"In 1981 the trigger for the riots was the arrest of local youth Leroy Cooper on police assault charges. He was arrested by police who had followed a teenage motorcyclist into
Granby Street - then Toxteth's "main street" - and a hostile crowd gathered to separate him from the police.
Granby St was never and is not the "mains street" of Toxteth. That is Park Road quite a way from Granby Street.
The next day - July 4 - there was a heavy police presence in the area because of a tip-off that violence would erupt.
At 5.30pm, a group of youths in Upper Parliament Street started to stone police officers. It was the curtain raiser for a night of violence and fear, and a further nine days of unrest.
Riots had already erupted in Brixton. The Toxteth riots initially were seen as copy cat as many riots simultaneously erupted all over the UK: Manchester, Birmingham and even High Wycombe.
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The ferocity in Liverpool was so severe it shocked the government and they realised it was not just summer madness. It shocked them so much they appointed a minister for Merseyside - Hesseltine.
The Toxteth riots were only partially in Toxteth with much of them in neighbouring Granby.
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