British police are on alert for the risk of escalation of violence promoted by ultra-nationalist extremists for more than a week in England and Northern Ireland. Far-right platforms have called for demonstrations for Wednesday night in at least 30 locations throughout England, mainly in front of centres for migrant care, support units and law firms that serve asylum seekers and refugees.
The authorities have mobilised around 6,000 law enforcement officers, in addition to some 2,000 riot police who are ready to intervene in potential disturbances such as those that have taken place since Tuesday of last week, following the multiple stabbings the previous day in the town of Southport (northwest England), in which three girls aged between six and nine died.
The Labour Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has maintained that the communities affected by the incident will be “safe” tonight, after coordinating the response with police and intelligence authorities late on Tuesday at a new COBRA emergency cabinet meeting. The meeting – the second in two days – shows Downing Street’s concern about the prolongation of a wave of unrest that has already left more than 420 people arrested and more than 100 people charged. The government has announced that it will bring charges against most of those involved before the end of this week, so the courts have opened additional sessions to speed up the process.
Police are continuing to review the credibility of the evidence circulating online about Wednesday’s calls for action. The nearly 6,000 officers mobilised are specialists in public order and are part of the “permanent army” of police officers announced last Monday by Starmer as one of the measures in response to the crisis.
Messages posted on channels such as Telegram and WhatsApp include a list of more than 30 locations around England, which are called to meet at 8:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. in Spanish peninsular time). The locations are, above all, in front of migrant support units. In addition, the messages recommend covering one’s face and include slogans such as “they will not stop coming.” [los migrantes] until you tell them” or “no more immigration”.
Despite the assurances given by the Executive, the districts where the protests are planned have put in place contingencies to minimise damage. In London, where three mobilisations are planned, some businesses close to the centres where the protests are expected have put up wooden planks to cover their glass windows. The police have also recommended that residents minimise exposure, so shops, health centres and nurseries will close their doors earlier than usual.
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In Walthamstow, northeast of the British capital, as in other areas of the country, residents and human rights groups are also preparing marches to reject the violence, but the Labour MP Stella Creasy, who represents that constituency in Parliament, has transmitted the police request not to go, to facilitate the work of identifying extremists and minimise the risk of clashes. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, for his part, has confirmed that he is working with the security forces to protect buildings and has recognised the additional “fear” that the incidents entail for the Muslim community, a religion that he himself practises, and for ethnic minorities in general.
The mobilisation has been channelled through social networks, and the Executive hopes that the promotion of violence on the Internet will be penalised, as well as the material crimes committed during the riots. In addition, the Public Prosecutor’s Office is already studying the possibility of charging some of those involved with terrorism and, as its director, Stephen Parkinson, has told the BBC, cases have already been detected in which charges for glorifying an ideology of violence are justified.
The government hopes that swift justice for the perpetrators of the riots and the disclosure of their identity will help quell the outbreak that was initially triggered by misinformation about the perpetrator of the multiple stabbings on 29 July. Despite the fact that he was a 17-year-old boy born in Wales to a family originally from Rwanda, fake news shared online claimed that he was a Syrian citizen, supposedly on the radar of the intelligence services since his arrival in the United Kingdom in 2023.
In its response to the crisis, the government has the majority of society’s rejection of violence in its favour. According to a survey published in the last few hours by the polling firm YouGov, 85% of Britons oppose the riots and only 7% support them. Only one in eight people consider that the instigators of the disturbances represent the majority of society.
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