Reading Britain's Riots

...where for some it may not be possible ever to achieve a peaceful accord We older blacks may still be prepared to give [British whites] the benefit of the doubt But soon we will be replaced by younger people for whom there can be no sharing of the problem They will not accept you You have alienated them beyond recall' There is increasing talk among older West Indians here of returning to their home islands, whence they were lured to Britain two decades or more ago by the prospect of jobs For virtually all of them, it remains just talk or dreams But young blacks, who are British born and have never known an island in the sun, can't even share those elusive hopes They have no identity save the one that led some of them to do battle with the police in the streets and many others to sympathize with the rioters It would be wrong to equate Brit-ain's racial woes with America's British "colored" residents constitute a much smaller proportion of the overall population They are not homogeneous, being divided into blacks (mostly of West Indian origin, with some from Africa) and Asians (people of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin), who have altogether different attitudes and difficulties (Blacks complain of too much police attention, Asians complain of too little police protection against assaults by neo-Fascist hoodlums ) In addition, Britain has no generally acknowledged black leaders?like America's Jesse Jackson or Vernon Jordan—who would be accepted and listened to by the black community, especially bv the frustrated young Also, despite a substantial black population, Brixton and other troubled districts are not "ghettos" in the American sense Thev actualK have more white than black citizens Manv whites living there mav believe that local high crime rates are race related (more black culprits, more white victims), but overt racial antagonism is rare The differences between the situations in the two countries, of course, do not change the essential tact thai has had to be laced her since last summer Britain does have a race problem NORMAN GELB, a regular contributor, is writing a book on British affairs...

...They stood between our society and a total collapse of law and order in the streets"—he noted that there was room for a "more coherent and better directed response to the challenge of policing a modern, multiracial society " In recognition of the charge that police habitually badger black youths in London, he proposed that racially prejudiced behavior be made an offense that could lead to an officer's being discharged from the force He further called for an urgent study of ways to increase recruitment of black bobbies, and urged that men on the beat be made more accountable to the communities they serve, with greater outside supervision of complaint procedures Reaction to the Scarman report has been mixed In Brixton and Toxteth, the recommendations for a tighter clamp on the constabulary's methods have been welcomed by prominent blacks and rejected by spokesmen for radical black groups Darcus Howe, editor ot Race Todav, deemed Scarman's efforts a failure and forecast the fire next time "Those forms which appeared in embryo on the streets of Britain' s cities must necessanly develop into full-blown manifestations in the not too distant future " Most British papers and news broadcasts played down the report's news on affirmative action, but these made a front-page banner headline in London's Conservative-inclined Daily Mail, whose Washington correspondent reported "If it follows Lord Scarman's advice, Britain will embark on a shaky enterprise in social engineering just as America is in the course of scrapping it It has led to such a backlash of public opinion among white majority Americans that many would say it has not reduced social tensions but has inflamed them " Aside from the concern in some Conservative papers about the implications of affirmative action, the British press generally approved the report The London Times seemed to sum up the overriding feeling "The quality and ultimately the safety of society depends on black and white citizens working consciously to live in toleration together " Home Secretary William Whitelaw welcomed the Scarman proposals, too, particularly those concerning relations between the police and the public THE QUESTION now is whether the alarm Britain was given last spring will be truly heeded With the Thatcher government following monetarist policies that are producing, according to none other than Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Geoffrey Howe, more instead of less unemployment, it is unlikely that the climate in the streets will improve come next spring and summer The latest figures on street crime in Brixton—which prompted the heavy police swoop ("Operation Swamp") that triggered the riots there?show that the level has risen, not fallen Nothing has changed, except that the police are keeping a lower profile Dr Ashton Gibson, a Brixton resident, warns that the situation is beginning to approximate that of Ulster "We are reaching a stage," he predicted...

...THE SCARMAN REPORT Reading Britain's Riots BY NORMAN GELB LONDON THE PEOPLE of Britain have been trying to erase a horrifying image from their minds Last spring, sitting before their television sets, they were stunned by the realization that it wasn't Detroit or Berlin they were seeing go up in flames, but Britannia, land of tranquility In Brixton, a district of south London with a large black population, young blacks joined by a small number of white youths were on a rampage of violence and destruction For the first time in British history, bobbies were under concerted attack and Molotov cocktails were being thrown in England By August, the mayhem was duplicated in Toxteth, Liverpool, Moss Side in Manchester, and parts of other big British cities where groups of largely unemployed black youngsters?who still congregate on corners of dingy streets—provided the tinder that needed only a spark to become a blaze The smoke had barely cleared when the government asked Lord Scarman of Quatt to study the disorders One of Britain's leading jurists, he has long had a reputation for fairness and sensitivity to problems of social inequity Indeed, it would be difficult to imagine another person in the country better qualified to examine the causes of the riots and to propose remedies Nonetheless, most Britons were shaken and apprehensive They had contended for years that England didn't have a race problem or, if it did, that it was not explosive like America's Now it had exploded People across the country were chilled by the thought that what was happening on their screens could spread to their own streets as well Scarman's conclusions were anxiously awaited The report was made public last November 25, and since then Britain has been digesting its significance Scarman focused mainly on racial issues and police procedures Admitting strong racial elements were involved, he nevertheless dismissed the contention that what citizens here had witnessed were race riots These were essentially spontaneous crowd reactions to what was perceived as police aggression, he concluded But at the same time he cautioned that "many young people were itching to have a go," and that the lack of coordination in tackling "problems of the inner city" had created an underlying climate of unrest and a predisposition toward violence Commentators were left to decide for themselves to what extent "problems of the inner city" was a euphemism for racial tensions "It was alleged by some of those who made representations to me," Scarman wrote, "that Britain is an institutionally racist society If by that is meant it is a society which knowingly as a matter of policy discriminates against black people, I reject that allegation If, however, the suggestion being made is that practices may be adopted by public bodies as well as private individuals which are unwittingly discriminatory against black people, then this is an allegation which deserves consideration and, where proved, swift remedy " Does that mean affirmative action to take race into account so that more jobs and positions of responsibility can be filled by British blacks'' Of a sort Scar-man declared in his report, "Apolicyof direct coordinated attack on racial disadvantage inevitably means that the ethnic minority will enjoy for a time a positive discnmination in their favor It is a price worth paying if it accelerates the elimination of the unsettbng factor of racial disadvantage from the social fabric of the United Kingdom " But in a subsequent interview he explained that while he thought the government should spend money on helping blacks achieve higher educational standards and obtain jobs, he did not favor a quota system for blacks or the lowering of standards in professions or trades "That would create a distinction between first- and second-class citizens within a profession or calling which is utterly unacceptable " The jurist's primary task was to consider the riots themselves, and the bulk of his report dealt specifically with them and ways to prevent their recurrence Though defending most strong police action during the actual violence...