Bradford response to English Defence League is role model for UK

Flashback to the police handling of the EDL protest in Bradford

A film of Bradford’s highly-praised response to the extremist English Defence League invasion last summer is to travel the country as a teaching tool on how to deal with Far Right factions.

Yesterday more than 100 people including civic, policing and community leaders in the city met at the National Media Museum to watch the first public screening of it.

The half-hour documentary, made by racial justice group JUST West Yorkshire and commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, will now be made available to other cities and towns across the country to help plan robust strategies should they face similar situations.

The film, called When Hate Came To Town, which includes interviews with EDL supporters as well as those opposed to them, was being shown at the first of a series of seminars being organised by Bradford Resource Centre to get the city’s public and leaders talking about issues affecting them.

Bradford South Divisional Commander, Chief Superintendent Alison Rose, a speaker at the meeting, said it was important Bradford people were being given the opportunity to talk about what happened.

Even before the DVD was produced, other police forces across the country were set to follow the city’s example for planning operations ahead of potentially-volatile events, and the Home Office had requested detailed feedback from West Yorkshire Police to uphold as “best practice”.

Telegraph and Argus

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up