23/08/2024
TOSHINARI KOBAYASHI wrote:
August 22, 2024
2011 England Riots
On August 4, 2011, the suspect, a 29-year-old black man named Mark Duggan, was shot and killed by police in Tottenham, north London. This triggered riots that lasted from August 6 to August 11. A police vehicle was vandalized and set on fire near the Tottenham police station because the shooting of a black man was deemed unjustified.
The riots spread not only to London but also to cities throughout England, including Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham, and Bristol. In each location, buildings and stores were vandalized, looted, and set on fire.
Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are said to have contributed to the spread of violence during the riots. Economic losses from the riots are estimated at over 200 million pounds.
Most of those involved in the riots were unemployed youth from low-income families, but people from all walks of life, from teens to people in their 40s, were involved.
Five people were killed in the riots that spread across the country, and by August 13 more than 2,000 people had been arrested on charges of rioting, arson, and looting. More than 50% of the rioters arrested were under the age of 18.
Many parents were absent from the trials of their children accused of crimes, and the British media said, “This goes beyond poverty, unemployment, and consumerism. British society has lost its sense of morality and responsibility”.
At the time, Prime Minister Kier Starmer was the head of prosecution in England and Wales. He led the prosecution of thousands of people in connection with the riots that lasted five days. Starmer is credited with bringing the riots to an end by speeding up the trial and making it widely known.
2024 England riots .
Three girls were stabbed to death by a man who entered a dance class in the northwestern English seaside town of Southport on July 29. Eight other children and two adults who tried to help the children were injured in the incident.
Later that day, police arrested a 17-year-old boy from the neighborhood. The arrested boy was a native of Wales, England, with parents from Rwanda.
However, almost immediately after the incident, false information that the suspect was an asylum seeker and Muslim who arrived in the UK in a small boat in 2023 began circulating on social media and was viewed more than 1.7 million times.
It is said that social media such as Facebook and Twitter were also responsible for the 2011 UK riots, which led to the escalation of violence.
The following night, on the 30th, more than 1,000 people attended a memorial rally for the victims in Southport. Riots then broke out near a local mosque. Crowds threw bricks and bottles at the mosque and police, a police station was torched, and 27 officers were taken to the hospital.
The day after the Southport riots, violent protests occurred in London, Liverpool, and Manchester. Much of the violence targeted mosques and hotels where asylum seekers were staying.
Many people were misinformed as influencers from various industries amplified false claims about the identities of the perpetrators.
Riots then broke out all over England, from Plymouth on the south coast to Sunderland in the northeast. Riots also broke out in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Crowds attacked mosques and facilities where asylum seekers were staying, set fire to buildings including vehicles and libraries, and looted stores.
In several cities, including Liverpool and Belfast, anti-immigration protesters clashed with those demonstrating in support of immigrants who opposed them. In Bristol, anti-racism protesters linked arms to prevent anti-immigration demonstrators from storming a building where asylum seekers were staying.
In most areas after August 7, the planned anti-immigrant actions did not materialize. Instead very large numbers of people joined in peaceful protests against racism.
Refugees and immigrants are welcome.
Refugees and immigrants are welcome. According to the BBC, hundreds of people gathered near the Parliament building in Edinburgh, northern Scotland, on August 10 and shouted these words. About 5,000 people also took part in an “anti-right-wing” demonstration in London. Similar demonstrations were held by tens of thousands of people across the UK on the 10th alone. Many people participated in peaceful protests against racial discrimination.
Thus, as with the results of the general election, many people are taking part in “anti-right” demonstrations because many people are opposed to “far-right” anti-immigration policies. I think it is a wonderful aspect of British society to show one's views through one's actions.
Why did the riots occur?
The riots were fueled by false information posted on social media suggesting a link between the incident and Islamism. Other false posts on the Internet were also spreading, including those suggesting a link between the incident and immigration.
During the riots, chants of “stop the boats” were heard. The boats refer to immigrants who use small boats to cross the English Channel and attempt to cross over and enter the United Kingdom illegally, which was one of the Conservative Party's slogans in the July general election.
In the general election, the Labour Party, which opposes the Conservative Party's “Plan to transfer (illegal refugees) to Rwanda” immigration policy, won by a wide margin. However, a closer look at the election results shows that the far-right Reform UK party, which supports the Conservative Party's plan to transfer illegal refugees to Rwanda, gained more than 12 percentage points more votes than in the previous general election. This means that there is a certain number of people among the British public who support “anti-immigrant policies.
