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
London: The Biography on the other it has long been resistant to 'planning'; he cites the example of Paris's development under Baron Hausmann as a counterpoint and contrast. Some commentators have focused on Ackroyd's political perspective and how this affects his analysis. In one example, Iain Sinclair argued that his message is fundamentally conservative: "poll-tax riots and uprisings at Broadwater Farm Estate are coeval with the burning of Newgate Prison: they are virtual-reality panoramas from the Museum of London...Subversion may excite for a moment, but it will be crushed." London: The Biography London: The Biography is a 2000 non-fiction book by Peter Ackroyd