WTAF - Far right protests

[Poppi89]

I have just heard on the radio that far-right protesters will be out tomorrow in response to the BLM protesters. People are being urged not to be out in support of BLM tomorrow due to the aggressive nature of the far-right group and BLM protests are being cancelled because of them.

I am outraged by this. The BLM protesters are asking for people to not be killed due to the colour of their skin. They have rightly or wrongly made a decision to put themselves at risk of COVID-19 to help spread this message - a lot of people have called them idiots etc for doing this.

The far-right protests are now also protesting in large groups (but not in response to a murder) and are 'known' for being aggressive. How is this acceptable?

I would like to hear from anyone who is planning to join/agree with these far-right protests and their reasons why?

glow For all of the anger and violence, what is really missing is what needs to change. The country is listening. We need to hear from BLM about concrete changes they would like to see, because only then will we actually open the debate and change can happen.

Id like to see BLM communicating what changes they would like to see. And I would someone on here to perhaps start the discussion, as to how this can change. Because no one wants to see people discriminated against, hurt or treated badly because of their race. Racism is completely and utterly unacceptable. What more can we do to make it better for those that feel discriminated against?

Not RTFT. I'm sitting somewhere in the middle here and I'm not sure where. The statue of a slave dealer being toppled is not worth violence.

I have just had an email through from FullFact (fullfact.org, independent fact checkers) which might have a bearing. It seems there are photos circulating of police injured through clashes with BLM protesters.

"Another widely-shared image—a collage of photos of injured police officers—was used in an attempt to discredit the self-declared “peaceful” protesters.

But among them are photos from a pro-Tommy Robinson protest in 2018, a far-right demonstration in Liverpool from 2016, and from a protest against David Cameron, also from 2016."

If these are the photos people are seeing that makes them think all or most BLM protesters are violent, please think again. Their signature move is kneeling. Kneeling people are not clashing with police and being violent. Escalation needs to stop here.

Now is not the time to demonstrate!!
Today I watched the news about New Zealander’s watching live Rugby and drinking and eating in bars, I could have cried if feel so jealous.

I just can’t see that being us In a month Or even this year because people In this country just do what that want and won’t listen, there wright to demonstrate is more important then our NHS or us coming out of this pandemic. The last two weekends has just shown me how selfish people are.

The statues were boarded up to make this situation easier to control for the police.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/black-lives-matter-protests-statues-churchill-parliament-square-far-right-sadiq-khan-a9564241.html

’I'd just say respectfully to the Home Secretary, she needs to see the intelligence we've seen, which is that the extreme far-right are intending to come to central London, one of their justifications for doing so is to protect these statues, but also they are intending to remove statues of people like Nelson Mandela."’

pepper the live footage on sky news were not old photos circulating or fake news. It was being reported on there and then with live footage, we could all see clearly that the police and horses were definitely being attacked by BLM protesters. I am sorry but I am going to call this out as untrue.

A group of friends took their teens to the protest and were there, so I don't think you can say this is fake news. The signature move might be kneeling, but there are many other things taking place that are violent and unacceptable.

If there is any risk whatsoever of to the statue of Nelson Mandela then it must be boarded and protected, why wouldn't it be? This is why pulling down statues will not work, it just becomes a tit for tat.

Pigeon999 you are just being disingenuous, because there has been SO much written and spoken about how we can improve things. Black people do not 'feel discriminated against' they ARE discriminated against.

Today: there are not two groups of protests, BLM had a few people there who were kept separate, maybe a few individuals were there but there was no mass protest because everyone could see how it would go down. Today was Tommy Robinson's far right coming to London under the guise of 'protecting the statues' (no statement has been made that any statues were going to be torn down and as for the cenotaph there is no evidence that a central tenet of BLM is opposing commemoration of war dead); on finding the statues were already protected they should have just gone home, job done, no?

But they decided to attack police (not because they were angry at not being able to get at their real 'enemy' as the enemy wasn't there) and attack people having picnics in Hyde Park apropos of nothing.

That is not two sides with the police caught in the middle.

Fascists and racists in Britain and on this thread need to stop comparing blm and the thugs out today. It's abhorrent and inaccurate. I know racists are thick, as evidenced today, but this is a whole other level of not understanding truth.

I think that perfectly reasonable sentiments and protests - that black lives matter and that it's not okay to deface the cenotaph have been co opted by thugs who just want to cause trouble and fight. None of what's happening in London right now is okay - it's absolutely awful.

Sadiq Khan shouldnt have covered up the Churchill statue, the police should have done more to stop the violence at BLM last week. Now there is even more violence

Peace!

The protest, here in Liverpool was peaceful. Our motto is ' “We shouldn’t be focusing on tearing down statues, but building up communities.”

Far right groups have stopped trying to march in Liverpool, we're the only city that doesn't tolerate them. They didn't get out of the train station last time. The time before that, they made it slightly outside, thanks to the Police support they had, but they tore up historic cobbles around our war memorial and managed to blind a passer-by, throwing them.

Tommy Robinson only goes as close as Warrington and doesn't stick around for long.

