Aug. 3 () –
At least ten people have been arrested and four police officers injured on Saturday, the start of a series of some 25 protests by far-right groups that will sweep the country this weekend following the stabbing deaths of three girls in the town of Southport by a Welsh teenager falsely identified as an asylum seeker.
British government ministers will meet by video conference on Saturday to discuss this weekend’s protests, after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the creation of a new police unit to deal with violent unrest.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, the Prime Minister criticised a “tiny, senseless minority in our society” who had forced a “grieving” community in Southport to “suffer twice as much” when they staged a demonstration following the attack.
In Liverpool, for example, Merseyside Police have imposed a Section 60 order in and around Liverpool city centre from midday today until midnight, which gives officers additional powers to stop and search individuals and is designed to prevent serious violence.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has issued a Section 34 dispersal notice across the city centre, where officers will also be given “additional powers” to deal with anyone engaging in “anti-social behaviour” in certain areas until 7pm.
All this comes after a night of riots in Sunderland, in the north of England, where protesters attacked a police office, setting fire to the neighbouring building, while clashing “at serious and sustained levels of violence” with security forces, against whom they threw cans and stones at the doors of a mosque, according to the British broadcaster BBC.
In light of this “deplorable” situation, local police authorities have advised “citizens to avoid the area while officers deal with the situation.” “We want to make it absolutely clear that the disorder, violence and damage that has occurred will not be tolerated. The safety of citizens is our top priority,” the statement added.
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