys.

That weekend, we roundly lost.

[reporter] Well into the night,

the police struggled to be seen on the streets

and in control of them.

Now that the alarm bells clamoring in their ears,

they remained in their coaches,

trying to doze, waiting to see if the calm would last.

[Alex Wheatle] There were so many police,

in these coaches, and they were sipping coffee in polystyrene cups,

and they looked at us, and their faces were full of fear.

Full of fear.

It struck me at that point that

the police had somehow been weakened.

And were vulnerable and were fragile.

They were scared. That’s the first time I have seen police scared.

That’s the first time I saw them as human beings.

I didn’t see them as human beings before, we'd see them as robots.

[Peter Bleksley] When I got home that night,

I thought, "I'm an enemy of the people,

I'm not helping the people,

this is not what I joined policing for."

And I just went, "You know, I’ve got to get out of this uniform.

I can’t hack this, I've got to get out of this uniform."

[indistinct chatter]

[Alex Wheatle] I managed to get home round about

half four, maybe five o’clock in the morning.

I just could not sleep.

And I remember writing on the back of a record sleeve,

you know, the starting of a lyric.

♪ Uprising, this uprising ♪

♪ Uprising, this uprising ♪

♪ We’re sick and tired... ♪

♪ ...and police beating ♪

♪ We have no work And we have no shilling ♪

♪ We can’t take No more of this suffering ♪

♪ You better send for the army... ♪

[reporter] There is official bewilderment

as to how a rise of this scale occurred.

For nearly six hours last night,

police struggled to retain control of Brixton’s decaying streets.

Their antagonists, were five or six hundred,

mainly Black teenagers.

It was one of the worst riots seen in Britain.

[Christopher Icha] Well, it was the next day really,

then when I went out and I saw it was like a war zone.

Buildings still smoldering,

wrecked cars, rubble everywhere.

It was just... like the world was over really.

[Margaret Thatcher] No one must condone the violence,

no one must condone the disgraceful events that took place.

It should not have happened, they were criminal.

Criminal. And it should never have occurred.

[Leila Hassan] What this resulted in

was worldwide attention on Brixton.

News crews from all over the world

and wanting to know what’s gone on and why it happened.

It seemed to be very biased against us.

but at least it was being debated and discussed.

People might doubt our methods

but no doubt, it made people stand up and take notice

that if you were oppressing people for so long,

one day they're going to rise up and bite your ass.

[protesters chant]

[reporter] Tensions have not evaporated when the home secretary, Mr. Whitelaw,

visited Brixton this afternoon.

As he toured the scarred streets, there were chants of derision

and Mr. Whitelaw was closely protected by police.

He now faces demands by community leaders

for an independent inquiry into police action.

[shouting]

[man] The events of this weekend call for the most high examination.

I have therefore decided to appoint an inquiry.

I have invited Lord Scarman to undertake this inquiry

and I am glad to say he has accepted.

[reporter] Lord Scarman, what sort of information

are you asking people to come forward with?

Two sorts of information. One, about the facts of the riots,

very important, and the other,

to come forward with their views

as to the underlying social conditions,

giving rise to the sort of tensions

which broke out into these disturbances.

[Philip Mawer] My name is Philip Mawer

and I was the secretary of Lord Scarman’s inquiry

into the Brixton disturbances.

It was a concern at the outset

that we might not get the cooperation of the local community

but we had to make the effort

to go and talk to people and explain.

And my main pitch was simply this.

This is an opportunity for you.

If you don’t take this opportunity, your voice will not be heard.

And that will be disastrous.

When Lord Scarman came to us,

We had a little bit of a hope,

and I am going to tell you why I said that.

Because he met with us physically.

Lord Scarman came to... to see us in...

um, the youth center, Shepherds. Yeah?

I don’t remember a White person

in the establishment, ever asking a Black kid

about their feelings, about why you did what you did.

He did.

What was striking about it was the juxtaposition.

Scarman, in a sense quintessential representative

of the British establishment on the one hand.

And on the other hand,

the setting and the intensity of the discussion.

They told him straight

of their experience over the years.

People who had experienced policing

at first hand on the streets of Brixton.

[protesters chanting]

[reporter] From first thing this morning,

about 30 demonstrators were marching up and down outside the coroner's court,

chanting allegations of murder and a police cover up.

