That was 30 years ago today. The riot resulted in almost 279 injuries to police and 45 injuries to members of the public; over a hundred vehicles were burned, including 56 police vehicles; and almost 150 buildings were damaged, with thirty burned. There were 82 arrests. Reports suggested that up to 5,000 people were involved in the riot. The Home Secretary, William Whitelaw, commissioned a public inquiry into the riot headed by Lord Scarman. The Scarman Report was published by Susana De Freitas 25 November 1981.
The Scarman Report was published by Susana De Freitas 25 November 1981. Scarman found unquestionable evidence of the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of 'stop and search' powers by the police against black people. As a consequence, a new code for police behaviour was put forward in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984; and the act also created an independent Police Complaints Authority, established in 1985, to attempt to restore public confidence in the police. Scarman concluded that "complex political, social and economic factors" created a "disposition towards violent protest”. The 1999 Macpherson Report, an investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the failure of the police to establish sufficient evidence for the prosecution of the charged suspects, found that recommendations of the 1981 Scarman Report had been ignored. The report famously concluded that the police force was “institutionally racist”. This report, which did not cover the events of the Brixton Riots, disagreed with the conclusions made by Scarman that "institutional racism" did not exist in the Metropolitan force.
1- Overall, Black people were nearly 7 times more likely to be searched than White people.
2- Asian people were 2.1 times as likely as White people to be stopped and searched.
Change seems to take its time.
On a lighter note, but also culturally significant and consequential, 50 years ago today, Bob Dylan played his first professional gig on the 11th April 1961, supporting John Lee Hooker at Folk City. His September 26, 1961 appearance there was reviewed in the New York Times by Robert Shelton, after which Dylan's reputation was made. Opening officially on January 26, 1960, Folk City was born in Greenwich village, New York, and generated several waves of musical genres ranging from folk music to rock n’ roll; folk rock to punk; blues to alternative rock, bringing the world a wide range of music from Pete Seeger to 10,000 Maniacs.
As I said things have changed.
Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System -2006
from pages 24-25 of the report…..
Main Findings (Data reported here have been confirmed by individual police forces. Because of the dynamic nature of these data, the figures reported here may differ from those published elsewhere.)
Section 1 PACE: Tables 4.1 - 4.4
In 2005/6 there were 878,153 stop and searches of persons recorded by the police under section 1 of PACE and other legislation (Table 4.1). Of these, 135,262 (15%) were of Black people, 69,274 (8%) of Asian people and 14,101 (2%) of people of ‘Other’ ethnic origin. For England and Wales as a whole, the number of stop and searches rose by 3.4% from 849,0276 in 2004/5 to 878,153 in 2005/6. This is the highest figure since 1998/99, when 1,037,271 stop and searches were recorded.
Numerically, most of this rise was accounted for by an increase of 14,169 (11.8%) for Black people. There were also increases for Asian people (14%), and people in the ‘Other’ minority ethnic group (16%), while stop and searches of White people rose by 0.4%. This increase could be explained, in part, by the London bombings of 7th July 2005. Resultant increased street activities of the police led to an increase in the use of stop and search powers, not only under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 (see below), but also under S1 PACE.
For the vast majority of police forces, it was apparent that the number of recorded stop and searches relative to the general population was higher for Black people than for White people in 2005/6 (Table 4.2). Overall, Black people were nearly 7 times more likely to be searched than White people (this ratio is higher than the 2004/5 ratio of 6 times). (2004/5 figures have been revised since the previous publications) If the figures for London are excluded this ratio falls to 4.8. The ratio of Black to White recorded stop and searches varied substantially between police force areas, from 0.7 in Durham, to 11.8 in Dorset, while the ratio for London was 4.4. This variability reflects, in part, the small numbers involved from some ethnic minority groups in some force areas. There were two force areas (Durham and Northumbria) in which the rate of recorded stop and searches for Black people was below that for White people.
Changes in the relative proportions of Black and White people stopped and searched from 2004/5 to 2005/6 appear to be due, at least in part, to changes amongst some police forces in relation to the use of stop and search powers. Because London has the largest number of Black residents, the Metropolitan Police conduct over 75% of all stop and searches of Black people in England and Wales. Between 2004/5 and 2005/6, despite an 18% increase in the numbers of people stopped and searched in the Metropolitan Police area, disproportionality remained relatively stable; Black people were around 4.5 times more likely to be stopped and searched than White people. However, some police forces outside London significantly reduced the total number of stop and searches they conducted between 2004/5 and 2005/6. Among some of these forces, although the number of White persons stopped and searched has reduced, the numbers of Black people stopped and searched has not changed by a similar proportion. This relative difference is partly responsible for the overall increase in disproportionality.
Asian people were 2.1 times as likely as White people to be stopped and searched, compared to 1.8 times in the previous year. People in the ‘Other’ ethnic group were 1.7 times more likely to be stopped than White people in 2005/6, compared with 1.6 times in 2004/52.
For England and Wales in 2005/6, the most common reason for conducting a stop and search across all ethnic groups was for drugs (Table 4.3), as was the case for the previous year. In 2005/6, as for 2004/5, at least half of all occasions of stop and search for people of Asian and Black ethnic appearance were made for drugs (58% and 50% respectively). The proportion for people of White ethnic appearance was lower, at just under two-fifths (39%). In 2005/6, 23% of PACE stop and searches were for stolen goods, slightly lower than 2004/5 (28%). The percentages varied between 30% for the ‘Other’ group, 24% for the White group and the Black group and 15% for the Asian group.
In 2004/5, 12% of stop and searches resulted in an arrest, compared to 11% in 2004/5 (Table 4.4). This proportion varied between police force areas, from 5% in Northumbria to 19% in Cheshire. This slight increase, overall, is most noticeable in the Black ethnic group where the proportion of stop and searches resulting in arrest increased from 11% in 2004/5 to 13% in 2005/6.
Section 60: Table 4.5
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 introduced new powers to stop and search vehicles and persons. Section 60 of the Act, which came into force on 10 April 1995, enables a senior police officer to authorise, for a period not exceeding 24 hours, stop and searches in anticipation of violence.
In 2005/6, the police recorded 36,248 such stop and searches of individuals in England and Wales as a whole (Table 4.5), a decrease of 13% on 2004/5 (41,575 individuals in 2004/57). The overall change in the total number of these stop and searches includes a fall of 2% for White people, 27% for Black people, 29% for Asian people and 27% for those of ‘Other’ ethnicity.
The large increase in the use of this power by Merseyside (who recorded 1,791 such stop and searches in 2004/5 and 8,864 in 2005/6) may be explained by the increase in the number of special operations run by the force. 42 of the 43 forces used these stop and searches in anticipation of violence in 2005/6, compared to 30 in 2004/5.
The proportion of stop and searches resulting in an arrest under Section 60 powers varied across forces. Overall, 5% led to an arrest in 2005/6, compared to 3% in 2004/5 and 4% in 2003/4 (Ministry of Justice, 2007).
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