The unrest in various parts of the United Kingdom as a result of protests called by far-right platforms is putting the new Labour government to the test, which is facing its first crisis in this violence and vandalism on the streets. Although it has announced that it will respond harshly to violent protesters, the Ministry of the Interior has ruled out involving the army in controlling the situation. The weekend has left at least 150 people arrested, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council, and dozens of officers injured after clashes catalyzed by the multiple stabbing last Monday in the town of Southport (northwest of England), in which three girls aged between six and nine died.
Although the only person charged with the crime was born in Wales to a family of refugees from Rwanda, the protests have encouraged an anti-immigration discourse, which took hold thanks to misinformation on the Internet and a campaign promoted on ultra-nationalist channels. The Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has condemned what he has described as “far-right bullying” and has warned those who have participated in the violence that “the full weight of the law” will fall on them. “You will regret having taken part in this,” he declared this Sunday in an appearance in Downing Street, convened after a weekend that has left serious disturbances mainly in England, in cities such as Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Hull or Bolton, but also Belfast (capital of Northern Ireland).
The scenes of chaos, widely shared on social media, showed shops being raided, vehicles on fire, extensive damage to property and serious clashes with police, at whom the extremists have repeatedly thrown objects such as bottles and bricks, leaving dozens of officers injured across the country. In some areas, the extremists have particularly targeted communities with a high Muslim population, and the Interior Ministry has already put in place additional protection for mosques, whose leaders will have a rapid response service from the security forces.
One of the most serious incidents took place on Sunday in the town of Rotherham (in the north-east of England), where one of the hotels of the Holiday Inn Express chain that houses undocumented migrants was the focus of hostility from several hundred demonstrators. Some even managed to enter the premises and a container was set on fire, so the security deployment had to be reinforced, until the building was surrounded by riot police.
Bolton (in the county of Greater Manchester) was another of the hotbeds of greatest tension of the day, due to the risk of collision between two factions: a group of Muslims chanting ““Allahu Akbar” (“God is great” in Arabic) and a group waving English flags, a symbol commonly used by ultra-nationalist groups. The police barely managed to keep them separated by a cordon, which, however, failed to contain the bottles, stones and firecrackers thrown by both sides.
The riots were similar to those recorded on Saturday in about ten places mainly in England, despite the measures previously organised by the Government in view of the threat posed by the weekend. In Liverpool, a city just over 30 kilometres from Southport, the ultras even burned down the interior of a library that had only reopened last year. The demonstrators tried to prevent the firemen from putting out the fire and, according to the county police, the floor of the library was severely damaged.
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The incidents took place in the midst of a police alert in anticipation of the thirty protests called, with measures such as special control of train journeys, to monitor potential outbreaks of violence, as well as scrutiny of the content on-line from far-right channels, one of the reference channels for encouraging mobilization.
Fake news
Additionally, thousands of police officers on duty and courts empowered to deal with the effects of violence are part of the hard line that the Executive wants to project against a phenomenon triggered by the spread of fake news, which baselessly maintained that the author of Monday’s attack is a Syrian citizen supposedly on the radar of the intelligence services. The narrative that unfoundedly linked the Southport tragedy to the effects of migration has taken hold among far-right groups, who have urged people to take part in the protests with a hate speech against foreigners.
Home Secretary Diana Johnson confirmed on Sunday that she is aiming to speed up the control of the riots with quick arrests and convictions to act as a deterrent. The extra burden that the riots are taking on police departments across the country has dramatically reduced the scope for reacting to other crimes, as the Police Federation has already warned.
The government therefore held a meeting with judicial authorities on Saturday evening to coordinate an integrated response, which would allow, among other measures, the opening of courts practically 24 hours a day to prevent courts from becoming overcrowded. This is a decision similar to that adopted in the summer of 2011 to deal with the riots that occurred in London after the death of a black man at the hands of a police officer. At that time, Keir Starmer, the current Prime Minister, was the head of the Public Prosecution Service.
In this case, the calls are the result of an active campaign that has maximised the power of social media. Despite the involvement of platforms such as Patriotic Alternative, the protests have not been organised by a specific group, but have been promoted by voices linked to the far right, appealing to participation. The police in Merseyside, the county where the multiple stabbings took place, have publicly identified the English Defence League (EDL) as one of the driving forces, despite remaining inactive since its founder, Tommy Robinson (alias of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) decided to focus on the Internet, where it has a large base of followers.
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