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In 1981, England suffered serious riots across many major cities. They were perceived as race riots between communities, in all cases the main motives for the riots were related to racial tension and inner city deprivation.〔Kettle, Martin & Hodges, Lucy (1982) Uprising!: Police, the People and the Riots in Britain's Cities〕 The riots were caused by a distrust of the police and authority. The four main riots that occurred were the Brixton riot in London, the Handsworth riots in Birmingham, the Chapeltown riot in Leeds and the Toxteth riots in Liverpool. ==Context== In all four main cases, the areas had large ethnic minority communities, who had largely come from the Commonwealth in the 1950s and 1960s to do low paid manual jobs. All the areas suffered from poor housing (mostly dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries), high unemployment and particular problems with racial tensions. According to the Scarman report which was subsequently commissioned by the UK government, the riots were a spontaneous outburst of built-up resentment sparked by particular incidents. Lord Scarman stated that "complex political, social and economic factors" created a "disposition towards violent protest". The Scarman report highlighted problems of racial disadvantage and inner-city decline, warning that "urgent action" was needed to prevent racial disadvantage becoming an "endemic, ineradicable disease threatening the very survival of our society". Brixton (London), Toxteth (Liverpool) and Chapeltown (Leeds) were originally built as affluent areas of the city. However the relocation of industry, rising popularity of homes on new private housing estates since the 1930s, poor connections and the influx of migrant workers had led to a downfall in their fortunes and the large Victorian terraces and villas were often divided up into low rent bed sits, and many of those still existing as houses had been bought by landlords who let them to tenants. The Conservative Party government elected in 1979 had instituted new powers for the Police under the Vagrancy Act of 1824 to stop and search people based on only a 'reasonable suspicion' that an offence had been committed — hence their common name of "sus laws". These were applied disproportionately to the black community, and caused widespread resentment amongst young black men. The majority of these were not immigrants, they were the British born children of immigrants, mostly born in the late 1950s or the first half of the 1960s. The election of the Conservative government in 1979 had also seen the implementation of monetarism economic policies which were designed to tackle inflation, which was still above 10% by 1981〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=UK Inflation History by month: 1976 - 1995 ) 〕 and had peaked at well over 20% by the end of James Callaghan's Labour Party government in May 1979. Inflation had rarely been below 10% throughout the 1970s and had exceeded 20% more than once. Although inflation was falling by 1981, unemployment was still rising and the recession was now in its second year, passing the 2.5 million mark in April 1981 having stood at 1.5 million two years earlier. Less than a decade earlier, unemployment had still been in six figures and it had stood at less than 400,000 as recently as the mid 1960s. The inner city areas affected by the 1981 riots were among those hit particularly hard by the recession and the unemployment and other social issues which came with it. This level of unemployment, not seen since the 1930s, had led to mass discontent in the working class areas of Britain most affected by the recession. The Asian community also felt isolated and vulnerable to racist attack. The Police were given new powers to question people about their immigration status. Resentment arose that these laws were applied, but the police were failing to protect the Asian community from violence. On 11 July 1981, the "Bradford 12" — a group of Asian youths, members of the "United Black Youth League" — were arrested for manufacturing petrol bombs, allegedly to protect their community from a threatened attack. At the subsequent trial, they were acquitted by a jury, on the grounds of self defence. On 13 January 1981, thirteen Black youths died in the New Cross Fire in London. The police quickly dismissed a racial motive for the apparent arson attack;〔In the aftermath, an inquest held soon after the fire recorded an 'Open Verdict'; and a second inquest in 2004 confirmed the conclusion. It was only with advances in forensic science in the intervening 23 years that it was finally determined that the fire was likely to have been an accident.〕 and the local Black community were dismayed by the indifference shown in the press towards the deaths. 15,000 people marched demanding action to Central London, in the largest Black issue demonstration seen in the UK.〔 Racial tensions continued to rise in the early part of the year. On 28 March 1981, Enoch Powell — by then an Ulster Unionist MP, but still an influence on the Conservative Party — gave a speech in which he warned of the dangers of a "racial civil war" in Britain. By 6 April, it was announced that overall unemployment had risen from 1.5 million to 2.5 million in 12 months; and that joblessness among ethnic minorities had risen faster, up 82% in the same period.〔(''1981 riots timeline'' ) ''Untold History'' (Channel Four Television) accessed 5 March 2009〕 During March and April, the Metropolitan Police begin ''Operation Swamp 81'', a London-wide campaign against burglary and robbery. In Brixton, over only six days, 120 plain-clothes officers stopped 943 people, arresting 118 — predominantly Black youths. The police justified their heavy-handed policing by statistics showing that while street robberies had increased 38% across London between 1976–80; in Brixton it had risen 138%.〔 The first disturbances began in Brixton over the weekend of 10-12 April 1981, and were followed in July by a series of similar disturbances in 12 cities and towns, especially Liverpool. In London, these included Dalston, Stoke Newington, Clapham, Hounslow and Acton. Leech notes "Here these were not race riots - riots between races. Rather the conflict was with police as symbols of white authority, with state racism and criminalisation of black communities".〔Kenneth Leech ''Struggle in Babylon'' (Sheldon Press 1988)〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1981 England riots」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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