These days, many people, especially of my age group, seem to look back on the decade of the 90s with the fondest of memories. And whilst I agree wholeheartedly that times were generally simpler for the most part of said decade, especially due to the absence of social media, 24/7 rolling news channels, etc, there were still many dire social problems during said decade, in particular during 1990-93, that most of which now seem mostly forgotten about.
I'm sure many of you remember the car crime epidemic of that period and 'joyriding' in particular, which was partly responsible for fuelling riots in certain areas back in 1991-92, many of which seem mostly forgotten about now. ASB was also a significant factor.
The vast majority of those disturbances during that period occurred in large council estate areas, and there seemed to be high levels of animosity against the police in many of those areas concerned.
Even in our town back then, there was at least one estate (whose name I shall not mention on here) that the police seemed reluctant to enter for a time, due to fear of being attacked by marauding teenage mobs, especially late one night back in the summer of 1991 where those baying mobs went on the rampage through said estate during a power failure, smashed all the windows of the area's local shops and daubed the word 'pigs' on the side of a police patrol van. Taxi drivers also refused to venture there for a time to pick up passengers but demanded full up-front fare payments from passengers if dropping off in said area.
Though not quite a full-on 'riot' as such, it seemed to be a sign of things to come on large estates in other towns and cities with far worse problems over the following weeks/months.
Anyone else recall those 'tensions' in the air during that particular era?
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