December 9 1998

The riot that never was

Fortunately we have a good account of events in Manningham on bonfire night from local Labour councillor Sajawal Hussain who witnessed most of it directly.

The "fortress" - Toller Lane police station

Preparations

Police were anticipating trouble in Manningham on bonfire night. There had been trouble last year when youths had thrown fireworks and stones at passing cars. At that time councillor Hussain had spent hours on the streets trying to diffuse the situation. But even those events were eclipsed elsewhere, when two people were shot in Girlington.

Bonfire night is a traditionally "busy" time for the police.

This time the police were prepared. During the preceding weeks a number of meetings had been held between the police and local councillors, youth workers and residents' representatives. 30 officers equipped with riot gear were on standby at the "fortress" Toller Lane police station. The T&A were fully aware of this.

On the night 3 large bonfires had been organised in the area and were attended by around 3000 locals. Youth workers and community representatives toured the area, talking to youths and generally keeping an eye on things, anxious to avoid any repeat of trouble.

The telephone box

Local ward councillor Sajawal Hussain was also on the scene. At 8.30 p.m. he was sat in a police car. They were listening to the usual reports of various incidents across Bradford. Councillor Hussain explained what happened then:

"All of a sudden a call comes to the police in the car. There was a small fire in a telephone kiosk on Heaton Road. It was set alight by some hooligans. It wasn't a 'disturbance' or anything. We just got there. Police blocked the road, just for safety reasons."

A small butane gas canister had been lit and thrown in the kiosk.

"All I know is that, over the radio, talking to police, information was there was a gas canister thrown into there. The fire service was there and they put that under control in no time. In 10 minutes traffic was back to normal, and that was it."

This was one of a number of apparently unconnected incidents that were later to be linked to a "rampaging mob" by the local T&A.

The garage

"At half nine police dropped me off at home," Mr Hussain said. Some time earlier a fire had started in a disused garage on Garfield Avenue. Investigations were to show later that this was probably started by a stray firework, as was another fire in the roof of derelict Lister Mill.

"5 or 10 minutes later I got another telephone call from the police asking me to be ready to be picked up again, because according to their information there was trouble on Garfield Avenue.

"A disused garage was on fire and the fire brigade was there, trying to bring the fire under control. Police information was that if the police went near that fire then there were 50 to 70 youths who were threatening to break the fire engines as well as police cars. The police asked me if I could just go and look into the matter and report back. Because, if this was true, the police did not want to escalate the tension.

"I went there and I was astonished to learn that there was no trace of that nature, no threats to the police and that information that went to the police turned out to be hoax or malicious information."

Councillor Hussain made enquiries amongst the people there:

"There were mostly elderly people, residents, living in the street. Women with very young children and only a handful of youths. I talked to people and found out nobody was there who threatened or made any remarks to the police, in fact. So I went to the police and said 'Look, your information is wrong, someone has misinformed you. I am very happy people are here. They are no more than onlookers. No youths like you feared. And if there were any youths, they are all gone.'"

"And the police went there and there were no problems whatsoever."

The car

At around 9.30 student teacher David Mitchell left a house in Victor Road and found his old Ford Fiesta "smouldering". He later told the T&A:

"We didn't hear anything what with all the fireworks going off. We called the police but they said there was a major disturbance in Oak Lane and we weren't a priority."

The Riot police

10.30 p.m. found councillor Hussain back home again. But not for long.

"There was some misinformation. A hoax telephone call to police saying there was some petrol bombs being made in the street and there were 50 to 70 youths in the area, and they were preparing themselves for big trouble. So the police rang me up again. I went there. It must have been a quarter to 11."

The 30 police officers in riot gear had been dispatched to seal off part of Lilycroft Road and Oak Lane. The police helicopter circled overhead.

"When I got there I saw 15 to 20 youths and I spoke to them. They told me they had ordered pizzas and had enjoyed the community bonfire. The fireworks must have finished and they'd ordered pizzas and were waiting for them. And as soon as their orders arrived they'd go, and in fact they did. Only 7 youths stayed behind.

"I suspected they were troublemakers. By talking to them I could gather they were not sincere. There was something untoward in their conversation."

Councillor Hussain walked back to Toller Lane station where police officers were waiting for him.

"We had a meeting and I said: 'Well look, there is nothing serious, only these 6 or 7 youths are staying behind for whatever reason. They are not listening to me or my advice'. So the police just monitored them and kept them under observation.

"Very gradually, not immediately, but gradually they also dispersed. As far as I'm concerned, as far as my information is concerned from the police, everything went very peacefully. No arrests were made, all the youths left there dispersed. No riot gear was used, it was just on standby.

"That's the end of the story."

Councillor Sajawal Hussain's account was confirmed by other witnesses, and subsequently by the police themselves.

The press release

At 3.20 am on November 6th, a press release was issued from the West Yorkshire Police HQ in Wakefield, via the forces telephone voicemail "newsline". The release read:

"At 1 am a group of 80 youths gathered in the Manningham Lane area and ignored requests from community interveners to disperse. The youths threw rockets and fireworks at Toller Lane Police Station and passing motorists resulting in traffic being halted in the area. A local sales garage was destroyed by fire and a telephone kiosk was ignited with a large gas cylinder inside. Officers were deployed in protective clothing, a search of the area carried out, petrol bombs were recovered, no officers were injured and no arrests were made. Enquiries are continuing."

