Why is the UK experiencing Riots?

 

The worst disturbance the UK has seen in more than a decade has followed the tragic stabbing of three young girls at a dance lesson in the beach town of Southport, in the north of England.

Misinformation on the internet, the far-right, and anti-immigration sentiment have all contributed to the violence that has broken out in towns and cities around England and Northern Ireland. Why was there violence in Southport after children were killed?

At a dance and yoga event with a Taylor Swift theme on July 29, Bebe King, age six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, age seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, age nine, were stabbed to death. 

Two adults and eight more youngsters were hurt.
Police claimed later that day that they had taken into custody a 17-year-old from a nearby village and that they were not considering the event to be related to terrorism.

Social media messages circulated an inaccurate identity and, almost immediately after the incident, wrongly speculated that the suspect was an asylum seeker who had come in the UK on a boat in 2023. Unfounded rumors also circulated that he was a Muslim.

In actuality, the suspect was born in Wales to Rwandan parents, as reported by the BBC and other media sources.

Public dissemination of "unconfirmed speculation and false information" was discouraged by the police.
The next night, about a thousand people showed up for a vigil held in Southport in memory of the victims. Violence later broke out in the vicinity of a nearby mosque. A police van was set on fire, 27 officers were sent to the hospital, and people threw bricks, bottles, and other missiles at the mosque and the police.

The condition was widely denounced. While Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer decried the "marauding mobs on the streets of Southport," local MP Patrick Hurley claimed that "thugs" had come to the town to use the murders of three children "for their own political purposes". How did the aggression proliferate?

The event has been discussed on local Telegram messaging app anti-immigration networks. The English Defence League (EDL), a far-right organization that has since disbanded, is thought to have been involved in the violence, according to police.

Violent protests that police connected to Southport occurred the day following the riot in Southport, and they also occurred in London, Hartlepool, and Manchester. Throughout the week, more incidents occurred, many of which targeted hotels and mosques that housed asylum seekers.

The BBC's examination of activity on popular social media and in smaller public groups reveals a distinct pattern of influencers pushing a message encouraging people to congregate for protests, even if there was no one organizing force at play.

False statements regarding the attacker's identity were spread by a number of influencers in various circles, reaching a wide audience that included regular people who had no affiliation with far-right figures or organizations.

Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is the founder of the EDL, a far-right activist, and a convicted felon. While on vacation in Cyprus, he tweeted provocative messages to his almost one million followers on X.

One of the first people to openly advocate for nationwide protests was an influencer on X connected to Yaxley-Lennon, who goes by the username "Lord Simon." What has happened during riots and where have they occurred?

Since then, riots have occurred throughout England, ranging from Sunderland in the northeast to Plymouth on the south coast. Belfast, Northern Ireland, has also seen rioting. Mosques and shelters for refugees were stormed by crowds, vehicles and structures—including a library—were set on fire, and stores were plundered.

"Racist elements" were involved in the violence in south Belfast, where anti-racism and anti-immigration protestors engaged in heated altercations outside the city hall, a judge declared. An attack on a guy whose head was apparently stamped on is being looked at by police as a possible hate crime with ethnic motivations.

Staff at the Holiday Inn in Rotherham, which was sheltering asylum seekers, detailed how they blocked themselves against a mob that had broken through the door by stacking refrigerators and other furniture against it on Sunday. The staff was horrified. Those living nearby reported seeing rioters enter their gardens and running from their houses.

Numerous police officers have sustained injuries; some are being treated in hospitals.
Some of the injured officers "feared they would not make it home" to their families, according to the chief constable of Merseyside Police.

Outside of the UK, there has been alarm over the recent outbreak of violence. Travel advisories have been issued by Malaysia, Nigeria, Australia, and India, asking people to exercise caution and stay away from protests.

Who has taken part in the riots in the UK?
According to a police source who spoke to PA news agency, it's a "nuanced picture" that includes some local coordination as well as several examples of "locals reacting to what they're seeing on social media, what they're seeing outside in their streets and just joining in". 

While in Sunderland on Friday night, Mark Easton, the Home Affairs Editor for the BBC, reported that far-right rioters attacked law enforcement, set fire to an assistance center adjacent to a police station, flung stones at a mosque, and stole goods from stores.

In addition to masked criminals, he witnessed parents with strollers and kids dressed in the St. George's flag supporting the group.

In the beginning, there were many who were worried about immigration who wanted to use their right to peaceful protest, even though some of them have been deliberately violent.
One such individual told the BBC that the violent events at a hotel housing asylum seekers were "absolutely barbaric... this is not what we're here for." The individual had participated in an anti-immigration march in Rotherham on Sunday.

According to a worker at Liverpool's Abdullah Quilliam Mosque, some people might be acting out out of general irritation.Violent groups and counter-protesters have battled in multiple places. Anti-racism activists in Bristol said that they exchanged gunfire to prevent opposing protestors from breaking into an asylum-seeker building.

When a group, primarily made up of young Asian guys, assembled in Birmingham to protest a supposed far-right march that never happened, there was turbulence.