2011 England riots riots as a role model to be applied to their political activities in Germany as well. The riots were described by one journalist as "the worst disturbances of their kind since the 1995 Brixton riots". Commentators likened the riots to the Broadwater Farm riot of 1985, during which a police officer, Keith Blakelock, was murdered. The disturbances were preceded by calls for better oversight of the Metropolitan Police, repeating observations which go back to the death of Stephen Lawrence and the New Cross Fire. In April 2011 there was a large nonviolent march to Scotland Yard as a result of
Broadwater Farm the Department of the Environment concluded that the estate was of such poor quality that the only solution was demolition. While residents objected to conditions, some also opposed the demolition plan. Relations between the community and the local authority became increasingly confrontational. A process of redevelopment began in 1981, but it was hampered by a lack of funds and an increasingly negative public perception of the area. By the time that Alice Coleman's critique of 1960s planned housing, "Utopia on Trial" (1985), was published, the estate was regarded as being representative of unsuccessful large-scale social housing projects. When a major