LOZELLS 1: THE RIOT THAT DISAPPEARED

21-10-2006

Have you noticed how the outbreaks of violence in Lozells this time last year are now routinely referred to by the police as “disturbances”? Sorry, but that's a copper's cop-out. It was a riot, pure and simple - I know, cos I was there.

The trouble had been brewing for days. As the presenter of BBC WM's breakfast radio show, I became aware early in that fateful week that other media were reporting a story that yet hadn't surfaced on our station.

There were allegations that a young black woman had been caught stealing from an Asian-owned beauty store close to the Crown and Cushion island in Perry Barr. It was said that she was an illegal immigrant from Jamaica who, fearing deportation, offered sex to the shop-keeper if he promised not to report the incident.

He, so the rumour went, then held her captive for several days and invited his friends to join in a sickening gang rape.

We now know that WM's cautious reaction was entirely justified, because there wasn't a shred of evidence to support the story. But that didn't stop it being circulated and widely believed among the local community, where it was given extra credence by pirate radio DJ's seemingly intent on whipping up hatred.

When I went to Perry Barr on the Tuesday before the riot, it was clear that something ugly was going on. There was a small picket line of young African-Caribbean men in front of the shops, discouraging black customers from using Asian-owned shops.

“Support you own community”, they said, echoing a refrain I'dbeen hearing with ever greater frequency over previous months whenever I chanced upon pirate reggae stations - theytaken to mingling music with messages of self-empowerment.

As we've approached the anniversary of the riot this week, police have been briefing the media to the effect that the eruption of inner city violence was all down to street gangs taking advantage of a tense situation to settle their own scores.

Undoubtedly there were some who exploited the situation, but make no mistake about it - this was not just a turf war between the local drugs runners. The aggro was a reflection of a deeply held antipathy between ethnic groups who had come to see themselves as rivals.

In the days before it all kicked off, there were ordinary members of the African-Carribean community who were quite happy to talk about their Asian neighbours using the most vile, racist language imaginable.

One neatly dressed thirty something black woman told me that Asians were “taking over” nearby Aston - “street by street” she said - and that they were like colonial rulers, happy to exploit black people who came into their shops while regarding them as inferior beings.

It was the old language of white racists from the 70's now being used by those who had once been victims of it - and it was a refrain I was to hear over and over again during the next few days.

Later that week, a public meeting was called down the road from Perry Barr in Lozells at an African-Caribbean resource centre; along with another journalistic colleague I wasn't allowed in because it was only for members of the “community”. Never mind thatwe had initially been invited. Now we knew what it felt like to be on the wrong end of a colour bar.

And so Saturday came. There were rumours of mobs arriving from London and Nottingham, but a lunchtime protest in Perry Barr was poorly attended and fizzled out peacefully. It was only as night fell that reports started filtering through of a major flare-up. I was eating a balti in Cotteridge when the call came to go to work and report on a riot.

Arriving in Villa Road just before midnight was an eerie experience. My BBC boss Keith Beech and I were greeted by the sight of burned out buildings, smouldering cars and deserted streets.

Forget a “disturbance” - that's something you might get outside a pub a closing time. This was like the scenes we'd been accustomed to seeing a few years earlier during marching season in Northern Ireland. Ordinary streets, extraordinary destruction. It was targetted too - an Asian information centre had been torched after its windows were put through.

One of our colleagues wielding a news camera was hospitalised, stabbed in the head trying to escape a baying mob; I was chased by a large gang for trying to take a picture of a wrecked car on my mobile; the police were lined up in riot formation near a local mosque.

Amid the chaos, a young black man Isiah Young- Sam, a model citizen who worked for Birmingham Council, was stabbed to death for no greater crime than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The men who killed him have now been sentenced, although as far as I'm aware no pirate DJ has yet been charged with whipping up hatred by spreading false rumours. The police say their investigations are ongoing -good.

No doubt there are many issues which need addressing in Lozells. The Asians and African-Carribeans who make up the bulk of the local community face numerous economic and educational disadvantages that will only deteriorate unless they are seriously tackled.

But we can't just pretend away the racism thatpoisons the heart of the inner city, even between ethnic communities who - from the outside - would appear to have so much in common.

Just like we can't pretend away the Lozells riot by calling it something else.