Brixton licks it wounds and prays for healing

Jack O'Sullivan visits Brixton and presents a personal view
"WE DON'T make a drama out of a crisis", declared a handmade sign, outside a camera shop in Brixton's main shopping street earlier this week. The shop, like many others, though damaged by the rioting, was open for business on Monday.
Nearby, burned out buildings, boarded shops and the occasional wrecked car bore testimony to the weekend's events. The sporadic and almost random nature of the destruction was obvious looking at Marks and Spencer. The store was undamaged and a pile of bricks in front of it had not been disturbed.
Police patrolled in two's, chatting with traders. As the afternoon wore on, more police arrived, some with caps. The majority, travelling in buses stayed discreetly in bunches of about 20 down side streets. The people of Brixton went home to watch themselves on the news and listen to journalists speculate as to what might happen next.
On the Stockwell Park 'housing estate, not far from the centre of Brixton, claustrophobic life continued much as usual. A mother of six, a nurse left her home at eight for the night shift.
Black and a single parent, she was worried and frightened by the rioting. She had broken out in a rash from the tension. "How could the police have gone in and shot that poor woman, Mrs Grace. I feel so sorry for her. Do you know, her mother looked after one of my children?"
'1 he housing estate made up a series of low rise flats, punctuated by tower blocks. I walked around one block, a maze of alleyways and passages linking what one person called "the modern catacombs". Young, mainly black people stood about chatting.
The block had been very much improved over the past few years. Lighting is now vandalproof, bridges linking the blocks had been demolished to prevent quick escapes by criminals. A multi-racial community hall had been built, and high metal fences improve security.
But everyone I spoke to, black and white, wished to leave as soon as possible. A middle-aged white couple were afraid to go out at night; the husband had been mugged nearby.
At the other end of Brixton Road, Sr Frances Howlett FMM, lives with three other Catholic sisters. In the "frontline", she stressed that the initial riot broke out because of "quite spontaneous anger at the shooting". Then the "opportunists" had taken over. "Once the whole thing was on the move, there was a feeling of action and excitement.
"The majority of people protesting in central Brixton were demonstrating about the shooting, she said, but she pointed out that the looting in outlying areas was done by people "who went for what they wanted".
An independent public inquiry was "an important factor in rebuilding relations". She blamed, unemployment for the alienation of many young people. They were gradually becoming "unemployed". "For a few hours on Saturday, they were kings of the streets. They were somebody. The cocked their snoots at authority", said Sr Howlett.
But she added that she was encouraged by the protest that people made outside Brixton police station immediately after the shooting. "It was good that the shooting caused so much anguish. It shows that people are still sensitive to the value of human life, despite all the violence that were are expected to."
She was adamant that something had to be done to help young blacks, to identify with society. Of the Catholic Church she said: "I don't feel the Church is involved enough with blacks. It takes the Church all its time to maintain itself."
The black Anglican vicar of St Matthews, Brixton, the Rev Barry Thorley, himself a veteran of a Ilandsworth parish, also stressed the need for an independent pblic inquiry. He admired the "sense of balance of the Croce family" since the shooting. lie was "glad" the police had said sorry "though a simple apology is not adequate".