Suspected far-right rioters appeared in British courts on Tuesday, as the government announced that 6,000 specialist police officers were prepared to cope with England’s worst rioting in over a decade.
Almost 400 individuals have been arrested and 100 charged in the week-long riots caused by online falsehoods about the murder of three children in a mass stabbing, with police ready for additional bloodshed.
Following his second emergency meeting in as many days late Tuesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a former senior state prosecutor, said he expected “substantive sentencing before the end of this week” for the rioters.
“That should send a very powerful message to anybody involved, either directly or online,” he added in televised comments.
The turmoil, Britain’s worst since the 2011 London riots, has prompted a number of countries to caution their nationals about the risks of traveling to the United Kingdom.
Demonstrators in numerous cities have thrown stones and flares at police officers, burned cars, and attacked mosques and at least two hotels that have housed asylum seekers.
Scores of suspected perpetrators appeared before magistrates on Tuesday, with some entering guilty pleas.
A 19-year-old male was sentenced to two months in prison on Tuesday, becoming the first individual to be sentenced in connection with the riots, according to PA Media.
Another man was convicted after admitting to attacking a police officer outside a hotel hosting asylum seekers in Rotherham, northern England, on Sunday.
A 15-year-old boy pleaded guilty to causing violent disturbance in Liverpool on Saturday after being identified by a TikTok video, while a man in Leeds admitted to posting threatening statements on Facebook to incite racial hatred.
Unrest began last Tuesday, when three youngsters were killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance lesson in Southport, northwest England.
‘Reckoning’
False allegations circulated on social media that the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker.
The suspect was later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, who was born in Wales. According to UK media, his parents are from Rwanda.
The government, which is just one month old, has vowed to take a harsh stance on the unrest, and the National Police Chiefs’ Council announced Monday that 378 individuals had been arrested thus far.
“99.9% of people across the country want their streets to be safe and to feel safe in their communities, and we will take all necessary action to bring the disorder to an end,” Starmer said Tuesday.
Justice Minister Heidi Alexander told BBC Radio 4 that the government had freed up an additional 500 prison spots and sent 6,000 professional police officers to deal with the violence.
Police have blamed the disorder on members of the now-defunct English Defence League, a far-right Islamophobic outfit created 15 years ago and whose fans have been linked to football hooliganism.
The events have been advertised on far-right social media sites under the banner “Enough is enough”.
Interior Minister Yvette Cooper stated that “there will be a reckoning” for culprits, adding that social media provided a “rocket booster” to the violence.
Elon Musk, a tech entrepreneur, compared the UK government to “the Soviet Union” on Tuesday, escalating a disagreement. A representative for Starmer had stated there was “no justification” for Musk’s earlier comment that a British “civil war is inevitable”.
On Monday night, protesters hurled bricks and fireworks into Plymouth, southern England, injuring numerous police officers.
Officers in Belfast, Northern Ireland, were attacked as protesters attempted to set fire to a foreign national-owned shop. Police said a guy in his 30s was seriously assaulted, and they are investigating the incident as a racially motivated hate crime.
A group of guys assembled in Birmingham, central England, to protest a rumored far-right demonstration yelled “Free Palestine” at a Sky News reporter. She was followed by a man in a balaclava wielding a knife.
Kenya is the latest country to caution its residents to be cautious in Britain, following Nigeria, Malaysia, Australia, and Indonesia, which all issued alerts warning their citizens to avoid the demonstrations.