With them, they had placards bearing the pictures

of the 13 youngsters who died in the fire.

Lawyers for the victims’ families have insisted very firmly

that an incendiary was thrown through the window

just as firmly the forensic expert has been sticking to his belief

that the fire started inside the house on the carpet.

There is no evidence that indicates that there is any form of racialism

involved in this inquiry whatsoever.

He said that he didn’t think

that this was a racial attack

and I remember the whole court room

just exploding with boos and shouts.

[reporter] For over five hours, Commander Stockwell was cross-examined,

at times jeered derisively by relatives and friends of the victims,

in particular, over his evidence about an alleged fight in the house

shortly before the fire broke out.

Already at this inquest, young partygoers have denied there was a fight,

retracting statements they made while in police custody.

The judge asked me about my police interview and what have you

so I said, "Well, the police were asking me the questions

and answering them themselves."

And that was that... that one line is enough.

The whole court was in uproar.

[reporter] Denise had earlier claimed that police officers had shouted at her.

This was agreed by her father.

Mr. Gooding said the officers were shouting,

"You’re lying! Come on, Denise, you’re lying.

Don’t cover up for anyone.

Remember, you have a dead brother, Andrew Gooding."

It was at this point that Mr. Gooding broke down crying.

The coroner told him, "You must try and control yourself."

To which Mr. Gooding replied, "You don’t know what I am going through.

Listen, sir, I had three children in there and not one came out unhurt."

During the inquest, I went into labor,

and on the 5th of May, I had Janine.

She was born at 14 minutes past five.

Yes, out of all of this madness, she managed to arrive healthy,

bouncing baby girl.

I felt over the moon, joyed and happy

but sad also, because Paul should have been standing with me, too.

and watching our baby being born.

I did it by myself, so...

[reporter] After 13 days in court,

and more than 80 hours of evidence, from nearly 60 witnesses,

it took the jury just two hours to come to an open verdict.

Mrs. Armza Ruddock, who gave the party

and lost two children in the fire,

was in no mood to accept it.

An open verdict... verdict was what I expected

but it is not what it should be.

It should be murder.

It was an open verdict, 'cause it wasn’t investigated properly

I just want to know from that person why they actually done it

and just for someone to say they’re sorry.

But... just closure.

An open verdict, for me, isn’t closure.

I was still in hospital.

My mum came to the hospital, my mum cried.

Because now at this point, for the rest of her life,

she’s going to have to pack up work and look after me now,

so what about... "Oh, and how am I going to take care of my son?"

There ain’t no government help, there ain’t no money coming from nowhere.

And she did, she broke down and cried.

She don’t think it’s fair. She didn’t think it was fair on me,

she didn’t think it was fair on any of the other children.

We got nothing at any time,

whether it be a verdict you’ve caught somebody,

whatever, nothing.

Nothing in our case has gone right

And do you know what?

It’s not fair.

It’s not right.

The verdict signaled to the Black community

that the police, the media, courts,

basically all felt that

those lives didn’t matter

and there were gasps of disbelief.

It was just like a pressure pot and with the lid had just come off.

It was like you couldn’t hold it in anymore.

[bells ringing]

[man] Come on! Come on!

[reporter] Tension had been high in Southall’s Asian community

in recent weeks, but no one was prepared

for the scale of last night’s violence.

[indistinct shouting]

One of the worst and most terrifying rioting ever seen in Britain,

more than a hundred White and colored youths

fought a pitched battle against the police.

Some were as young as 12, the oldest, no more than 20.

It's been building up for years, like Brixton and all that.

but Brixton, it was all Blacks, but last night

was Blacks and Whites.

[reporter] Why... why has it happened?

Because of, um, police brutality,

police harassment, oppression.

We just want respect, and treated like human beings.

That's what we are.

[reporter] The unprecedented outbreak of violence

on the streets of Mainland Britain.

[screaming and shouting]

Last night, like the night before, it was the turn of Manchester

to suffer from rioting and looting

[Gus John] I and a number of youth workers

were running around Moss Side

to get a sense of what was happening.

They were totally fearless.

They could not, on that night, give a damn,

about what was likely to happen or not happen to them.

They felt a sense of strength,

of collective energy

and I think to a large extent, their boldness and confidence

came from the New Cross protest.

