LONDON: More than 500 Youths mostly armed with handguns, shotguns, machetes, bricks and stones, clashed with the Police on Sunday night and Monday morning in the North London district of Tottenham. The clash resulted in the death of one police officer and injury to about 240 others. The police threatened to use tear gas and plastic bullets to quell any further violence.
No untoward incident was reported on Monday night as large Police force kept up a stringent vigil and continued patrolling the area.
The Police have blamed the outside agitators for the violence and other riots in Britain interstate districts, The hauling of bricks and rubble into Tottenlan on Sunday afternoon and the directors being given by two men with Walkie Talkies, are being mentioned as instances of outside instigation and participation in the riots.
But Bernie Grant, a black leader in Tottenham said the Police triggered the violence when black women collapsed and died of an apparent heart failure during the police search of her home.
Grant accused Police of stepping over her body after she fell to the floor and refusing pleas from her daughters to call an ambulance. Police, however, maintain that they were pushed out of the house when she suffered the stroke. Kenneth Newman, London’s Metropolitan Police Chief threatened to issue guns, tear gas, plastic bullets and other arguments to his officers. These officers had gone to the Sunday clashes unarmed, in conformity with the British police tradition.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 11, 1985
