Bibliography

This media article raises the matter of the Government not issuing an inquiry into the causes and consequences of the riots of 2011. It reviews the riots of 2011 chronologically and explores the aftermath of the events - stating that the sentences provided to arrested rioters were longer than they would be for the exact charges under other circumstances. This article supports the larger argument about the riots of 2011 being viewed as criminal and unjustifiable by providing the practical implications of such a view reflected in the criminal sentencing.

The following media article, published in 1981, responds to the publication of the Scarman report and offers a critique of the content in the report - raising the explicit denial of “institutional racism” in the United Kingdom by Government officials and the problem of marginalizing the issues of police harassment and police racism in the Government’s responses to the riots of 1981.

This research article, published in 1989, provides an effective analysis of the press editorials on the riots of 1981 and 1985, establishing that the Government and public media had constructed a distorted narrative of the historical events - defining the uprisings as criminals actions of Black youth and almost justifying to blame the whole communities of people of color for organizing such disturbances with no reasonable causes. The researcher explains the binary view present within such a narrative - seeing the rioters as criminals, thus rejecting to hear their perspectives on the event, and instead viewing the police as a victim, a force that deserves respect due to maintaining order in British society.

This article distinguishes between the public inquiries of 1981 and 1999, arguing for the importance of Macpherson’s report in establishing that “institutional racism” exists in the United Kingdom, particularly in the police forces. The work thus provides an account of how such a new governmental response had contributed to shifting the public perception of the riots of 1981 and viewing them as a valid form of protest against police racism.

This research article argues that it is necessary to focus on the continuities and changes over time since the 1980s when comparing the riots of 1981 and 2011. It describes the nature of the U.K. Government’s view on the riots of both 1981 and 2011 as reductionist (seen as “criminal”). It challenges the initial analysis of these events to be seen as “meaningful” instead. The work effectively explains how the initial emphasis on the criminality of the riots of 1981 is applied to and thus limits the current view of the riots of 2011, failing to account for its complexities.

This media article provides context on the start of the Brixton riots of 1985 by raising the story of Dorothy Groce, who was shot by a police officer as her house was being searched for her son by the police officer in 1985.