Drugs raid led to night of violence

THE FLASHPOINT of disturbances in Huddersfield seems to have been a police drugs raid in a public house car park, it was revealed yesterday, writes Malcolm Pithers.

Some 200 youths fought running battles with police on the town's Brackenhall estate after West Yorkshire Police had mounted a raid on people alleged to be dealing drugs from the car park of the Phoenix pub, which had reopened the day before. Within two hours of the incident police reinforcements had to be drafted in.

The rioters stole at least one vehicle, crashing it into a shop window and then set fire to a building. However, there does not appear to have been any link with the disturbances elsewhere, other than the fact that those involved in the fighting were aged between 14 and their mid-twenties.

The estate has undergone considerable refurbishment over the past two years and council officials said they were very upset by the outbreak of violence. They felt it had been 'totally unjustified'. Some residents on the estate felt that the 70 or so police officers involved had over-reacted and used excessive force. This was categorically denied by Chief Superintendent Stuart Clough, who said 21 of his men, including a community sergeant, had been injured.

Barry Sheerman, MP for Huddersfield and Labour's home affairs spokesman, said he wanted to know why the police had carried out the drugs raid on what he called a 'new community facility' within a couple of days of it being reopened. He felt the action could have been 'highly provocative' if not carried out without sensitivity.

About 100 mourners attended the funeral yesterday of one of the two joyriders whose deaths prompted three nights of rioting on the Hartcliffe estate in Bristol last week. Among dozens of wreaths delivered to Bristol South Crematorium for Keith Buck, 18, was one from Avon and Somerset Police, which read 'With sympathy'. His family's floral tribute was in the shape of a car.

Mr Buck and Shaun Starr, 32, were killed instantly last week in a collision between a stolen police motorcycle, which they were riding, and an unmarked police car.

Three regional crime squad officers are suspended from duty while the Police Complaints Authority carries out an inquiry into the incident. Mr Starr's funeral is to be held today at the estate's Methodist church.

Fifteen police officers were hurt and 72 people arrested during the Hartcliffe riots.

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