We've had many peaceful BLM protests, one after a black man was killed by restraint in Liverpool One and basically left to die by paramedics, standing around chatting about how he was on drugs (he wasn't).

So it does make me wonder in other cities, were the trouble is actually coming from.

iwould The point is that we are not hearing about what improvements can be made to stop discrimination are we? This is the problem. It is not on any news channel anywhere. Why? Because the protests and violence are taking up all of the air time. I certainly haven't seen reams of information at all about what needs to be done. I read three papers a day, nowhere have I seen an outline of the changes needed. Why can't you outline briefly what they would be?

I am not sure why the FR were ever allowed to come into London today and cause this much trouble, for the life of me why on earth did they need to come at all. They do not have a cause or a reason. I agree with you, the statues don't need protecting. The statues are already protected with boards and police. Many came to cause trouble. I am all for democracy, and freedom of speech but the FR do not have any good reason to be in London right now.

A serious national debate with the government, and those that are leading BLM together with other EM groups must come together so we can work on solutions.

The current Government doesn't do serious- all they can manage is three word soundbites. Otherwise, it would be a good idea.

The current Government doesn't do serious- all they can manage is three word soundbites. Otherwise, it would be a good idea.

^This, absolutely, like 'Get Brexit done' or 'Stay at home' or Priti Patel promising 'the full force of the law'. I don't see any real solutions for the next 4 years under this government, I'm sorry to say.

@McTits

Not surprised by this at all. The protests last week over something that happened in America and that is not even an issue in the U.K. was only going to have one outcome

Rashan Charles
Mark Duggan
Darren Cumberbatch
Edson DaCosta
Adrian McDonald
Nunu Cardoso
Olaseni Lewis
Sean Rigg
Daniel Adewole
Trevor Smith
Julian Cole
And more...

The police should have done more last week, a) to maintain the integrity of the BLM march which was peaceful on the whole, but those images were always going to be the stand out story, that's how the media works; and b) to stop this tinderbox being lit, of course photos of people grafitting etc and the image on the cenotaph was going to lure the underbelly of the far right- that doesn't take a genius to work out. There were peaceful guarding of statues but of course we won't see that, the skidmarks on society that are TRs band of men should be charged, each and every one of them. It shows them to be what they are though, I can't imagine many people are sitting at home thinking wow what an amazing bunch I really agree with their views and support them. It makes even the troubled parts of last weekend look better. This has been stoked though by many politicians, the media, social media- both have the right in a democratic society to protest, but enough now. BLM UK need a clear direction now, and to outline how to move forward. America has made some actual changes to legislation in some states etc, no way enough, but something. Meanwhile here this is overshadowing it all and distracting people from noticing that the government isn't doing anything.

I'm sick of all of them. This whole situation is disgusting - shameful, destructive behaviour by all that will achieve nothing. None of them represent me or people I know. The BLM protests have become about things we can't change in the past and has encouraged the far right nationalistic thugs looking for a fight under the banner of protecting statues and British culture and history. Amongst them are ordinary people being dragged into both sides by political extremists.

It's disgusting and shameful.

They were all told to stay at home today and not go to London and they went and looked for the confrontation with each other and the police.

In addition Boris Johnson called the Football Lads and right wing extremists out on the streets with his dog-whistle politics yesterday and they answered his call. These are the idiots who voted for him.

Nothing good will come from this.

We should be working together constructively to build a better future, not creating chaos, destruction and building hatred.

Babbas

You sure know how to alienate people. How rude of you.

Nobody of any colour should die in police custody.

These are the real figures for the UK:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/52890363

'Of those arrested, 79% were white and 85% of those who died in custody were white.

Meanwhile, 9% of people arrested were black (which is disproportionally high) and 8% of those who died in custody were black.

So, over the last 10 years, a white individual who has been arrested was about 25% more likely to die in custody than a black individual who had been arrested'

@pigeon999

And here's another bit of that article that you neglected to copy and paste

The most recent statistics from the Home Office and Ministry of Justice show:
In 2018-19, black people were more than nine times as likely to be stopped and searchedd* by police as white people.
They were over three times as likely to be arrestedd* as white people.
They were more than five times as likely to have force used against themm* by police as white people.

•   <strong><a class="break-all" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2019" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">A quarter of the prison population</a>n</strong> comes from BAME backgrounds, despite representing just 14% of the population. In <a class="break-all" href="https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/crime-justice-and-the-law/courts-sentencing-and-tribunals/young-people-in-custody/latest" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">young offenders institutions</a>s*, this increases to 50%.
  

pigeon999 I wasn't saying there was no violence in the BLM protests at all. There is clearly a lot of rubbish circulating though, with intent to incite trouble. Why would you need to incite?

Not read he full thread, so apologies if this has been covered, but a comment from the Guardian made me (sadly) chuckle:-

"I don't understand.

• Police are protecting a statue from people who want to protect it from people who don't seem to be there.
• Meanwhile the man who stopped us all from having to salute like a Nazi is celebrated by men doing Nazi salutes.

I mean, it's very 2020, but still."

We were talking about death in custody torys