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Bed 45: A story of the Brixton Riots
Whatever happened to British protest?
For a nation that brought the world Chartism, the Suffragettes, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, and so many other grassroots social movements, Britain rarely celebrates its long, great tradition of people power.
This story and afterword are taken from Stories of Resistance. In this timely and evocative collection, twenty authors have assembled to re-imagine key moments of British protest, from the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 to the anti-Iraq War demo of 2003. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eyewitnesses – who also contribute afterwords – these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles, offering a streetlevel perspective on the noble art of resistance.
Jhalak Prize winner Jacob Ross focuses on the New Cross Fire & Brixton Riots, which erupted on 11th April, fuelled by rumours that Michael Bailey, a young black man, had been killed in police custody. Taken from Reicher's accompanying 'The connection between New Cross and Brixton seems obvious. It is the message of Jacob Ross’s story. And he is quite right to remind us that there is a connection. The riots of the 1980s didn’t just ‘happen’: they were not random eruptions of primitive violence in a civilised world. Rather they were responses to constant racist experiences in which the police played a pivotal role. As the Institute of Race Relations concluded in their submission to the Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure in 1979: ‘to put it at its least, the failure of the police to protect the black community leaves it exposed to racist violence. At its worst police practice reinforces that violence.’
For a nation that brought the world Chartism, the Suffragettes, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, and so many other grassroots social movements, Britain rarely celebrates its long, great tradition of people power.
This story and afterword are taken from Stories of Resistance. In this timely and evocative collection, twenty authors have assembled to re-imagine key moments of British protest, from the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 to the anti-Iraq War demo of 2003. Written in close consultation with historians, sociologists and eyewitnesses – who also contribute afterwords – these stories follow fictional characters caught up in real-life struggles, offering a streetlevel perspective on the noble art of resistance.
Jhalak Prize winner Jacob Ross focuses on the New Cross Fire & Brixton Riots, which erupted on 11th April, fuelled by rumours that Michael Bailey, a young black man, had been killed in police custody. Taken from Reicher's accompanying 'The connection between New Cross and Brixton seems obvious. It is the message of Jacob Ross’s story. And he is quite right to remind us that there is a connection. The riots of the 1980s didn’t just ‘happen’: they were not random eruptions of primitive violence in a civilised world. Rather they were responses to constant racist experiences in which the police played a pivotal role. As the Institute of Race Relations concluded in their submission to the Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure in 1979: ‘to put it at its least, the failure of the police to protect the black community leaves it exposed to racist violence. At its worst police practice reinforces that violence.’
23 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 4, 2018
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About the author
Jacob Ross
29 books62 followersJacob Ross was born in Grenada, and has lived in Britain since 1984. He is a poet, playwright, journalist, novelist and a tutor of creative writing. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been a judge of the V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize, the Olive Cook, Scott Moncrieff and Tom-Gallon Literary Awards.
~ Sources: Government of Grenada and Peepal Tree Press
~ Sources: Government of Grenada and Peepal Tree Press
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