Counter-protesters have turned out in UK cities amid warnings of at least 100 far-right marches being planned for Wednesday night.
People were on the streets of towns and cities including Bristol, London, Liverpool, Birmingham and Brighton.
More than 6,000 specialist police had been mobilised amid fears of a repeat of the violence seen around the country over the past week.
Some businesses closed early and others chose to board up windows ahead of an anticipated 8pm start time.
Solicitors and other agencies who work with asylum seekers had been warned they could be targeted.
But as the night progressed it appeared the mass far-right protests had failed to materialise, with counter-demonstrators instead taking the initiative.
…
The Stand Up To Racism group tweeted photos of the counter-protests alongside the words “this is what a mass movement looks like”.
Nothing materialised in Newcastle, aside from
800+3000+ (800 were just in one street, but there were more elsewhere) counter-protestors that caused zero trouble.Plus there was this gem of a picture lol:
E: updated number
Love it. Fantastic how a silly joke can get the piint accross so well.
Ok im leaving that typo far to appropriate to fix.
So fucking proud of my home ❤️ can’t say the same about the mackems, sadly 😅
Beautiful lmao
Well done UK! So good to see people coming together to deter these nasty cowards.
They’ve been reminded that their actions cause them to face consequences. They are a bit dim so you do have to remind them of that occasionally. I’m sure the 150 people attested in the last 24 hours has probably put some dampener on their spirits. Especially because more arrests will be coming, and a lot of them will be looking over their shoulders right now
Was quite pleased to see the fash outnumbered at least ten to one in Southampton last night.
We’ve got quite a large Eastern European immigrant population, so it’s nice that the city turned out so well.
Hopefully this is the turning point, and the disorder will now fade out.
Hell yeah, inspiring!
good for them!
I can only hope that the right wing protesters that were blocking a main road will face the same heavy punishment that was doled out to Just Stop Oil for the same thing. If they’re gonna jail climate protesters for it, they better damn well jail the fashs for it.
Worth considering. The law states that blocking traffic must be willful. So fairly easy to argue just atop oils whole purpose was to stop oil using cars.
I did not see these protests. So the question is were the (terrorist in the case of the fash) protestors of either side attempting to block traffic or doing so as a result of gathering.
From BBC’s live coverage:
A group of anti-immigration protesters blocked a major road in Portsmouth.
Up to 200 protesters, some holding union flags and chanting “save our kids”, repeatedly blocked Mile End Road, just outside the city’s ferry port.
It is one of the main roads in and out of the city.
Police keep clearing them from the road but they keep running back in, blocking the carriageway in both directions.
They gathered first outside Norman House near the ferry port, a building that is used by the immigration service.
The protesters have now moved towards Portsmouth city centre.
Seems like its pretty intentional
Hate to give excuses for these people.
But nothing in these quotes would lead to legal proof that blocking traffic was the intent. It just leads to a group of 200 people trying to be noticed and avoiding police kettleing them.
The 5 Just Stop Oil protesters were shown to have discussed limiting the travel of vehicles. Heck, as dumb as it sounds. The fact they allowed ambulances through, shows blocking other traffic, was an intentional part of the plan.
Please remember, this is ion no way supposed to indicate I support the actions of these terrorists. Or oppose the actions of just stop oil. It is just a consideration o the actual legal justification in both cases.
Some other evidence of the intent of the protests to limit the movement of traffic is needed in this case.
Of course, with police filming and the number of phone vids made. Plus all the social media discussions leading up to the protests. That evidence may well become clear later on. But running onto the road to avoid police officers restricting their movements does not in itself prove a desire to limit traffic flow.
Oh sure, I can absolutely see how they’d avoid getting the same punishments as the JSO folks. Don’t worry I don’t think you’re a Nazi for looking at the realistic scenario of whether they get the same punishments.
I am here to reiterate that Sir Starmer’s idea of increasing the number of police would be a fundamentally flawed reaction.
Edit: the point is kindly rescinded - I do best when I stay in my wheelhouse
I think you misunderstand the idea - he wasn’t proposing hiring more police, but temporarily increasing the total man-hours being worked to make sure there is sufficient capacity to respond
There’s a significant number of police staff, including those who usually work non-citizen-facing roles, who are trained to be riot police, for circumstances just like this.
Thanks, that does sound more reasonable than the impression I had.
It’s creative accounting because hiring more police takes time and costs money - getting some of the back room onto normal rounds frees up those with riot training.
Like the bit at the end of Hot Fuzz when the whole office puts on riot gear.
