ABSTRACT
In the absence of any single, in-depth study, such as an official report of inquiry, the following description and analysis of the Battle of Trafalgar has been constructed on the basis of four primary sources of information: the Metropolitan police’s own ‘debriefing’ report on the event (Metropolitan Police, 1991); a compilation of participants’ accounts, published by ACAB Press (ACAB, 1990); a Channel Four video, ‘The Battle of Trafalgar’, broadcast on 18 September 1990; and magazine and newspaper articles (e.g. Anon, 1990; Mason, 1991). Any discrepancies in these accounts will be highlighted. The case study is presented in four sections. A brief overview of the principal events is followed by a critical appraisal of academic and lay explanations of the riot. An alternative framework of analysis is then presented in the form of the ‘flashpoints model of public disorder’. Finally, this framework is applied to the anti-poll tax disorder, thus dissecting the anatomy of a riot.
