EDL tried to take advantage of looting

Throughout the looting/riots, the EDL attempted to capitalise on the situation, and use it as an excuse to promote themselves and as an excuse for some violence.

Cambridge saw EDL vigilantes clear Mill Road (an important road in the town centre) of imaginary looters, only to be told by local traders that they were not welcome. Meanwhile a senior Met police officer warned of more attempts by the EDL to hijack local communities defending themselves, with places like Enfield being hit.

Nor did the EDL stick to its alleged belief of only being anti-Islamic extremism. An EDL gang attacked a bus with black youths on it in London, whilst EDL posters online flooded forums with racist language directed primarily against blacks:

The English Defence League have reverted to type, with torrents of sickening anti-black racism on their divisional Facebook walls, peppered with the N-word, and description of black people being “monkeys” and “apes”. Since their existance, the moderators have tried to brush all of their non-Muslim racism under the carpet, pretending that the EDL have only one enemy, Muslims, but since the rioting began in London, the far right group have switched tack to virulent anti-Black racism of an extreme and disturbing nature.

Now graffiti is going up condemning the riots, signed by the EDL. Compare and contrast such behaviour with how many victims of the looting reacted. In Birmingham, Tariq Jahan, the father of one of the three men killed by looters, called for calm:

Today we stand here to plead with all the youth to remain calm, for our communities to stand united. This is not a race issue. The family has received messages of sympathy and support from all parts of society … I lost my son. Blacks, Asians, whites – we all live in the same community. Why do we have to kill one another? Why are we doing this? Step forward if you want to lose your sons. Otherwise, calm down and go home – please.”

Others held vigils or banded together to clean up the area. If there is a silver lining in all this senseless violence and destruction then it will be the renewed bonds that now exist between many people in the worst affected areas, which is what a healthy society depends on.

Pickled Politics

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

English Defence League Join Rioters and attack the Police

A two hundred srong mob of middle aged English Defence League members threw bottles and fought with Police in Eltham in south London last night. Many were drinking from cans bought from the supermarket, EDL slogans were chanted and bottles were thrown at Welsh police wjo were draffted in from other parts of south London to deal with the disturbances. The far right organisation has a long history of violence at their demos

Video has emerged on the Telegraph website of EDL members attacked a group of black kids on a bus. We also understand that there have been multiple EDL arrests in Leicester lasst night. Leicestershire Police say they have arrested the EDL's regional organiser.

Today Clive Efford, Labour MP for Eltham, south London asked in a recalled parliament about far right groups using the riots to further their own agenda. Prime Minister David Cameron replied by stating that he spoke of 'sick individuals in society and none are as sick as the English Defence League'.

On the tuesday night, Efford spoke of the people who had spent the day working on operation #riotcleanup and EDL members took to the street of Eltham, the group had been drinking all day and tied up much needed police presence in a time when we needed all the police we can on the street.

The trouble in Eltham comes only two weeks after their Plymouth Division attacked a family-run restaurant and several members were arrested

Further information and more video from the Telegraph.

'Riot police were hit with missiles including bottles as more than 1,000 officers battled with dozens of middle-aged men on the streets Eltham, south-east London.

Witnesses reported that many of the 200 men were chanting in support of the English Defence League, the controversial Right-wing group. The group had promised to defy police orders and mobilise their own forces to protect their families and businesses from mobs of looters.

Last night hundreds of police from eight separate forces tried to restore calm from the mainly white men. Earlier they had claimed they were “protecting” local shops and businesses for a second consecutive night. With shops and pubs in the high street shut, the group brought carrier bags containing beer and drank and sat on benches.

Riot police eventually restored order after charging at the crowd. At least one person was arrested.

Around 60 EDL supporters had gathered in the square in the town drinking cans of beer and chanting "We love you England".

“Officers had missiles thrown at them this evening,” a Scotland Yard spokesman said. “Police have dealt with the disorder and the group has been dispersed. Police remain on the scene.”

Local police denied the group were comprised of EDL members.

But furious locals vented their anger at what they described as “outsider vigilantes” arriving in the area and sparking fights, particularly with police. Over the past few nights, residents in London have taken to the streets with baseball bats, swords and hockey sticks to defend their property after the police lost control.

There have been concerns that far-Right organisations had tried to take advantage of the social tensions by hijacking the “vigilante” armies. The EDL claimed that about 100 of its members were helping to protect the streets of Enfield on Tuesday night.

The league was also encouraging people to join a group of men in Eltham planning to guard their high street.

