The Poll Tax Riots, as they became known, were major acts of civil disobedience carried out in London. They were in protest against the poll tax introduced by Margaret Thatcher and her government.
The most prominent riot arose from a demonstration which started around 11am, 31 March 1990. The rioting and looting finally ended at around 3am the next morning. This riot is sometimes referred to as the Battle Of Trafalgar, particularly by those opposed to the poll tax, because the main rioting took place in Trafalgar Square. wikipedia
Yes its true Brits really know how to riot.......I met up with Christopher Morris of Time that day he was in state of shock and amazement that Brits were behaving in this fashion even though he had flown in especially to photograph the protests.
I was struck on the head by a flying brick but not injured badly but i had pretty convincing blood down my face as if I'd been really done in by the end of the day.
It was a pretty incredible day and then most of my pictures of the riot were seized by the police in controversial action against newspapers using new laws to obtain evidence from the media. These laws are no longer on the statute in Britain.
I still have the odd image like this one above. This image I always felt had a great 'Thatchers Britain' kind of vibe. I hadn't looked at these pictures for ages but Matt and I were going through some old library stuff and then I clicked through to Joe'sNYC.com and he had up to date NYC riot style cops on his blog today so I just decided to go with the flow to put this image up.
Cheers Jez XX
Posted by Jez at 12:40 AM
Comments
Outrageous picture dude like Wow!
Posted by: Ketan at January 23, 2007 12:10 AM
Impressive photo-journalism. If most of the photos were confiscated why were they seemingly so willing for this one. I can almost imagine you saying "you two on the end, move in a little" before this capture. Great regardless!
Posted by: ryan at January 23, 2007 01:53 AM
great reportage photo - strong, true and emitional!
And thx for your visit - I addes you to my linkpage - if you don't mind!
regards
jan
Posted by: jko at January 23, 2007 02:44 AM
I think I've seen an image like this before somewhere, did you manage to get any published, Jez? It seems like such an iconic image that it must have appeared SOMEWHERE! I love it, and I agree with you it smacks of Mother Thatcher. Just out of interest, do you have any good ones of her?
I was just looking at Joe's image, and I immediately thought, "..wouldn't it be a good idea to have finger loops on the end of those handcuff things, so it would make them easier to pull...". Then I thought, "Christ! I'm a fascist, bully dictator in the making!". You wouldn't assume that would you?
Posted by: Psychodudu at January 23, 2007 03:39 AM
Incredible. It looks like a movie! I love the smoke and flames in the background and those expressions! I just saw Children of Men this week so this image is especially haunting -- rather than 20 years in the future, it's almost 20 years in the past.
Posted by: Joseph Holmes at January 23, 2007 07:03 AM
jez, serious, this is like whoa! i hope this one ran in some publication back then.
Posted by: schmee at January 23, 2007 11:20 AM
What I like most about this image is that in spite of the helmets you still can read the emotions on the faces of the policemen.
Posted by: Robert_K at January 23, 2007 01:06 PM
wow impressive photo journalism!! Good job!!
Posted by: TyBo at January 23, 2007 01:22 PM
Oh yeah...Schmee.... all this stuff ran and ran.....I had a contract with a now defunct National Sunday newspaper called the Correspondent (pretty well owned by the Guardian) I was on assignment for them as it was Saturday....... they ran tons of pictures......other stuff appeared in loads of British, French, German, American, Canadian etc papers and mag's this particular image was also used by Trade Union and other anti-Thatcher groups in Britain as a poster shot...... it was also in a few photo mags and the like...... so you might well have seen it Psycho.....
.......er.....yeah the cops had new powers under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act........ Laws that required journalists to had over film and pictures from riots or violent situations in Northern Ireland..... my agency Insight-Visual had never complied with any of their requests (handing stuff to the Police endangers fellow journalists in future situations like this...... anyway its not our job to collect evidence for the Police.... it is our job to show people what is happening.... pictures that appear in Newspapers can incriminate...... but if you hand over all material every single picture incriminates) So Insight had never handed anything over just by hiding low...... but the Correspondent said it was gonna make a big principled stand against these anti-journalism laws......... so they wanted to have all the negs in their possession to as part of their not handing them over position...... er....... maybe i just had a vibe so I kept a few negs out of the package......in the end the Correspondent just decided to throw in the towel....... and gave the Cops everything...... of course thats the last I ever saw of it.
ah...... those were the days....... we young photojournalists in Britain were busy.......... protest was constant....... Mrs Thatcher was attempting to smash the Miners Union, the Print Unions......er......... all unions........ The Labour controlled London Council (GLC).....er...... Anti-fascist groups fought against the National Front and the police......... Anti-Apartheid and The Campaign for Nuclear disarmament mobilized hundreds of thousands to march........I was one of the official photographers for anti-apartheid and also the Labour Party......I shot election pictures for Neil Kinnock then Leader of the Labour Party......I shot pictures of the mass pickets as they tried to and close down coal production at Orgreave and Newspaper production at the new Murdoch plant in Wapping ........ important struggles...... some lost some won depending on your view of course...... I look back fondly and flippantly at my youth and the beginning to my photographic life...... but these were important times with literally blood sweat and tears spilled as these issues were fought over in Britain in the Thatcher years.
Thanks for all your comments Cheers Jez XX
Posted by: Jez Coulson at January 23, 2007 06:54 PM
wow, what an incredible piece of history here, Jez....I'm floored
Posted by: chantal at January 24, 2007 01:56 AM
It is just incredible. Love it a lot, thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Laurent at January 24, 2007 10:16 AM
Excellent tones and details! I love this image
Posted by: Craig at January 24, 2007 04:44 PM
This is one of the strongest most powerful photos I have seen in a long time. The green tone fits perfectly. Very very strong message, no explanation is necessary. This would make a great newspaper or magasine cover!
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