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
1980 St. Pauls riot building was demolished and has now been replaced by new homes. When cabinet papers were released 30 years later, they showed that Home Secretary William Whitelaw had reported that the Chief Constable "accepted that the police had made errors in the initial stages of the incident but [his] subsequent decision to withdraw all officers from the area for several hours had been the only one open to him at the time". Whitelaw said that a full public inquiry was undesirable as it would only lead to the police being criticised for no good purpose, and that not every controversial matter