UK’s social media fuelled chaos: 400 arrested, 6,000 police deployed in response to far-right riots

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Protestors throw fireworks as the riots continue into the night in Liverpool August 3, 2024. — Reuters pic

LONDON, Aug 7 — Suspected far-right rioters appeared in British courts yesterday as the government said 6,000 specialist police were ready to deal with England’s worst disorder in over a decade.

Almost 400 people have been arrested and 100 charged over the week-long disturbances sparked by online misinformation about the murder of three children in a mass stabbing, with police bracing for further possible violence.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a former chief state prosecutor, said he expected “substantive sentencing before the end of this week” for the rioters, after chairing his second emergency meeting in as many days late yesterday.

“That should send a very powerful message to anybody involved, either directly or online,” he added in televised comments.

The unrest, Britain’s worst since the 2011 London riots, has led a number of countries to warn its citizens about the dangers of travelling in the United Kingdom.

Rioting in several cities has seen demonstrators throw bricks and flares at police officers, burn cars and attack mosques and at least two hotels that have been used as accommodation for asylum seekers.

Scores of alleged perpetrators were hauled before judges yesterday, with some entering guilty pleas.

A 19-year-old man became the first person to receive a prison sentence related to the unrest when he received a two-month term yesterday, PA Media reported.

Another man was convicted after he admitted assaulting a police officer outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham, northern England, on Sunday.

A 15-year-old boy pleaded guilty to committing violent disorder in Liverpool on Saturday after he was identified from a TikTok video, while a man in Leeds admitted posting threatening words on Facebook to stir up racial hatred.

Unrest started last Tuesday after three children were killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England.

‘Reckoning’

False rumours initially spread on social media saying the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker.

The suspect was later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales. UK media reported that his parents are from Rwanda.

The government, only one month old, has vowed to take a tough line on the unrest and the National Police Chiefs’ Council said Monday that 378 people had so far been arrested. 

“99.9 per cent of people across the country want their streets to be safe and to feel safe in their communities, and we will take all necessary action to bring the disorder to an end,” Starmer said yesterday.

Justice minister Heidi Alexander told BBC Radio 4 that the government had freed up an extra 500 prison places and drafted in 6,000 specialist police officers to deal with the violence.

Police have blamed the disorder on people associated with the now-defunct English Defence League, a far-right Islamophobic organisation founded 15 years ago, whose supporters have been linked to football hooliganism.

The rallies have been advertised on far-right social media channels under the banner “Enough is enough”.

Interior minister Yvette Cooper said “there will be a reckoning” for perpetrators, adding that social media put a “rocket booster” under the violence.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk escalated a dispute with the UK government yesterday by likening Britain to “the Soviet Union”. A spokesperson for Starmer had said there was “no justification” for Musk’s earlier comment that a British “civil war is inevitable”.

The latest violence on Monday night saw rioters hurl bricks and fireworks in Plymouth, southern England, injuring several police officers.

Officers in Belfast, Northern Ireland, were attacked as rioters attempted to set fire to a shop owned by a foreign national. Police said a man in his 30s was seriously assaulted and that they are treating the incident as a racially motivated hate crime.

A group of men who gathered in Birmingham, central England, to counter a rumoured far-right demonstration forced a Sky News reporter off air shouting: “Free Palestine”. She was then followed by a man in a balaclava holding a knife.

Kenya became the latest country to warn its citizens to be vigilant in Britain after Nigeria, Malaysia Australia and Indonesia issued alerts advising their nationals to stay away from the demonstrations. — AFP