1985 Handsworth riots 1500 police officers drafted into the area, about 45 shops looted and burnt, and a trail of damage running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. As well as racial tension, unemployment was seen as a major factor in the riots; by the time of the riots, fewer than 5% of the black population to have left school that summer had found employment. The riots were the first of a series of similar riots across the country during the autumn of 1985, notably the Broadwater Farm riot in London which also resulted in a fatality (the murder of policeman Keith Blakelock).
Broadwater Farm the publication of Alice Coleman's "Utopia on Trial" in 1985, the area acquired a reputation as one of the worst places to live in the United Kingdom. This perception was exacerbated when serious rioting erupted later that year. However, following a major redevelopment programme, crime rates dropped dramatically, and the burglary rate was virtually zero percent in 2005. It is one of the most ethnically diverse locations in London; in 2005 its official population of 3,800 included residents of 39 different nationalities. Broadwater Farm was completed in the early 1970s and built using the same Taylor Woodrow-Anglian system of prefabricated