[1] The immediate flashpoint was an attack on a locally well-known Police Superintendent who was trying to calm rumours of an impending march by the right-wing National Front.
[1] The following disturbances resulted in 121 arrests and 40 injuries to police officers, alongside widespread damage to property.
[1] Handsworth had a mixed population of white, black and Asian residents, but surveys after the riots showed little evidence of significant racial tension.
[3] A week before the riots, during the weekend that saw CS gas used against rioters for the first time on the British Mainland in Toxteth, Liverpool, a reporter from The Times had visited a festival in Handsworth Park and found "8,000 people, black and white" in "a spirit as amiable and peaceful as a rural village fete".
[4] The most common reasons for the riots reported by participants were unemployment, boredom and the imitation of events elsewhere.