1981 Toxteth riots
The Merseyside police force had, at the time, a poor reputation within the black community for stopping and searching young black men in the area, under the "sus" laws, and the heavy-handed arrest of Leroy Alphonse Cooper on Friday 3 July near Granby Street,[1][2] watched by an angry crowd, led to a disturbance in which three policemen were injured.[citation needed] Over the weekend that followed, disturbance erupted into full-scale rioting, with pitched battles between police and youths in which petrol bombs and paving stones were thrown.The sole offensive tactic available to officers, the baton charge, proved increasingly ineffective in driving back the attacking crowds of rioters.At 02:15 hours on Monday 6 July 1981 Merseyside police officers fired 25–30 CS gas grenades, the first occasion on which these had been used in the UK other than in Northern Ireland.[5] However, on this occasion the Merseyside Police responded by driving vans and Land Rovers at high speed into the crowds quickly dispersing them.