‘Police And Thieves’: Junior Murvin’s Roots Reggae Reinvention

Anchored by its immortal lead single, ‘Police & Thieves’ provided a fortuitous career reinvention for roots reggae legend, Junior Murvin.By the time Junior Murvin released his debut album, Police & Thieves, the lead single had already become the sound of political unrest. The song blared out of sound systems and bars on a hot August day in London during the Notting Hill Carnival in 1976, where tensions between Black Caribbean youth and white police officers boiled over into a full-blown riot, and 160 people were hospitalized. There were conflicting reports about how the violence began – supposedly the arrest...