The Moss Side Riot

THE MOSS SIDE RIOT

Centering initially on an area around a local after-hours drinking club called The Nile, the rioting in Moss Side, Manchester, started with shops being bricked and set alight. It wasn't, however, done on a whim. Just as in other cities around the UK, tension had been simmering within the local community for some time, stoked by high unemployment and police hostility. This sudden outburst of disorder was put down relatively quickly by the police but the smell of burning buildings and the noise of the rioting acted as a message that drifted far and wide. Everyone knew that further trouble was brewing and in anticipation of more potential disorder the shopping centre was closed down earlier than normal the next day.

In a hastily convened meeting between community leaders and police, it was decided to keep the police presence to a minimum so as not to cause unnecessary antagonism and to enable community leaders to maintain calm within their communities. The fallacy of 'community leaders' was immediately exposed that night, however, when a crowd reported to be a thousand strong made their way to the local police station with the intention of razing it to the ground.

As the station was bombarded with bricks and bottles, smashing all the windows and destroying the parked-up police cars, the officers sheltering inside frantically called for help. A fleet of police vans duly raced to the scene causing the mob to abandon their goal though by then the fuse had irretrievably been lit and everyone simply headed back into the centre where the will to riot continued.

Shops were attacked and looted, fires started and cars overturned as police desperately attempted to contain the rioting. The disorder continued throughout the night before slowly ebbing away by dawn as the tired rioters withdrew to their homes.

Incensed at the attack upon one of his police stations and seeing the rioting as "close to anarchy", Manchester's chief constable James Anderton reversed his 'softly, softly' approach and instead went on the attack himself, the next day practically declaring war upon the rioters.

Adopting tactics tried and tested by the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland, police vans with their back doors open charged directly at the crowds causing them to disperse in all directions. Officers then jumped from the vans, hitting out and arresting any stragglers. The vans then continued through Moss Side, with officers leaning out and shouting abuse at youths and inviting them to fight. Strangely, one of the chants police were later accused of making towards black youths was "Nigger, nigger, nigger - Oi, oi, oi!".

From skinheads in Southall to police in Moss Side, it seemed to be just a very small leap.

Though criticised as a being a police riot, the uncompromising tactics brought an end to the disturbances and apart from another attempted, small-scale attack upon the same police station again the next day which was repelled by a superior force of police, the Moss Side riots came to an end.