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).
1985: The Year of the Spy 1985: The Year of the Spy The American media referred to 1985 as the Year of the Spy because law enforcement arrested many foreign spies operating on American soil. However, the preceding year, 1984, actually had more arrests for espionage in the United States. The eight major agents who became infamous in 1985 for espionage against the United States were John Anthony Walker, Richard Kelly Smyth, Sharon W. Scranage, Larry Wu-Tai Chin, Jonathan Jay Pollard, Ronald William Pelton, Randy Miles Jeffries, and Edward Lee Howard. The majority of these operatives were spying for Communist nations. Their arrests in 1985 heightened