Maybe, maybe not. I was there, and all sorts of conspiracy theories did the rounds for several weeks afterwards. When the police charged the crowd outside the American embassy it did look like a calculated move to provoike as strong a reaction as possible, but whether it was the riot police who over-reacted or some extreme factions within the protest who threw sticks at the embassy in order to MAKE the police charge the I couldn't be sure.

From what I saw of the violence beforehand, it looked as though it could easily have been stopped by arrestinhg one or two individuals and getting them out of the way rather than charging the crowd and provoking a full-scale riot. Not that most of the people there needed to be provoked - everyone was so sick of Thatcher by that time (including a good few who'd previously supported her) that that hatred was bound to find a violent outl;ewt soonewr or later.

And yes, I've got to admit - when you're 19 years old, from a purely selfish point of view, being in a riot is fun.