Covering an orgy of violence
Covering an orgy of violence
An editor’s note from Jack
Dear readers — On Friday night, I abandoned my evening plans and headed to Brougham Terrace in L6. There had been chatter on far-right social media accounts that there might be an attack on the mosque here, a historic site founded by the nineteenth century convert Abdullah Quilliam, a wealthy Liverpool man born as William Henry Quilliam who built one of the first Muslim communities in the UK. Some feared that the mosque might be attacked and even firebombed following the disgraceful scenes at the mosque in Southport earlier in the week.
Thankfully, the protest came to very little. Only a few dozen protesters showed up, many of whom were teenagers. At the end of the night, the mosque’s imam crossed the road to speak to them, inviting them into the building at a future date to discuss their concerns and share food. He also shared a hug with one protestor.
But yesterday saw another bout of serious violence. There was a riot in Liverpool city centre, with bottles and bricks thrown at police and one video showing an officer being pushed off his motorbike and assaulted, as the BBC reports. In Walton last night, Spellow Lane Library Hub was torched during a riot involving around 300 people on County Road. If you turn on the news today, you will see reports of an attack on a hotel said to be housing asylum seekers in Rotherham and a major clean up in Sunderland after rioting there on Friday night.
Some commentators and right-wing politicians are attempting to pass off what we’re seen as the justifiable anger of the disaffected. At the same time, we hear from some local leaders that these riots are the work of organised far-right groups, mostly rioting in areas far from where they live. How do we pick through these claims and get to the truth?
Many of you will have read our report from Southport last week, but here are a few of the things I saw and heard. I heard a man shout “let’s go and smash up the mosque”, after which a group of people followed him. I heard countless accusatory shouts about “nonces” directed at the mosque. I saw a police officer, who looked barely conscious, jeered and pelted with objects as he was led to safety. I saw bricks and flares rain down on the mosque and police. I heard multiple references to Muslims as “disgusting” or “vile”. I also saw that woman holding up her “Hope, not hate” sign as the rioters screamed in her face, an image that has now been seen millions of times.
It’s only by attending these kinds of events in person that you get a feel for who is involved. And I can tell you: we shouldn’t kid ourselves that these people are an organised collective of thugs who travel from town to town causing trouble. They mostly aren’t ‘outsiders’ at all. Certainly, members of Nazi groups like Patriotic Alternative were present. But based on my conversations, I would bet that most have no such affiliation and that most live within our communities. The vast majority of voices I heard were very clearly people from across Merseyside, even if they weren’t from Southport itself. It doesn’t surprise me that virtually every arrest made so far has been someone from the county.
You’ll sometimes hear the phrase ‘post-organisational far-right’: a general term for a sprawling web of thousands of people who dip in and out of the same online spaces, and follow the same extremist accounts but don’t exist under any kind of banner. There’s probably a degree of comfort in assuming this is one or two nasty groups who cause all the trouble. The reality is that it’s more like a vast and complex web of mostly “ordinary people” who have been radicalised by the internet and inflammatory videos from the likes of Tommy Robinson. Other participants seem to be out for a laugh with their mates, and how depressing that smashing up mosques and libraries counts as a night out for thousands of our countrymen.
I certainly don’t have the solutions and I don’t think we should overreact to this moment by thinking our entire social fabric is breaking down. That would be giving a small number of thugs too much credit. But as I follow the reports of today’s disorder from colleagues and fellow journalists across the country, I do think this: journalism has a critical role to play in documenting what we are seeing and thoughtfully interpreting the forces at play. It also might help us to puncture the lazy and bad-faith narratives that can easily take hold.
For obvious reasons, we decided not to paywall the story I wrote about the Southport riot, the event that has sparked this nationwide orgy of disorder. It’s important the public understands the events that are playing out right now, whether they are a paying member of The Post or not. But I’m hugely grateful that a clutch of you decided to join up nevertheless, giving a real boost to our efforts and showing that people want this kind of work to be done.
If you’re reading this and you fancy joining up, please do so using the button below. And we’ll be back in your inbox with more on-the-ground reporting very soon.