St Pauls, Bristol dealing. A customer had his trousers ripped and demanded compensation, which the police refused. A crowd outside then refused to allow the police to leave, and when back up was called a riot started. The riots were quickly blamed on race, but both white and black youths from both Irish and Jamaican backgrounds and some English fought against the police and the problems are thought to have been linked instead to poverty and perceived social injustices, predominantly the Sus law and anti Irish feelings from IRA activity on the main land. In 1990 a Bristol and St Pauls black politician
Bristol riots 120 policemen, and Park Street was closed off with buses. In subsequent confrontation, an MP was stabbed, a black GI was shot dead, and several others were wounded. The St Pauls riot started on 2 April 1980 in the St Pauls district, when the police carried out a raid on the Black and White Café, later known as "Britain's most dangerous hard drug den", located on Grosvenor Road in the heart of St Pauls. It is unclear why the riot started either due to the police ripping a customer's trousers and refusing to pay, or they were simply attacked as