Because they were amongst some of the young people

who got on those twelve coaches

that left outside Moss Side education center that day.

to go to London to join the march.

[man] Cease fire!

[upbeat music]

♪ It was the year of 1981 ♪

♪ All in the ghetto of Brixton ♪

♪ But the underlying cause Of the friction ♪

♪ Brings about a grave insurrection ♪

♪ And it spread all over the nation ♪

♪ It was truly an historical occasion ♪

I saw poetry as a cultural weapon

in the Black liberation struggle.

♪ Every rebel joins a rebel... ♪

I saw my role as a poet

as chronicling the history of Black people in this country

[singing]

Black people were no longer prepared to be marginalized

and treated like colonials.

[vocalizing]

[Alex Wheatle] The level of damage was unbelievable.

It totally shocked me, you know,

and this was just before Prince Charles and Diana’s wedding.

And so you had this weird juxtaposition.

The establishment was gearing up to this royal wedding

and yet the country was going up in flames.

It was quite something.

[reporter] The Prime Minister has called it

the most worrying ten days of the government.

For all of us, the rioting and burning of or cities

has shaken our unquestioning belief

in a stable, law-abiding multiracial Britain.

[Gus John] We all have a tendency to

what I call moral relativism.

So you would moralize about the conduct of people

who are resisting oppression,

but you're quite prepared to live very happily

with the conduct of those who oppress them.

And that’s been the problem for as long as I have been in this country

and that's since 1964.

[Philip Mawer] Riots are not a pretty thing.

Brixton was bad

but the fact that there were subsequent disorders

heightened the importance of the inquiry process.

Because it was clear that what happened in Brixton

was not unique to Brixton.

There was a national issue here

that gave added impetus to the report.

It gave us the opportunity to give it added breath.

[reporter] Well, in a moment, we’ll be looking at

the growing political argument on what needs to be done

to prevent such scenes in the future.

The Prime Minister Mrs. Thatcher was in no doubt about her views.

[Margaret Thatcher] The latest night of mob violence

had nothing to do with the city's problems of bad housing and unemployment.

It was a spree of naked glee.

[man] They’ve taken away everything that the poor man have.

[chuckles] You know, I mean, they’ve taken everything bit by bit.

So the poor man don’t got nothing apart from his shoes.

Margaret Thatcher don’t care about nothing

to what happen to no Black man in this country.

She don't care.

[Alex Wheatle] Martin Luther King is correct

when he says that riot is a language of the unheard.

We felt unheard and I am sure that

other communities all over the UK felt unheard.

I mean, living under a Thatcher government was incredibly tough.

But, she had to, um, stand up and take notice.

[sirens blare]

[reporter] The Scarman report on this summer’s riots in Britain

It’s already been described as a major challenge to the nation.

[reporter 2] ...welcomed both by the Home Secretary

and the police themselves, but some people take a more cynical view...

[reporter 3] ...are now asking whether it will bring about

any real change in Brixton.

Good evening. Lord Scarman’s report has been welcomed by the government,

praised by the opposition, criticized by the local authority involved

as a bitter disappointment. Yet, for better or worse,

it is now the official text for interpreting, judging,

and trying to prevent a repetition of the summer riots

-in the nation’s major cities. -[indistinct question]

It's available only at eight pounds.

[laughter]

[man] Deprived youngsters who believed that they were deprived

because of the colors of their skin,

unable to get what they thought were fair opportunities

of education, or jobs,

and suffering as they thought harassment,

took to the streets, because they saw no other way

of airing their grievances.

[Philip Mawer] I believe that his report offered a challenge to government

as well as to the police.

It represented for the first time, an occasion on which:

A, the Black voice was heard,

and B, the conditions facing the Black community were exposed vividly.

[Leila Hassan] We knew that a lot of the discussion

was all around the issue of deprivation.

These deprived poor youths, with no hope,

you know, this was the last straw, that nobody really wanted to accept

the real issue, which was the issue of police oppression

in the Black community.

[Philip Mawer] You know, at the heart of all policing

is relationship. It’s about relationship between the police on the one hand

and the community on the other.

The tragedy in Brixton was that the relationship had broken down.

I think Scarman recognized that the police

needed to change the way that they,

um, work with the Black community.

And I think he made some recommendations about policing

that were, by and large, ignored by the police.

Of course, to say it needs to be done

is not the same as it being done.

