CRIME

There were many factors which contributed to the creation of the Toxteth riots, one of which was the amount of crime that was occurring before, and up to when the riots broke out. To curb the amount of crime taking place it was decided that more police should join the fight against crime. Most importantly, the Penal Code was revised and made the punishments for crimes, even nonviolent ones, brutal and harsh. That being done, people started to think that ". . . since the punishment was the same regardless of the crime committed; there was no real incentive to avoid particularly violent offences" (Bootle Group, 2001). Still, the increased law enforcement and the new brutal Penal Code seemed not to have a grip on the rising crime rate, which reached the highest of the 20th century in 1964. For many people, their economic situation meant that for them jail was a better place than home, if they even had a home, which caused many to re-offend and the rate of crime to go up even more. It was the high recidivism and crime rates, and the perceived diminishing consequences for the crimes they committed that set the stage for the Toxteth riots.

POLICE

Out of all the sparks that ignited the Toxteth riots, the one most talked about is the law enforcement practices. Prior to the riots, "there were a lot of incidents of harassment, drug planting, people being criminalized for trivial reasons, [and] heavy-handed policing..." (BBC News. Wednesday, July 4, 2001). Perpetually, young men of different races and black citizens were complaining about how the authorities were treating them. Detective Chief Inspector, Alan Cooper admits, "we were not as skilled then as we are now in working with the community, listening to them and being one with them, as opposed to imposing our views upon them" (Thomas, M.). The authorities were regarded as role models for the British youth, but instead they were not. The authorities were in fact one of the main instigators of the Toxteth riots, with their own racist attitudes and negative ways of policing.

GANGS

From the 1960's to the early 1980's when the Toxteth riots erupted, there were several organized groups of young people, the most influential being the Mods and the Skinheads. The early 1960's gave birth to the Modernists, or Mods, as everyone knew them. The Mods were teenagers who had money to burn, which they gladly did, "using their income to look better, act smarter. . . . and make it known that they were a force to be reckoned with" (Herbert, D. 1999). In the mid 1960's, the "tougher" Mod youth started to have short, cropped hair. "These working class kids adopted the name ‘Skinheads’ to separate themselves from the more dainty and less violent Mods" (Herbert, D. 1999). For the most part the Skins were not racist. However, when more immigrants arrived from Pakistan, many felt their jobs were threatened and became prejudiced toward the Pakistan Community. The late 1970's caused the National Front, Britain’s National Socialist party, to recruit Skins as street soldiers. It was then ". . . that racism permeated the Skinhead cult without the consent of its members" (Herbert, D. 1999).

RACIAL ISSUES/IMMIGRATION

Relations between Black and White populations in England have been strained for more than five centuries. It is said that Queen Elizabeth I demonstrated the first instance of "British institutionalized racism towards its Black population" when she vocalized her disapproval for their presence in England in 1596 (Christian, 1998). This racist disposition was also shared by many citizens within the "White British society" (Christian, 1998). Despite the fact their presence was not welcome in Britain, the Black population continued to increase in the 17th and 18th centuries as a result of Britain’s active participation in slave trading.

As noted by Christian (1998), "Black citizens were transported as enslaved property to sea ports throughout Britain, some of which included London, Bristol, and Liverpool." They were, more often than not, relocated against their will to be traded as slaves and to become domestic servants to the wealthy (Christian, 1998). Liverpool partook in the majority of the slave trade and, as a result, experienced a drastic increase in population from a mere 5,000 in 1700 to 78,000 in 1801 (Christian, 1998). Not only did Liverpool’s Black population experience the inhumane practices of slave labor, but they were also subjected to horrific racial sentiments held by many of the community’s White citizens. While the trading of slaves was abolished in Britain in 1807, Black citizens were still used as cheap labor by many ship and seaport industries. These changes, however did not and presumably could never eradicate their struggles for dignity, self-respect and self-fulfilling labor, as opposed to slave labor. Many believe that the racial conflicts that had scarred the community of Toxteth and Liverpool were the primary pre-disposing factor to the riots that took place.