King Charles III was reportedly in phone conversations with the British Prime Minister on Friday evening, discussing the ongoing left-wing and right-wing riots plaguing the country. Buckingham Palace confirmed in a statement that the King praised the “community spirit” countering “aggression and criminality” all over the country, and that he wanted to give his “heartfelt thanks” to all emergency service workers and police who are working to restore order to Britain’s streets.
The King, who is the head of state for the United Kingdom, also reportedly held phone conversations from his Scotland residence with Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, the chair of the National Police Chiefs Council, thanking him for their efforts. The King also uses these calls to gather information on the ongoing protests.
Why Is Britain Rioting?
Britain’s riots were triggered by a July 29, 2024 stabbing that occurred in Southport, a seaside town in northwest England. 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, a Welsh-born British citizen with Rwandan ancestry, stabbed and killed three young girls aged 6, 7, and 9 at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party. Rudakubana injured an additional 10 people before being arrested at the scene.
Misinformation spread about the incident on social media prompted a violent response from right-wing groups and concerned working local people, who took to the streets to protest the government’s immigration policy. Though Britain’s Labour government has only been in power for a matter of weeks, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has indicated that he will not dramatically change the current immigration system, inherited from the last Conservative government, that has seen record numbers of legal and illegal aliens arrive in Britain over the last 14 years.
No motive has yet been determined for the stabbing, and even after initial claims that Rudakubana was an Islamist and an illegal alien were proven wrong, the protests have continued. At this stage, anti-immigration and pro-immigration protests continue – and in response to the unrest, the nation’s police forces have begun threatening social media users who share disinformation online with arrest.
As of August 9, 2024, 595 arrests had been made in connection with the riots, and 150 had been formally charged. Riots spread quickly outside of Southport, with violent unrest erupting in cities including Liverpool, Sunderland, Manchester, and London.
On Monday, August 5th, the British prime minister hosted a “Cobra” meeting, which is a meeting of the Civil Contingencies Committee. The group, which is made up of ministers and officials who deal with emergencies and crises, later announced a “standing army” of police officers who were prepared to be deployed at the scene of any new riots.
Are “Two-Tier” Policing Accusations Accurate?
As the riots erupted in the UK, right-leaning writers and academics have warned of the impact that “two-tier policing” could have on the stability of the country. Writing for Spiked Online, a British outlet that focuses on matters of free speech, Fraser Myers argued that “two-tier policing is not a myth” in the UK, and that “identity politics is at the heart of modern British policing.”
The argument stems from comments made by Mark Rowley, the most senior police officer in the UK, who responded aggressively to a Sky News reporter who asked if he would end “two-tier policing.” Rowley stormed past the reported and appeared to grab and throw his microphone to the ground. A statement issued by the police later claimed that the idea the police would respond differently to different kinds of protest was “complete nonsense.”
But Myers, and others, don’t believe that’s true.
“Just two weeks before the race riot in Southport, riots broke out in Harehills, a diverse suburb of Leeds. This was sparked when social services attempted to take a Roma child into care. Yet while the police were out in force in Southport and in other English towns over the past two weeks, in Harehills, the police simply ran away,” Myers argued, adding that rioters overturned a police car and even set fire to a bus. The rioters were allowed to effectively tire themselves out in that instance, but once right-wing activist took to the streets, that all changed.
On Saturday, August 10, GB News reporter Charlie Peters told anchor Nana Akua that while he was reporting on left-wing counter-protests this week, so-called “anti-racist” activists physically assaulted a GB News cameraman. The counter-protesters also shouted “GB News off our streets!” – a change in message from their “racists off our streets!” chants that they used when they thought the cameras were rolling. In the footage shared on GB News, police officers were seen ushering the counter-protesters away rather than handling them as aggressively as they have been seen doing to far-right protesters in recent weeks.
Others have pointed to police behavior at the annual Notting Hill Carnival in London. One of the largest street festivals in the entire world, the Notting Hill celebration takes place in the London every year and celebrates the prominent Caribbean culture of the Notting Hill area. Every August bank holiday weekend, millions of people are drawn to the region to celebrate the area’s history that dates back to 1959, when Trinidadian activist Claudia Jones first organized an indoor Caribbean carnival in response to race riots sweeping the area.
Every year, however, the festival draws a huge amount of criticism for the behavior of many participants. Viral videos shared all over the world have shown police officers being assaulted by participants, with many officers simply ignoring the crimes being committed against them over concerns about how it might look to arrest the offenders. A story from August, 2023, reveals how as many as 75 police officers were bitten, inappropriately groped, and assaulted at the carnival.
It’s not up for us to decide whether two-tier policing in the UK is real – that’s up to the British authorities to determine – but it certainly doesn’t look good, does it?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments!