Protesters clashed with police and left-wing demonstrators in Manchester, Liverpool and dozens of other cities
Right-wing demonstrations turned violent in the UK as anti-immigration protesters clashed with police over the murder of three children by a teenager of African descent earlier this week.
More than 30 protests were held on Saturday in cities including Liverpool, Nottingham, Leeds, Belfast, Stoke-on-Trent, Blackpool and Hull. The demonstrations came almost a week after riots broke out in the town of Southport following the alleged fatal stabbing of three children and wounding of 10 others by Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old British-born boy of Rwandan parents.
The Southport riots spread across England, with more than 100 people arrested in London on Wednesday and a police station set on fire in Sunderland on Friday.
Protesters on Saturday chanted anti-immigration and anti-Islam slogans, despite the fact that Rudakubana is not Muslim. However, tensions between Muslim immigrants and native Britons have been simmering in northern England since it was revealed that police covered the existence of several Muslim “grooming gangs” in the region over the past two decades.
In Leeds, where seven Muslim men received prison sentences in April for raping eight British girls, protesters shouted “Muslim pedophiles off our streets” It is “save our children.” Police kept protesters separated from a group of pro-immigrant leftists who showed up to organize a counter-demonstration.
In Manchester, there were clashes between left-wing and right-wing protesters, with the right-wing throwing fences and other debris at police officers trying to separate the groups.
🚨HAPPENING NOW🚨Protesters have gathered in Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens following the murder of three young girls in a knife attack in Southport this week. Protesters are clashing with police as they call for an end to mass migration.📷: @JackHaddersphoto.twitter.com/DxJ6fVapKB
— ThePublica (@ThePublicaNow) August 3, 2024
Protesters outraged by the murder of three girls in Southport are clashing with police and counter-protesters in Manchester. The protest is just one of many taking place across the UK today as Britons call for an end to mass migration.📷: @JackHaddersphoto.twitter.com/uQT2VlY9dq
— ThePublica (@ThePublicaNow) August 3, 2024
Police and protesters also clashed in Liverpool, with two officers hospitalized after being hit by bricks and other projectiles.
🇬🇧 Chaotic scenes in Liverpool today. The windscreen of a police van was smashed and officers were pelted with bricks after protesters at the Pier Head, waving Union Jack flags and shouting “stop the boats”, were confronted by “anti-fascist” protesters. photo.twitter.com/gADr8c9dgG
— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) August 3, 2024
Police in Bristol have failed to prevent sporadic clashes between left-wing and right-wing groups.
This time it’s the far left attacking people protesting after the brutal murder of 3 girls in Southport. This time in Bristol right now. Listen as the attackers accuse those filming them of being “fascists”. This is the rhetoric being circulated by Keir Starmer and the media… photo.twitter.com/wddtnojsGR
-Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) August 3, 2024
Video footage from the city of Stoke reportedly showed gangs of Muslim men marching with machetes and other weapons.
A mob of visibly heavily armed Muslims in Stoke are roaming the streets with the police making no effort to stop them. This is exactly why patriots are protesting, because we are all fed up. End two-tier policing. photo.twitter.com/GdQmW2Gb2f
— Turning Point UK 🇬🇧 (@TPointUK) August 3, 2024
On a videoA police officer can be seen telling the men to hand over their weapons at a nearby mosque, but no arrests have been reported. Footage from another unverified location showed another large group of Muslim men singing “Allah Akbar” while riot police watched from a distance.
In an address to the nation on Thursday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer focused almost entirely on the reaction to Monday’s stabbings rather than the stabbings themselves. Starmer condemned the “far right hatred” fueling the riots and promised to give police additional powers to deal with similar disturbances in the future.
Interior Secretary Yvette Cooper warned Saturday that additional prosecutors and prison spaces were being prepared and that anyone involved in “criminal violence and disorder” he would be “pay the price.”
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