Death of Keith Blakelock Violence and looting spread throughout England for several days, leading to five deaths, extensive property damage and over 3,000 arrests. Death of Keith Blakelock Keith Henry Blakelock was a London Metropolitan Police constable who was murdered on 6 October 1985 during rioting at the Broadwater Farm housing estate in Tottenham, north London. The trouble broke out after a local black woman died of heart failure during a police search of her home, and took place against a backdrop of unrest in several English cities and a breakdown of relations between the police and black communities. PC Blakelock had been assigned
Martha Osamor, Baroness Osamor Youth Association Mothers' Project on the nearby Broadwater Farm housing estate. From 1986 to 1990 she served as a Labour Councillor representing the Bruce Grove Ward in the London Borough of Haringey. Following the Broadwater Farm riot Osamor and Dolly Kiffin organised the "first Civil Rights Demonstration ever held in Britain" on 3 October 1987 and produced a "Manifesto of the movement for civil rights and justice". She became a founding member of the Broadwater Farm Defence Campaign. Osamor was nominated by some branches within the Vauxhall Constituency Labour Party in the selection for a candidate at the by-election in