Michael Garnet was in his rented house on Manningham Road in Bradford. It was a balmy Saturday night and there was much to celebrate. Bradford's World in the City Festival the night before had been a success and rumours that the National Front planned to march in the city were unfounded.
"It kicked off about 1.30 a.m. and went on for three hours," Mr Garnet said, referring to what the Home Secretary, Mr David Blunkett, described this week as the "senseless criminality" of a minority of white and Asian youths. "We were in bed and heard shouting coming down the street. There were hundreds of people outside the garage," he recalled. "They smashed the windows and wrecked the inside. They started small fires and got two or three cars started and began driving them up and down the street."
As Bradford woke up to burnt-out cars, wrecked businesses and more than 200 injured police officers, the government condemned the mindless "thuggery". Mr Blair endorsed Mr Blunkett's view that the violence should be treated as a "law and order" issue and a government spokesman said the use of water cannon to control civil disturbances had not been ruled out.
The tough-talking Home Secretary then announced the appointment of a ministerial team to oversee an investigation into the Bradford disturbances and those in other northern towns this summer, such as Oldham, Leeds and Burnley. Hand-in-hand with local people, the team would be charged with learning the lessons of previous disturbances. And, hopefully, learn from communities where different races live harmoniously.
Their task will be a complex one. Racial tension between the white and minority Asian communities in Bradford has been blamed on a number of factors. Asians and whites agree integration is minimal, reinforced by mono-faith schools and, as some Asians and whites have argued this week, the government's policy to encourage the growth of single-faith schools.
In leaked excerpts from his report on racial tensions in Bradford, the former chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, Sir Herman Ouseley, described the city as "the ultimate challenge in race relations in Britain". His contention was that Bradford was plagued by many fears. Misinformation between communities led to victimisation and recrimination, and into that heady mix could be added a fear of confronting gang culture, the drugs trade and alleged racism by the police.
The report also pointed to self-styled community leaders keen to maintain "the status quo of control and segregation through fear, ignorance and threats". Regeneration processes in a city where the white, middle-class population has increasingly moved away leaving an "underclass" of poor white and ethnic minorities, "forced communities to bid against each other for scarce resources".
Some hope will be offered to Bradford when a supplement to Sir Herman's report is published. Sixth formers from all communities will express their frustration at "not knowing any Asians" or "not meeting many white people". Most of the young people, when asked to comment on a statement affirming multiculturalism in Bradford, agree it is a positive message.
Unlike Oldham and Burnley, far-right groups such as the National Front and the British National Party have little obvious support in Bradford. However, in the social and political vacuum left by racial violence, the National Front has moved in. Its representatives are knocking on the doors of white families on Bradford's Ravenscliffe estate and the fear is that the National Front will further exploit racial and economic divisions.
Pessimism is in the air in Bradford, just as it is in many of the deprived areas of Britain. The constant refrain, mainly from the white community, is "they get more than we get" - the "they" being the minority ethnic community. These minorities often express the same fear.
Arresting stone-throwing youths capitalising on racial tension is certainly the first step in tackling Bradford's problems and those of other depressed areas. Resolving the underlying factors expressed by whites and ethnic minorities such as poverty, lack of opportunity and education will take the government and local leaders much longer.