Rioters set fire and broke into hotels used to shelter asylum seekers in northern England on Sunday, as the country grapples with the worst social unrest it has seen in years.
The violence was triggered by the stabbing of three young girls in Southport, northwest England, earlier in the week. The far right has seized on and spread a wave of disinformation, including false claims the attacker was an immigrant, to mobilize anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant protests. Police say the suspect was born in Britain.
Footage geolocated by CNN shows protesters on Sunday vandalizing and setting ablaze two Holiday Inns in northern England: one in Tamworth, which had previously been criticized by a local politician for housing asylum seekers, and another in Rotherham.
In Tamworth, protesters threw projectiles, smashed windows, and started fires, injuring one police officer, according to local authorities. Meanwhile in Rotherham, protesters threw wooden planks, used fire extinguishers against officers, set fire to objects near the hotel, and smashed windows to gain entry to the building, police said.
The Rotherham hotel at the time was “full of terrified residents and staff,” according to a statement by Assistant Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has condemned the weekend’s violent protests, which saw at least 147 people arrested since Saturday night. Those involved in violence will face the full force of the law, he warned.
“People in this country have a right to be safe and yet, we’ve seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques, other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric. So no, I won’t shy away from calling it what it is: Far-right thuggery,” Starmer said from Downing Street on Sunday.
Turning to the violent scenes in Rotherham, Starmer described “marauding gangs intent on law-breaking” and emphasized that violent rioters do not “represent our country.”
The UK’s policing minister has said that there will be a “nick them quick” approach to far-right rioters who have caused unrest, but added there was no need to bring in the army.
In comments to the BBC, Dame Diana Johnson stressed that the plan was to carry out swift arrests and charges in order to take rioters off the street as quickly as possible and act as a deterrent to prevent further unrest.
The violent unrest is the worst seen since the riots of 2011 and provides a huge challenge to the Labour government of Keir Starmer just weeks after it won power.
There have been discussions to bring in the army to assist police, but currently “there is no need to bring in the army,” Johnson said. “The police have made it very clear that they have all the resources they need at the moment. There’s mutual aid, as I’ve just described, and they have the powers that they need.”
On Sunday, the UK’s Home Office announced that mosques in the United Kingdom would be offered “greater protection with new emergency security” in light of recent attacks.
Under the new arrangements, “the police, local authorities and mosques can ask for rapid security to be deployed, protecting communities and allowing for a return to worship as quickly as possible,” the Home Office said.
“Nobody should make any excuses for the shameful actions of the hooligans, thugs and extremist groups who have been attacking police officers, looting local shops or attacking people based on the color of their skin,” Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said.
Source:CNN
The seed was and is being planted by the former colonial powers. If our economies were stable, our people wouldn’t be going to these countries with unfavorable weather. But the colonials continue to control our countries by resources exploitation and proping up dictators. The people in Bangladesh have risen against and ousted their leaders but already these vultures are on the ground in that country.
Colonial powers ??
Without them would we not still be sitting around our fires
so infiltrating other countries illegally is accepted in your eyes
Wait Zambia will to face such illegal immigrants in the years to come
@Tikki… what would be wrong to sit around a fire? If these people didn’t we wouldn’t know their ways and we would be happy with our ways. Who knows we would have been progressing with time… our ancestors discovered that salt was good in food, they found out that if fish was dried it would last. Out of sight out of mind they say.
@Tikki what a lack of self pride! Those negative self views were taught to the colonized African so that it stops his fight for freedom. Indeed some of us accepted that we were inferior to the muzungu and we looked for arguments to support our inferiority. We accepted to be enslaved because ‘it was destiny’ . However people like Kenneth Kaunda, Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, Steve Biko etc arose from the ashes of slavery and awoke us to the fact that we are as divine as any other beings. Your breed should nt exist in the 21st century as it will only lead to our self destruction. Negative Africans like you need ships to arrive again and take them to the cotton fields of America. They are not needed here
Absolutely nothing wrong sitting around our fires
so stop complaining and dreaming of more so called colonial life styles
Suits womens fashions etc etc
@Amilcar Cabral. One time there was this lady selling groundnuts by the entry to the Central Offices in Kitwe. At long last one of the senior staff guys proposed to her, she agreed and they got married. Down the line the man started to maltreat the woman and always refering to where he picked her from.
One day she had enough of his nonsense and simply told him she was leaving: Nshalechula, it’s who thought so.
He thought she wouldn’t dare leave all these luxuries.
But she left him. In turn it him who was hurt broken.
People must proud of what they are and who they are otherwise we will continue to live in perpetual servitude.
We need to go back home and redraw the trade rules so Europeans stop exploiting us. We can use revenue from our resources to better our lives. The same rioters feed off African wealth without knowing.
We’re weak. Example for a Zambian to be promoted he has to meet so many conditions including membership of some professional body. Enter a Chinese or European..no problem…. these bodies keep quiet…if it’s a Zambian holding a mining certificate the same bodies jump in that he must hold a university degree… some lower qualification holders are brilliant and far better than those blocking them.. alternative is to migrate… and these chaps are shining in foreign lands. In short we are our own enemies.
The West is powerful because they’ve mastered the art of weaken poor countries and stealing their resources….they manipulate poor countries leadership so that they continue world dominance…..Bukina Faso has opened its eyes…..i think we need to get rid of puppet Presidents….imagine a President boasting that he TOOK A PICTURE WITH KING CHARLES…
Our puppet leaders are contributing to the development of the Western countries….they give away our natural resources and we remain poor….and the end up as economic refugees in the West….NO PLACE LIKE HOME….HOME IS HOME
I blame our African leaders who allow these colonial masters to manipulate them period. Our leaders are all useless that they sell their land and pipo for bread
Some Africans are always awaiting a slavemaster no matter how educated or wealthy they are. The slave mentality is in their DNA.
………..
Here in the UK we are installing new boundaries for an independent state for the dispora , called spakaland, with our own curency and laws………
We will be serving documents to the british goverment once our leader is selected….
We will soon Welcome you to spakaland, an autonomous region in the UK……….
Forwadee 2031……..
@Spaka
Just pack your katundu and go back home my dear brother…i know life in the diaspora is tough….very soon I will retire and head back home…am done with the diaspora….
After Brexit, the British thought they had scored. Then they proposed that Africans will be put in a kraal in Uganda. It too failed. Now they have picked stones and pangas to physically forcefully chase them away. Some policy directions are a disaster.
Your leaders you continue blaming have their hands equally tied by the same neo colonialist yoke
None will have the ideological courage to be extremely radical against them without facing the wrath of their hungry citizens
It’s a vicious paradox