A month later the Chief Constable was to finally admit to KDIS that this was a "mistake". The contents are almost entirely wrong, yet no explanation has yet been given as to how this statement came to be released.

The release was picked up by the national and local media.

The release led to early morning stories on BBC national radio, as well as local radio. The early bulletins spoke of "riots in Bradford" and "petrol bombs". Local radio "The Pulse" had Mick Starkey of the West Yorkshire Police claiming that he "feared history repeating itself" - a reference to the 1995 Manningham riots.

The Telegraph & Argus

In Bradford T&A journalist Joanne Earp had been in Manningham that evening with a photographer and had noted details of some of the incidents after they had happened. But the press release from Wakefield wasn't discovered until around 6 o'clock in the morning. Seasoned journalists Olwen Vasey and Nick Oldham were given the task of covering the story. And although they clearly worked hard to contact key witnesses in the area, including Sajawal Hussain, the story as it appeared in the early and lunchtime editions presented an entirely misleading story based on the false press release.

Under the heading "MOB GO ON BONFIRE RAMPAGE" the story began:

When he read the accounts next day Sajawal Hussain was not happy: "I was very upset. Furious. Why should people take it out of all proportion. The local police apologised on community radio and said it was nothing like what was reported in the papers"

The Council

Like the rest of us, Council leader Ian Greenwood first heard the story on morning national radio. He went straight to City Hall and tried to find out from the police what had happened, but to no avail. Contacts with fire officers and youth service workers who had been in the area at the time, along with ward councillor Sajawal Hussein, soon made it clear that there had been no riot.

"There were 3 well-attended organised bonfires. The only real incident was a fire in a telephone box", he said, "and if this is the response to a vandalised phone box, then we're in big trouble".

Police from Wakefield HQ, led by the Assistant Chief Constable, came to Bradford and met council leaders at 9 am, but an hour and a half later they still had not explained how exactly that press release had come to be issued.

At 11.15 am the police released another statement to the press. Described by Councillor Greenwood as "bland", the statement simply said that several incidents took place that were not linked, including the gathering of around 60 youths in Oak Lane, who were setting off fireworks. It stated that a telephone box in Heaton Road had been set on fire. There was no mention of petrol bombs.

Councillor Greenwood was not happy with the statement. He arranged an interview with BBC television to try and set the record straight. He later wrote to the Chief Constable, but a fortnight after the events he told Bradford Trades Council "We are still unhappy at the response so far from the Chief Constable, as are the districts 5 MP's. Either there was a really serious cock-up, or there is someone in the police with a racist or other agenda."

At the T&A the editor Perry Austin-Clarke now realised that the information from the police was unreliable. "We were mislead by the police which made us look wrong, to an extent. I think that by the time the final edition came out we were putting a different perspective on it".

The final edition was finalised about 3 hours after the second police statement. The paper changed its lead, slightly, but still spoke of "a night of bonfire violence" and "rampaging youths" in 3 pages of lurid coverage. At the same time the editorial began "It is important not to get last night's troubles in the streets around Manningham out of proportion"

The retraction

The fact that the local Telegraph & Argus failed to set the record straight, led inevitably to a wide spread perception that there had indeed been riots in Manningham that night, and the police had been soft on Asian youths by failing to arrest anyone. A flood of letters began appearing in the paper to this effect.

2 weeks after bonfire night Chief Inspector Des Broster of Toller Lane Police spoke to the T&A. He explained that officers in riot gear had been deployed after two members of the public reported petrol bombs being made. He added that no evidence of any such bombs had ever been found. He said that investigations had concluded the fires at the disused garage and shop were not suspicious and possibly caused by a stray firework. He said that only about a half a dozen to a dozen youths were at the core of the troubles while most of the community enjoyed the 3 organised bonfires.

"At the time there were also a lot of women and children and other residents in the streets as well as the youths. I would much rather have a few fireworks thrown at the police station in youthful high jinx than sending in a load of police officers into a crowd of ordinary people with possible serious consequences."

But a week later the T&A editor Perry Austin-Clark could still dismiss the pleas of one correspondent to produce the facts about "the riot that never happened" with this:

"We did produce a front page about the facts of the incident which were that three cars were destroyed, a telephone box was seriously damaged, potentially lethal fireworks were thrown at the police, two business premises were gutted and Lister's Mill damaged by fire which police can only say "may" have been caused by stray fireworks".

It wasn't until a month after the events, at a meeting of the Bradford Central Community Police Forum, that the Chief Constable Graham Moore finally accepted responsibility for the release of "misleading information". Questioned at the close of the meeting by KDIS, the Chief Constable said he was glad of the opportunity to put the record straight:

"An officer made a mistake. It was our mistake. What happened was the message was slightly distorted. The officer who released the message had not done anything wicked or lazy. He had done his best. What we have done is learn from what's happened and made sure it will not happen again." He said the release was a mistaken response to what were only "normal occurrences".

"Some people are going to make mistakes sometimes. The consequences were very significant and we have put controls in place to make sure it does not happen again. We try to be open with the public and with the press." He added "I am not blaming the press."

T&A editor sticks by "Riot" story

T&A front page (early editions), Nov 6 1998

T&A final edition, Nov 6 1998

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