Britain has been rocked by a week of violent clashes as crowds chanting anti-immigrant and Islamophobic slogans confront police.
The violence, incited by right-wing activists using social media to spread misinformation about a knife attack that killed three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event, has led to hundreds of arrests.
The government has pledged that rioters will face “the full force of the law” after attacks on police, looting, and assaults on hotels housing asylum-seekers.
The unrest began on July 29 in Southport, a seaside town north of Liverpool, where a knife attack resulted in the deaths of three girls aged 6 to 9 and injured eight other children and two adults.
Initial rumors on social media falsely claimed the attacker was an asylum-seeker or Muslim immigrant.
The next day, far-right protesters, identified by police as likely supporters of the English Defence League, attacked a local mosque with bricks and rocks.
To quell the misinformation, authorities took the unusual step of identifying the 17-year-old suspect, Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, who has been charged with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder.
Rudakubana was born in Wales in 2006, with parents originally from Rwanda.
The violence quickly spread to other cities and towns across the UK, fueled by social media posts.
The allegation that the attacker was a Muslim immigrant, posted by a user known as European Invasion, was widely circulated and amplified by sites suspected of having links to Russia, such as Channel 3Now, and Russian state-affiliated news organizations.
Stephanie Alice Baker said, “These are tensions that you see in a lot of countries right now, where you have emerging feelings of nationalism, a sense that people are being left behind, and a sense that the sovereignty of the nation is at stake. And a lot of this really coincides with a rise of immigration and a cost-of-living crisis.”
Police response to the unrest has been hindered by poor intelligence, forcing officers to react rather than preempt the demonstrations.
Peter Williams, a former police inspector and senior lecturer at the Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing Studies, said, “If they knew where they’re going to happen, they obviously could do something about it. One of the key pluses for the policing side of neighborhood policing is that you have a consistent intelligence flow. Well, that’s missing.”
The government has announced a “standing army” of specialist police to address the ongoing rioting, as they work to restore order and prevent further violence.
(with imputes from AP)
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