2024-08-07 12:15:44
Police and prison evil. The answer is essentially terrorism but the origin of violence is indeed social and political. After the murder of three little girls aged 6, 7 and 9 on July 29 in Southport, violent riots occurred throughout the United Kingdom. From Belfast to London via Bristol, Manchester or Liverpool, groups of white men, often wearing helmets, attack police vehicles, mosques or immigration centers using bricks or Molotov cocktails, white-hot by far-right texts published on social networks.
If you are a fake news which caused the explosion of this violence, these riots were brought for years by several factors. “Things are going very badly in Great Britain”, summed up 20 minutes Monia O’Brien Castro, research professor in British and Irish civilization at the University of Tours.
A different profile of rioters
This is far from being the first wave of violence to shake the British soil. Conflicts have already left their mark in the past. 1958, 1981, 1983, 1985, 2001, 2011… “Extreme violence” but with a very different starting point from what we know today, Monia O’Brien Castro pointed out. “Almost always, it’s a young black man who has been killed or injured by the police. This is why we call these riots urban, tribal and social,” he explained.
The triggering event as well as the profile of the rioters is, this time, very different. “Usually, this violence brings together young people, young people, especially children, the oldest of whom are in their early 20s. There, we also see elderly people who don’t necessarily stay around, who are not seen as criminals,” explained the reporter.
Immigration in the crosshairs
“Enough is enough”, we can read on some of the signs of the terrorists which carry an unrelenting anti-immigration, anti-Islamic and xenophobic slogan. The violence first started against the backdrop of rumors about the profile of the suspect in the Southport murders, who was wrongly presented as a Muslim asylum seeker. The 17-year-old was born in Cardiff, Wales, and his family is of Rwandan descent. But the damage was done.
Far-right rhetoric has become a fixture on Britain’s streets. “Since the 1980s and Margaret Thatcher, immigrants have been stigmatized by political discourse and Brexit has only brought the field home to foreigners, whether from a non-white community or not,” said Monia O’Brien Castro. The campaign in favor of leaving the European Union, led by Boris Johnson, has mainly promised to put an end to illegal immigration, or at least to regulate it. The failure of this promise may, according to the expert, have brought anger.
The rest of the “dominant desert”
Hatred of others also gives rise to the idea that foreigners are treated better than British nationals. Some demonstrators displayed headlines such as “homes for British people on the waiting list” or “home our homeless veterans, not illegal immigrants”. Monia O’Brien Castro said: “It doesn’t matter if it’s true or false, the word is the anchor.
Moreover, in the English community, “the legacy of the government is clear,” added Monia O’Brien Castro. “In cultural terms, the opposition to the black population is clear. Some politicians and journalists are not shy about suggesting that black culture is criminal. There is always this difference between those who descend from settlers and those who descend from the colonized population, it has always been underpinned in British society,” he explained.
The far right uninhibited
A month ago, the arrival of the far-right UK Reform party in the British parliament “probably some unstoppable individuals,” the researcher believes. Especially since one of the first and only decisions of the new Prime Minister Keir Starmer is to cancel the project that was voted to send illegal immigrants back to Rwanda. Far-right groups, thanks mainly to social networks, have also expanded their influence and spread their words easily “and their ideas are gaining ground”, according to the expert. Some people like Tommy Robinson, an Islamophobic and immigration activist, were able to emerge and gain popularity.
This rejection of foreigners is also explained by the worsening social situation between the progress of poverty, ethnic conflicts, immigration problems… “Many wake up because they have seen a goat”, Monia O’Brien Castro summarizes.
#woke #goat