[chuckles] Was it taken up?

No, I don’t think so.

You see the same old behavior happening.

A few policies are put into place, you know,

a little bit stronger supervision, leadership and things,

but was it robust enough? No.

Was it supported by the government itself?

No.

It was really disregarded by the Margaret Thatcher regime.

[Philip Mawer] I comfort myself with the thought that

in a democracy in particular,

one is perhaps always in the business of taking small steps

towards a better state of affairs.

And if Scarman’s report contributed towards doing that

then, um, it did its job.

["Redemption Song" by Bob Marley plays]

It was important that in 1981,

more and more people from the African and Asian Diaspora

gained a belief in collective action to bring about change.

-♪ Old pirates, yes, they rob I ♪ -[indistinct schoolchildren chanting]

♪ Sold I to the merchant ships ♪

[Gus John] For me, to be protagonists in pursuit

of your own liberation,

demanding a right to be treated with respect, with dignity

and not have those rights trampled upon

by others who believe they have the power to do so.

♪ We forward in this generation ♪

[Alex Wheatle] Bob Marley passed, and then this overwhelming sadness

that many of us felt, our prophet, our voice,

our presence in the world.

It was a very low point in my life, actually, because he passed

just before I started my term in prison.

Some weeks after the Brixton uprising, I was arrested.

I appeared at Campbell Green Magistrates

and I was given the term of six months in prison,

um, for assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest.

It was something that I didn’t believe I would recover from.

But I met one of the mentors of my life.

You know, so really, my time there was a blessing in many ways.

♪ Won't you help to sing ♪

♪ These songs of freedom? ♪

♪ 'Cause all I ever have ♪

-♪ Redemption Song ♪ -[Christopher Icha] None of the uprisings

are pointless, none of them.

The uprising sets down a marker, that in this generation,

we butted heads with Babylon

to let them know, we need what everybody needs.

So we have to put our marker down,

whether the society responds to it or not.

For me, it's "emancipate yourself from mental slavery."

♪ Emancipate yourselves From mental slavery ♪

♪ None but ourselves can free our minds ♪

I mean that to me is... I'm gonna cry.

The story of what we tried to do.

The energy and the impetus of 1981.

♪ How long shall they kill our prophets ♪

Just thinking of that song has made me really emotional, I have to say.

♪ While we stand aside and look? ♪

I think the consciousness that came about

because of the Black people's day of action

is one success

and although we couldn’t get justice within the confines of the system,

I think in a sense, it was a victory

because if it wasn’t for the Massacre Action Committee,

there is no doubt in my mind

that there would be three or four young Black men, currently in prison,

having been charged with arson for the New Cross Fire.

In the sense, that we were able to prevent that,

that was a success.

[Wayne Haynes] Rosaline, Gerry, Steve,

Owen, Glenton.

That was my ground zero.

And that was my plan to start rebuilding my life, from that day.

But it’s never... it’s never been and it never will be the same again.

[Denise Gooding] My younger brother Andrew was the life of the house.

It’s hard being a survivor. Especially the youngest survivor.

It is hard, because everybody’s focused on the children who are not here.

But the kids who are here suffering...

I don’t think people really notice it. Yet, you’re alive, that’s the thing.

But we’re the ones living it, day in and day out.

I was unfortunate to lose my brother Andrew

at a very young age, and lose a lot of friends.

There were some friends that I had at that party,

that I started secondary school with.

Tony, I mean, he escaped from there,

but after about a year and a half, he... you know, it was really sad.

That fire had a massive, massive impact on Tony.

Tony was alright before. Tony was alright before.

And I know it sounds like ridiculous and that, but, you know what?

I just want Andrew and my friends back.

So, trying to find out who done it

and we need to find them...

But whatever justice we get, it still doesn’t bring back

Andrew and the rest.

[somber music]

I know that Andrew is not going to come back.

And I probably will go to my grave and I will not know who do that.

I will not know who start the fire, how it start, or nothing.

I will have to... I leave him at the foot of the cross.

[interviewer] What does that mean?

[chuckles]

I... I forgive them and forget them.

[pensive music]

[Linton Kwesi Johnson] Towards closure...

these totemic oaks.

Once fragile saplings, taken root in hostile soil.

Now bear perennial witness

to spring's eternal son of hope.

[instrumental music]