Feature

Police & Law Enforcement

Riots: causes and consequences

CTB takes a look at what caused the riots, what action was taken to combat them and what is being done to prevent similar events happening again.

In the last few weeks, the UK has seen a significant amount of violence. Police officers and members of the public have been left injured and properties damaged by rioters with reports of missiles being thrown, homes being defaced, and shops looted. Mosques and migrant hotels have been violently attacked. A man threatened a couple with a hedgetrimmer, nurses were pelted with rocks on their way to work and bus driver was spat at.

A sense of unrest and fear is being felt by many across the UK. Countries including Malaysia, Australia and Nigeria have warned their citizens about travelling to the area and avoiding protest areas. 

What caused the riots?

On 29 July in Southport in northwest England, a teenager carried out an attack at a children’s Taylor Swift themed dance classes. He wounded 10 people, with the majority of the victims being children. Three children were killed – Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Dasilva Aguiar.

Waves of flowers were laid at the scene, a vigil was held, and funding was raised to support those affected by the event. Taylor Swift fans set up a fundraiser for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.

However, a flood of misinformation circulated after the event. While the suspected attacker had been arrested, their name could not be released because he was under 18.

Rumours and misinformation spread on social media that the attacker was a Muslim who had arrived in the UK on a boat, forcing police to clarify that this was not the case. On the day of the attack, police stated that the suspect had been born in the UK. It has been reiterated several times that the suspect has no known links to Islam.

While a vigil was held on 30 July, a group of people attacked a mosque in Southport. They threw bricks at the building, as well as setting a police van on fire. 

The judge chose to suspend the attacker’s anonymity in the hope to dispel harmful speculation. Despite this, violence continued.

Where were the riots?

After the riot in Southport occurred, violence started to spread across the UK including Liverpool, Manchester, London and Rotherham. It was reported that many of those taking part in violence in Southport and elsewhere were not from the local area.

Demonstrators in London were seen launching beer cans and glass bottles at a line of police in riot gear in front of Downing Street and throwing flares towards the statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square.

The Met Police said: “Everyone has a right to peacefully protest, but the Met will not tolerate individuals who use the guise of protest as a means to inflict violence or incite racial and religious hatred on members of the public or officers.”

Tensions rose in Belfast at Belfast City Hall where fireworks and eggs were fired towards the peaceful demonstrators at city hall. The mob then attacked local businesses, hotels, and supermarkets. Over the last few months, there have been reports of immigrants in Northern Ireland being threatened and made to feel unwelcome, as well as properties being vandalised.

In Manchester, groups held riots at a hotel where asylum seekers were reportedly living. There were also reports of a group of people being trapped in a house by attackers, who had to be carried to safety by police.

Joe Mulhall, director of research at charity HOPE not hate said that people besieged, attacked and tried to burn down a hotel housing asylum seekers. 

He said: “There are many who have sought to frame this week of far-right riots as outpourings of legitimate anger. They are not. This is racist violence spurred on by far-right hatred. Those directly involved in these horrifying scenes need to face the full force of the law.

“Responsibility also lies with those who have promoted and defended these riots such as Tommy Robinson. 

“This explosion of racist violence across the country is the result of years of far-right agitation.”

RMT Union also reported that razor blades have been found under National Front stickers at some railway stations.

In Rotherham, local police said 10 officers were injured during confrontations with a crowd of 700 people, some of whom threw planks of wood and sprayed officers with fire extinguishers before smashing hotel windows.

“The mindless actions of those today have achieved nothing other than sheer destruction and leaving members of the public and the wider community in fear,” said Lindsey Butterfield, assistant chief constable at South Yorkshire Police.

What action did the government and police take?

After the Southport stabbings, prime minister Keir Starmer condemned the “far-right thuggery” across the country and said perpetrators would face the full force of the law.

A National Violent Disorder Programme has been announced to bring together the best policing capabilities from across the country to share intelligence on the activity of violent E

F groups so the authorities can swiftly intervene to arrest them.

Local insight and data will be used to gain a national understanding of where criminals are operating. This includes the British Transport Police alerting where they see a spike in train ticket sales that could be linked to organised violent disorder.

Adam Hadley, executive director of Tech Against Terrorism, said: “While I commend the government on establishing a National Violence Disorder Unit, I urge our leaders to go one step further. 

“Just as disinformation and online harms are interconnected, so must be our response. We need a centralised team that can identify the kind of content we have seen generated this week, within minutes. They would then work across government and the tech sector to coordinate a multi-sector response.”

They added: “A national centre of excellence that will conduct and openly share the results of their open-source intelligence investigations would enable society to hold platforms and the creators of online content to account, contributing to the resilience of our online and offline communities.” 

Many areas announced an increased police presence in an effort to limit the damage done by these groups.

Ben-Julian Harrington, the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s lead for public order said: “Disinformation is a huge driver of this appalling violence and we know a lot of those attending these so-called protests are doing so in direct response to what they’ve read online.”

He added that posts are often being shared and amplified by high profile accounts. 

“We know we’re not alone and we are drawing together our communities and our partners to help us do even more to silence those intent on spreading false news. They won’t win.”

Wider response

While the riots have caused significant harm to people across the UK and Northern Ireland, many members of the community have come together in solidarity against the violence.

The BBC reported that after the first riots in Southport, hundreds of local residents helped to clean up the damage.

About a week after the riots began, a list of targets was posted online, including immigration support services and even people’s home addresses. In response, thousands of counter protesters turned up to protect the targets and protest the violence and racism. Very few anti-immigration protesters turned up and the counter protests overall resulted in very few arrests.

Arrests and charges

Since the violence began, hundreds of people have been arrested and charged. Some have already been jailed. Prosecutors and police have said that terrorism charges will be considered. Many are arguing in favour of this, since the riots saw organised, premeditated violence and calls for it, against minority groups with a political goal – which some argue fits the definition of terrorism. Indeed, the 2022 Dover migrant centre attack, where a man threw incendiary devices at the site was considered terrorism. With this as precedent, setting fire to a hotel known to have migrants inside or calling for this, could also meet the threshold for a terrorist incident.

It is important to note that there have been arrests on the counter protestors’ side as well, though nowhere near as many.

What about the future?

Though the violence has since subsided, many problems still remain. Hundreds of people are being sent to prison, while we know we are in the middle of a prison capacity crisis. 

The ideology that supported the violence still exists, with many many people harbouring hate towards immigrants and Muslims. The threat of violence still exists and many people feel incredibly unsafe.

Despite warnings and arrests after misinformation about the Southport attack was spread online, the same thing happened after another attack in Leicester Square. Almost immediately after the attack, there were posts online with false claims about the attacker.

People are criticising what they see as a crackdown on free speech. It has been noted that arresting people for spreading false information or hate is to some extent making martyrs of them, and causing those on the far right to feel and spread more hatred for the government and police, whilst painting themselves as victims. This could have the effect of pushing more and more people further and further to the extreme.

While of course we don’t know everyone’s reasons for taking part in the violence, it is clear there is more to it than just fear or hatred of immigrants and Muslims.

Without generalising, it important to consider other factors that have been highlighted as contributing to the violence: the cost-of-living crisis, unemployment, a lack of trust and respect for the police and government, a general increase in violence anyway, a feeling of not being represented by government, the weather…

It is also important to note that not everyone involved in the violence may be a member of the far-right – it has been highlighted that some may be there as opportunists, or just to take part in any kind of violence. Calling all participants ‘far-right’ and ‘racist’ has served to further disaffect them. 

The government, police, social media, education and wider society still have a lot of work to do to combat these problems and they will not be solved any time soon.

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