Broadwater Farm
Broadwater Farm in Tottenham, north London (N17), emerged out of the British government's policy from the 1930s onwards of "slum clearance," where rows of over-crowded and poorly maintained terraced houses were bulldozed to make way for high-rise social housing, known as council estates.[15] Completed in 1973, the Farm, as it is known locally, consists of 1,000 flats (apartments) in 12 blocks surrounded by high-level outdoor walkways. Commentators blamed these walkways for turning the estate into a "rabbit warren" for criminals, and residents complained that they were afraid to leave their homes. Rose writes that by 1976 it was already seen as a "sink estate," and by 1980 a Department of the Environment report raised the possibility that it might have to be demolished in the next decade, though a regeneration project after the 1985 riots led to improvements. At the time of Blakelock's death it housed 3,400 people—49 percent whites and 43 percent Afro-Caribbeans.
Death of Cynthia Jarrett
On Saturday, 5 October 1985, a week after the Brixton riot, police arrested Floyd Jarrett, a 24-year-old black man from Tottenham, on suspicion of being in a stolen car. It was a suspicion that turned out to be groundless, but a decision was made several hours later to search the home of his mother, Cynthia Jarrett, for stolen goods, and in the course of the search she collapsed and died of heart failure. Rose writes that the pathologist, Dr Walter Somerville, told the inquest she had a heart condition so severe she probably only had months to live.
According to Rose, the police let themselves into the house using Floyd's keys, without knocking or announcing themselves, while Mrs Jarrett and her family were watching television. The inquest heard that an officer accidentally pushed against Mrs. Jarrett, causing her to fall. When it became clear she had stopped breathing, the same officer tried to revive her using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to no avail.
Protesters began to gather outside Tottenham police station, just a few hundred yards from Broadwater Farm, around 1:30 am on Sunday morning. Four of the station's windows were smashed, but the Jarrett family asked the crowd to disperse. Later that day, two police officers were attacked with bricks and paving stones at the Farm, and a police inspector was attacked in his car. By early evening a crowd of 500 mostly young black men had gathered on the estate, throwing petrol bombs, bricks and stones, and dropping concrete blocks from the outdoor walkways that surrounded the apartment blocks. The subsequent rioting was regarded as one of the most violent incidents the country had seen. Apart from Blakelock's death, 250 police officers were injured, and two policemen and three journalists suffered gunshot wounds, the first time shots had been fired by rioters in Britain.
Attack on Keith Blakelock
Blakelock was assigned on the night to Serial 502, a Metropolitan police unit consisting of a sergeant and 10 police constables. At 9:30 pm Sergeant David Pengelly led the unit—all in riot protection gear, including shields, flame-proof overalls, and NATO-style hard hats—to protect local firefighters who had been forced out of the estate's Tangmere block, where a fire had been started in a newsagent's shop on an upper deck. One of the firefighters, Trevor Stratford, said the men made their way up an enclosed staircase, with Serial 502 behind them. Suddenly rioters appeared at the top, blowing whistles and throwing bottles. Pengelly ordered the fire fighters and police officers to retreat. They had to run backwards down the narrow staircase, fearful of tripping over the fire hoses, which had been flat before but were now full of water. Pengelly described it "as an extremely difficult position [in which] to defend yourself." As they ran down the stairwell, Statford saw there were rioters at the bottom too, wearing masks or crash helmets, and carrying knives, baseball bats, bricks and petrol bombs. He said it appeared the fire may have been set as an ambush. As the fire fighters and police exited the stairwell toward a car park and a patch of grass, Stratford became aware that Blakelock had tripped and fallen: "He just stumbled and went down and they were upon him. It was just mob hysteria. ... There were about 50 people on him.
The rioters removed his protective helmet, which was never found. Rose writes that the pathologist found 54 holes in his overalls, and 40 cutting or stabbing injuries, eight of them to his head, caused by a machete, sword, or axe-type instrument. A six-inch-long knife was buried in his neck up to the hilt. His hands and arms were cut to ribbons, and he had lost several of his fingers. There were 14 stabbing wounds on his back, six on his face, a six-inch gash across the right side of his head, and his jawbone had been smashed. The pathologist said the force of the blow that caused this injury had been "almost as if to sever his head."
A second group surrounded another constable, Richard Coombes, who sustained a five-inch-long cut to his face, a broken upper jaw, and a smashed lower jaw. In 2004 he said he was still suffering the effects of the attack, including poor hearing and eyesight, and epileptic fits. Police regard the attack on him as attempted murder. A third constable, Michael Shepherd, had his protective helmet pierced by an iron spike. Trevor Stratford told a reporter in 2010: "I remember running in with another fire officer to get Dick Coombes. I literally slid into the group, like a rugby player charging into a ruck. We dragged him out, but he was in a hell of a state":
I then ran back towards Keith Blakelock. Other police officers were already there. We were all being hit and beaten, but I managed to get hold of his collar and pull his head and shoulders out of the group. One of the other officers helped me to drag him out.
Dave Pengelly kept a rearguard barrier between us and the rioters, standing in the middle of it all with just a shield and a truncheon, trying to fend them off, which is an image I'll never forget.
Between us all we managed to manhandle Keith out to the road, and safety. He was already unconscious when I'd got to him on the ground. I started mouth-to-mouth and heart massage on him, but his injuries were just horrific.
He had a knife embedded up to the handle in the back of his neck. We could see he had multiple stab wounds and some of his fingers were missing. I just kept working on him with another officer, and I think we got some response, but only very limited.
Chief Superintendent Colin Couch, the highest-ranking officer at the scene, was one of the first officers to reach Blakelock. Crouch said he was still alive, and managed to take two or three steps before collapsing. He was taken by ambulance to the North Middlesex Hospital, but died on the way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Keith_Blakelock
