Totally disgusted by those rioting in Southport

[Bex5490]

Southport has experienced the most unbelievable tragedy.

Their emergency services had to respond to probably the most traumatic calls they’ve ever had, yet tonight they are being attacked by thugs?

The latest is that these people are destroying people’s homes to get bricks with which to throw at the police.

I am heartbroken, bewildered and disgusted. How dare they destroy the homes of that grieving town.

All the 'demos' apparently to occur nationwide this weekend are worrying. Beeb reckons around 30 planned.

Yes, I've seen it on Twitter. All over the country. I would wish for torrential rain for them (but I'm having a lot of people here for a BBQ!)
Seriously though... if I am seeing it on Twitter, a lot of idiot ignorant far rights are too...

It's very concerning. Ordinary, law-abiding people who contribute a lot to the UK are being targeted and threatened by violent mobs. Meanwhile, a community is grieving, children have been murdered, but the far-right only cares about how to exploit this with their own misinformation and manipulation.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/01/police-in-england-urged-to-protect-mosques-as-far-right-plans-more-rallies

hopenothate.org.uk

I’ve heard a lot of people on the radio who’ve attended these protests so far getting incredibly angry at being labelled as far right and/or racist and bemoaning the lack of opportunity for debate.

its insincere at best. Why aren’t they angry at the people who do behave despicably on these protests and distance themselves from them completely. We all know the unspoken answer is because they don’t think there’s anything wrong with their views.

IF I was moved by issues of immigration and wanted to protest there is no way on this earth I would have aligned myself with these people after the rioting alongside the vigil. There’s no patriotism there, it’s just angry out of shape men looking for a reason to take their top off and destroy something. Anything.

It’s actually scary. I remember that somehow when I was little I found out what had happened to Stephen Lawrence and I (as a mixed raced child) refused to leave the house because I thought someone was going to try and murder me…obviously they weren’t but that’s the brain of a child.

My children are black and so small (one only 4 months) and it never occurred to me that they might have to have those feelings because no, things aren’t perfect, but they have definitely got better in terms of racism over the years.

But now there’s casual video’s of someone being attacked just for his skin colour. It actually breaks my heart to see our country going backwards. If I was as brave as that lady with the sign I would go and stand outside the nearest Mosque this weekend to show that normal British people, like me don’t want this.

There’s no patriotism there, it’s just angry out of shape men looking for a reason to take their top off and destroy something.

Yep. And do that funny jumping around thing with fists up to try and look threatening.

That's why they'd rather lob bricks at ambulances. They're imbecilic cowards and they all look and act the same.

I remember when Mary Bell the 11 year old murderer hit the headlines, we were scared at school, our parents too. I think of everyone involved in Southport, children, adults alike. They don't want this I'm sure.

The issue for them is quite significant. They may really believe it is a protest. But at a certain point when it becomes violent you don’t have that freedom of expression defence because you are participating and if a protest gets violent you need to leave; I think a lot of people do not understand how serious it is to attend what is a riot and shout down or throw things at the police. But convictions for violent disorder, affray, inciting hatred are prison time.

Fascinatingly the participants look exactly like the far Right rent a mobs of my youth. Give them a time machine back to 1970 odd and noone would give a second look, they'd fit in seamlessly until they got their phones out.

ETA, actually, just give them a time machine.

Not convinced by Keir Starmer's response to disinformation

“What has not worked well recently with the previous government, in my view, is the performative politics of a government blaming everybody else and pointing fingers. That approach to me is not effective.

“My approach is different, which is to roll my sleeves up, get the relevant people around the table and fix the problems, and meet the challenges that we have as a country.

“We did that with law enforcement and police this afternoon – similar approach with social media, which is not performative politics which gets us nowhere, but the politics of service, which is to actually work together to address the challenges that we have and make sure that we keep the country safe and respect the values of our fellow citizens, which are about law enforcement, security and safety.”

What he needs to realise is that you can only get people round a table if theyre acting in good faith, senior Police chief's are of course but I'm not convinced that Elon Musk is- especially considering his reply underneath Tommy Robinson's post.

Aside from Musk, doubts I have the other social media firms will do anything either- look at the recent riots in Ireland for example, did anything change regarding online misinformation there?

I’m sure very little will happen on social media; angry clicks mean money. You can only go for the people who distribute hate materials and incitement of violence.

@Mothlike It's really unsettling to look at that link and read the whole thing in full like that.

Yup. All of the types I'm aware of (blokes from school and other 'acquaintances') who are into the conspiracies and spouting far right hate speech are all 50+. They were all football hooligans as younger men back in the late 80s, too.

Male perpetrated violence will always find a 'cause' eh?

Have you ever watched The Walk In? It's scarily accurate about what's going on right now.

Edited to add that it's a true story.

It's a huge disgrace that the racist mob have managed to change the conversation and focus from the accused Axel Rudakubana to idiots who are easily led by other idiots and Russian bots.

The slaughter of 10 girls in Southport completely unprecedented and it is 100% worthy of discussion, grief and public anger. The instance trolling online with a fake Muslim name distracted form the actual murders so these girls have been let down by everyone.

Society has changed so much in the last decade. It's not about different cultures but about echo chambers online and young teens being sucked into rabbit holes, online grooming and hate. It's also about a lack of youth services, support and opportunity for all young people.

The suspect has autism but why did the police share this private medical information? Autistic people are not more or less likely to commit acts of violence, in fact I'd imagine they are less likely. He seems from a normal, church going family with probably traditional values, how did he end up like this.

Society doesn't like to take responsibility anymore and those who fall through the net are lost forever. All people are now talking about is the mobs. What about the girls and their families? What happened? Which services failed? How could it have been prevented?

Online hate is getting worse and men seem to not learn to manage their anger so they end up harming girls and women. Extremely sad and depressing.

Oh yes. And I remember the 70s and what they were like back then, you are not wrong.
The skinheads, the National Front, there were pitched battles every summer Bank Holiday Monday where I lived.

The difference now... to me... is the use of SM to mobilise. Which is dangerous.

This is the really scary thing, much, much harder to shut down and I don't know what the answer is.

You’re completely right.

We are all so busy trying to explain that this is not an immigration problem that we haven’t had the time to address what type of problem it actually is. It’s clearly a problem of VAWG, but we don’t know any more than that.

And we can all speculate, but we will have no idea until the trial.

Yep. It's like the 70s on steroids.

Where the fuck will it all end?

There's no pulling the plug now, and as awful as it is to say, there's some days I half wish for an asteroid.

Excluding operational decisions made by the Police, MI5/6 and GCHQ officers to try and disrupt Russian disinformation-farms. I'm not convinced that the political leadership will actually do anything that makes a difference about social media disinformation until it's too late and you've had an event on the scale of January 6 or something akin to that of the Slow Horses Series 1 storyline.

And let's face it, I bet a sizeable number of these "protestors" went home all riled up and beat their wives up. But it's different, obviously, cause they're white.
If this type actually gave a shit about women and girls they'd start in their own backyards.

My hope is that despite the events of the last few days, including much commentary on here (and what is sadly predicted for the weekend) the far Right has never achieved the traction they've sought in the UK, over the best part of 100 years. They are a noisy offensive disgrace, the internet has been a gift to them and the fact they get any support is depressing, but ultimately they tend to show themselves for what they are and Brits en masse don't like it.

Hoping for heavy rain this weekend, with a special exception for @BustingBaoBun s barbie.

Aww bless you @Uricon2

I'll put up with it if it gets rid of idiots protesting about something but they don't know what.