SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 8.4.2024
The anti-immigrant hate stirred up by Donald Trump in the past nine years has gone global.
The intolerance, xenophobia and racism spewed forth by the former and now wannabe president has found a receptive audience in Europe. Now Britain.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 8.4.2024
Police in the northern English city of Rotherham struggled to hold back a group of far-right activists on Sunday, who broke into a hotel believed to be housing asylum-seekers.
The disturbance is the latest in a series of violent protests by anti-immigration groups in British towns and cities this week after three girls were killed in a knife attack in Southport in northwest England on Monday.
Protesters can be seen storming the building and removing chairs from inside to use as weapons. Footage aired on British TV showed officers with shields targeted by a barrage of projectiles outside the Holiday Inn Express hotel in Rotherham, near Sheffield.
The riots began last week due to misinformation over a mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party at a studio in Southport, a seaside town in northwest England.
Three children were killed in the knife attack, and 10 other people — eight of whom were children — were injured.
A 17-year-old boy, Axel Rudakubana, has been charged with several offenses, including the girls’ murder, which happened during a Taylor Swift-themed workshop.
Since the Southport attack, far-right social media channels have been awash with false claims that the suspect was an asylum-seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat.
Police have emphasized that Rudakubana was born in Britain. He was remanded to a youth detention center and will next appear in court in October.
Close to 100 people were arrested after skirmishes broke out at far-right rallies in Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Blackpool and Hull, as well as Belfast in Northern Ireland on Saturday.
In Liverpool, in the northwest, protesters threw chairs, flares and bricks at police officers. Manchester also saw clashes between officers and rioters.
In the city of Hull, protesters broke windows of a hotel that was housing migrants, the BBC reported.
In Belfast, fireworks were thrown due to a clash between an anti-Islam group and anti-racism protesters.
Opposing groups also faced off in the cities of Nottingham and Bristol.
In Leeds, anti-immigration protesters carrying British flags chanted, “You’re not English anymore.” They were met with counter-protesters shouting, “Nazi scum off our streets.”
On Friday, Sunderland saw violence erupt as a police station and an overturned car were set on fire.
In London, a pro-Palestinian demonstration was carried out as usual despite counter protesting nearby.
https://www.dw.com/en/uk-far-right-rioters-storm-hotel-housing-migrants/a-69851161
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