As many as 1,500 Sikhs, some in their eighties, had patrolled west London neighbourhoods around temples in Southall and Hounslow on Tuesday night, chasing rioters away. In Dalston, east London, Turkish shopkeepers armed with bats and pool cues saw off a gang of masked men. In Hackney, east London, Kingsland High Street was lined with Turkish and Kurdish men on Tuesday night, some carrying sticks. In Enfield, north London, an estimated 300 locals turned out to protect property on Tuesday after two nights of rioting.

Police said anybody taking the law into their own hands, however well intentioned, would divert police resources away from the looters and arsonists.

Steve Kavanagh, the deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said: “What I don’t need is these so-called vigilantes, who appeared to have been drinking too much. These are small pockets of people. They’re frustrated, they’re angry, and that’s totally understandable.

“But the support that we need is to allow those officers to prevent looting and crime.” He said it was “ironic” that media pictures showed looting in areas where there were “no police available” while officers were being diverted to stop vigilantes elsewhere.

“That needs to stop,” he said.

Under the 2008 Criminal Justice and Immigration Act, home owners who use “reasonable force” to protect themselves should not face prosecution. However, they must not use more force than necessary. Experts say this can come down to a subtle difference, with anyone who chases an attacker likely to be at risk of committing an offence.'

EDL News

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Racist vigilantes on the loose

This is terrifying. I did tell you the Right was going crazy. Now, the racists have an opportunity to go on the rampage. In Enfield, dozens of white men aged between 30 and 40 were out earlier, chasing down Hertford Road yelling "Get the pakis". Paul Lewis reports:

"It was only a minor skirmish, but a potentially bad sign for community relations. Police, who have flooded the streets, were quickly on the scene when about 70 men started chasing local youths.

I wouldn't mention their ethnicity, but it seemed to be relevant. The men were white - in their 30s and 40s - and shouting that they wanted to get the "blacks" and "pakis". Lots of them seemed drunk. One man being held back by police shouted: "They're rats, they mugged my Auntie the other night."

Jay Bradley, 30, a witness, told me: "What happened here? What I just saw - everyone from this area aren't gonna have any looting. What I saw was a couple of ethnic lads, if you can call them that, black lads, and they chased them away.

A lot of it is alcohol - I don't think the kids were doing anything. They were just on bikes and in masks.

But no-one around here is going to stand for any looting. What are we supposed to do. The Co-op is closed and we're running out of food."

I don't believe that this is just a spontaneous response to looters. When the BNP membership list was leaked, it emerged that there were a number of members scattered around the lower middle class areas, and I wouldn't be surprised if they, along with local EDL supporters, were among those out tonight. The emergence of racist vigilantism is not unique to Enfield. It's also emerged that racist Millwall fans are supposedly 'protecting' Eltham tonight. Apparently, the EDL have been marching through the area. [Update: local residents and Millwall fans both assure me that this is untrue, and that it's just locals protecting themselves. Which, if true, is a relief - but one is still uneasy about vigilantes in football gear posing as defenders of the community.] This is why we urgently need a political response to these riots that organises communities around the issue of justice for victims of police violence. The IPCC have said tonight that Mark Duggan did not shoot at police officers. This, to me, suggests that his death was an execution, and that the bullet in the police radio may have been post-mortem framing. Either way, the police certainly lied about the circumstances of Mark Duggan's death, and this is a major cause of the anger in black communities, as it should be everywhere. There urgently needs to be an intervention on this by anti-racists and the Left.

Update: Given that there are lots of unsupported rumours flying about, I think it's important to add a couple of important qualifications to this post. A lot of the rumours going about are originating from the far right themselves - part of their propaganda about being men of action, etc. And some of them could result in people getting hurt. Naturally, I have no wish to contribute to either, so I'm just being cautious. First of all, I have heard conflicting things about the far right being involved in Enfield, but as yet no proof of this has emerged. It may well be just local racists. Guardian journalist Paul Lewis is being careful to say he only witnessed a brief skirmish (though, from the footage I've seen, it was a really nasty, scary event). Second, loads of people have been tweeting me to say it's not the EDL in Eltham. (There is some footage of what appear to be EDL being kettled there, but not the 400-strong mob that the casuals were bragging about). I'm still not okay with vigilantism, but there are degrees of danger. I'm not arguing for complacency. There are some real fascist efforts at stirring. Most of it has been kettled by the cops so far, however. So, I would bear these points in mind when you're scanning social media for updates.

Lenin's Tomb

Thanks to NewsHound and others for the heads-up