It is also said that anti-immigrant people are buying into the far-right political parties' claims that the government spends too much money on immigrants because citizens have to wait a week or more to see a doctor when they are sick and housing costs soar due to housing shortages.
The UK has a National Health Service, which provides free medical care. The problem is that people have to wait a week or more to see a doctor due to a shortage of doctors and other problems. Government spending on immigration is said to be as much as 4 billion pounds per year.
At the trial of the rioters, the defense lawyers reportedly cited the suspects' mental state and dependence on alcohol and other substances as reasons for extenuating circumstances. Alternatively, the motive of drunkenness or being carried away by momentum was also repeated. Mental illness and fear of group psychology were cited as reasons for the riot.
Social media issues
The riots were frequent because they were fueled by false information posted on social media. It is said that the 2011 riots were caused by social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This time, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. deleted content related to the riots due to past reflections. However, X (Twitter) did not take such consideration.
X (Twitter) resurrected the influencer Jesus, who was considered malicious after Elon Musk became the owner. For this reason, the influencers who instigated the riots used X (Twitter). And Elon Musk responded to the anti-immigrant post by saying, "Civil war is inevitable."
It has also been pointed out that the Russian propaganda media RT (Russia Today, a news agency based in Moscow, Russia) picked up the story and accelerated its spread.
To End Riots
Some people believe that racism is an important factor in the causes of riots. Others analyze poverty and lack of opportunity as the underlying causes.
According to statistics from the British Home Office, many of the cities and towns affected by the riots have higher levels of poverty than the national average and are home to large numbers of refugee claimants. Some have noted that “disparities between regions have remained largely unchanged over the past few decades.”
The riots have triggered a debate in the UK about the current system of “reviewing child benefit payments to low-income social security benefit households. Those working on poverty issues argue that this may be one of the quickest ways to alleviate inequality.
However, it is difficult to solve these disparities overnight. Community activist Morgan McSweeney, a senior Labour Party official, said, “Politicians in the areas affected by the riots have to spend more time engaging with residents and listening to them.”
Riots” often occur in the United Kingdom. It would be a matter of pride for a democratic country to have initiatives in place to eliminate these “riots”.
Rise of Immigrants and Refugees
As a result of the June 2016 referendum, the United Kingdom left the European Union (“Brexit”). The main issue at that time was “refugee policy.” The argument of the Brexiteers was that leaving the European Union would allow the U.K. to manage immigrants and refugees.
In reality, however, the number of immigrants has been increasing, reaching record highs of 760,000 in 2022 and 680,000 in 2011. The population of the United Kingdom is 66 million, which means that the country receives 1% of its population of immigrants each year. Even taking into account refugees from Ukraine due to the war in Ukraine, this is still too much.
Let's be realistic. The corona has caused a shortage in the workforce, and some industries, such as services, health care, and long-term care, cannot operate without immigrants.
Regarding refugees, when the UK was a member of the European Union (EU), the Dublin Protocol required that refugees apply in the country they first entered. If a refugee moves to another country after applying, the refugee will be sent back to the country where the application was made. However, since the UK left the EU, it is said that the number of refugees coming by boat from the French side has increased.
When the Dublin Protocol was in place, refugees coming by boat from the French side were simply sent back to France, so the number of people coming was small.
The number of illegal refugees crossing the English Channel by small boat was about 300 in 2018 when the UK was a member of the European Union (EU), but after leaving the EU, the number was about 45,000 in 2022. In 2023, it was about 30,000.
The UK officially left the EU on January 31, 2020.
It has been pointed out that the logic that the UK can control immigrants and refugees by leaving the European Union has collapsed.
August 14, 2024 in Southport
Southport is 3 hours and 30 minutes by train from London via Liverpool. It is a small seaside town in the northwest of England. On July 29, three girls, Bebe King (6), Elsie Dot Stancombe (7), and Alice Dasilva Aguiar (9), were stabbed to death by a man who broke into a dance studio. This incident was the trigger for the recent riots.
I visited Southport on August 14. The walls of the mosque that were destroyed on July 30 had been repaired. The small town had regained peace. However, the police had closed the roads around the dance studio where the incident occurred. Many flowers and dolls were placed near the dance studio with messages for the girls who died.
A little distance away, local resident Michael (72 years old) and his wife were making a flower bed in the garden of their home to dedicate to the girls who died. "These girls were so cute. I don't understand why they had to die. Adults should think about the grief of the girls who died first," he told me.
