"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.
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.
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The Toxteth riots were only partially in Toxteth with much of them in neighbouring Granby.
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