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 was superficial. The problems caused by the deck-level walkways had not been solved; children from Broadwater Farm were still under-achieving academically in comparison to the surrounding areas; the unemployment rate stood at 42%; and there was a mutual distrust between the local residents—particularly those from the Afro-Caribbean community—and the predominantly White British and non-local police force. There had been earlier riots in Brixton and in Handsworth in Birmingham, which were indicative of a period of rising racial tension, during which some police methods such as raids, saturation policing and stop and search tactics increased the frustration of some members of