A dispersal notice has been authorised across Manchester city centre in order to assist police in dealing with protests, Greater Manchester police have said. The section 34 notice will mean officers have powers to seize any item used in the commission of antisocial behaviour until 7pm on Saturday. Ch Insp Natasha Evans said that these powers have been authorised to ensure the right to any peaceful protests that have been organised can continue, but action will be taken against those intent on breaking the law. Officers will be able to instruct and advise anyone causing or likely to cause harassment, alarm, or distress to leave the area immediately.
Manchester police issue dispersal order as far right face off with anti-racism protesters – live | UK news
Dispersal notice authorised across Manchester city centre, say police
A dispersal notice has been authorised across Manchester city centre in order to assist police in dealing with protests, Greater Manchester police have said.
The section 34 notice will mean officers have powers to seize any item used in the commission of antisocial behaviour until 7pm on Saturday.
Ch Insp Natasha Evans said:
These powers have been authorised to make sure we can continue to provide and facilitate the right to any peaceful protests that have been organised.
Our officers will be able to instruct and advise anyone who is causing or very likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to leave an area immediately.
People have a legal right to participate in peaceful protest, however where people are intent on breaking the law, we will take action.”
A Section 34 dispersal notice has been authorised across Manchester City Centre for the duration of today (03/08/2024).
Officers have extra powers to deal with anti-social behaviour in areas highlighted in the map until 7pm this evening.
Read more ➡️ https://t.co/FsetN6rIwg pic.twitter.com/6PYCUu7Wmy
— Greater Manchester Police (@gmpolice) August 3, 2024
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Updated at 11.29 BST
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10 people arrested during Friday’s violent disorder in Sunderland, say police
Northumbria police Ch Supt Mark Hall said 10 people so far have been arrested for violent disorder and burglarly as a result of last night’s riots in Sunderland.
During the press conference on Saturday Hall warned that those involved in Friday’s violence should “expect to be met with the full force of the law”.
Hall said a full investigation is now under way to identify those responsible.
“Make no mistake, if you were involved last night, expect to be met with the full force of the law,” he said.
He condemned the “attempt to drive division amongst us” and said “we are committed to make sure that doesn’t happen”.
Hall described the violent protests in Sunderland on Friday as “unforgivable”. He said:
The shocking scenes we witnessed in Sunderland last night were appalling and completely unacceptable.
During the course of the evening, our officers were met with serious and sustained levels of violence.
This was not a protest – this was unforgivable violence and disorder.”
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Updated at 12.01 BST
Hundreds gather at Belfast city hall for anti-racism rally
Hundreds of people have gathered at the front of Belfast city hall for an anti-racism rally, reports the PA news agency.
The event has been organised in response to social media calls for anti-Islamic protests to be staged in Northern Ireland.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) previously said it was aware of social media posts calling for protests including “specific calls to block roads using women and children”.
Chief constable Jon Boutcher said anti-Islamic protests would be “policed effectively” if they do materialise. A number of Christian church leaders in Northern Ireland also released statements condemning calls for protests.
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Updated at 11.52 BST
Four officers injured in Sunderland last night, police say
Northumbria police Ch Supt Mark Hall said four of the force’s officers were injured during violent protests in Sunderland on Friday evening.
He said:
I can confirm that four officers were taken to hospital for treatment last night. Three received injuries as a direct result of the disorder.
In addition, one of our mounted riders sustained serious injuries in an accident and is receiving treatment in hospital.”
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Updated at 11.55 BST
A Sunderland resident who took part in clean-up efforts has said he is “ashamed and “embarrassed” after disorder broke out in his home city on Friday.
Brett Redmayne, 43, saw the aftermath of the riots on Saturday morning after a police station was set alight and photos on social media show a blackened Citizens Advice bureau office which appears to have caught fire.
Redmayne told the PA news agency:
The atmosphere around the city with the hundreds that showed up was one of support and unity.
These people who rioted don’t speak for Sunderland and we are ashamed and embarrassed. This morning, though, we all wanted to show support and help clean the city.”
He added the people of Sunderland were efficient at clearing any “broken glass” and “smashed windows” that scattered the streets, but also praised Sunderland city council for its help in the clean-up efforts.
Redmayne said:
Apart from broken glass, the burnt-out building and car, the council and local people have cleaned everything off very fast. I saw smashed windows and glass, but the council had worked hard as well through the night to clean a lot up, credit has to go to Sunderland council.”
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The press conference in Sunderland has begun. You can watch it live via this video stream:
Sunderland police deliver press conference following night of rioting – watch liveShare
Buildings across England were lit up in pink on Friday evening in tribute to the three young girls killed in the Southport attack.
Three girls – six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar – were unable to survive the injuries sustained in the attack at a dance studio in Southport. Eight other children were attacked, with five left in a critical condition. Of those, on Thursday five were stable in hospital and two had been discharged.
Downing Street was lit up in pink on Friday evening, as was Liverpool town hall, the Atkinson arts venue in Southport, St George’s hall, the Cunard building in Liverpool, the Mersey Gateway bridge and Chester town hall. A number of hospitals in the north-west also took part in the rememberance.
Number 10 Downing Street, London, is lit up in pink in remembrance of those killed in the Southport attack. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PALiverpool town hall lit up in pink on Friday evening in tribute. Photograph: Belinda Jiao/ReutersShare
Updated at 11.43 BST
Dispersal notice authorised across Manchester city centre, say police
A dispersal notice has been authorised across Manchester city centre in order to assist police in dealing with protests, Greater Manchester police have said.
The section 34 notice will mean officers have powers to seize any item used in the commission of antisocial behaviour until 7pm on Saturday.
Ch Insp Natasha Evans said:
These powers have been authorised to make sure we can continue to provide and facilitate the right to any peaceful protests that have been organised.
Our officers will be able to instruct and advise anyone who is causing or very likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to leave an area immediately.
People have a legal right to participate in peaceful protest, however where people are intent on breaking the law, we will take action.”
A Section 34 dispersal notice has been authorised across Manchester City Centre for the duration of today (03/08/2024).
Officers have extra powers to deal with anti-social behaviour in areas highlighted in the map until 7pm this evening.
Read more ➡️ https://t.co/FsetN6rIwg pic.twitter.com/6PYCUu7Wmy
— Greater Manchester Police (@gmpolice) August 3, 2024
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Updated at 11.29 BST
Here are some of the latest images from Manchester, via the newswires:
Police form a divide between people taking part in an anti-racism counter-protest, (behind) and far-right activists (foreground) protesting at Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester on Saturday. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesFar-right activists at Piccadilly Gardens on Saturday in Manchester. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesCounter-protesters hold up placards in Manchester, on Saturday. Photograph: Manon Cruz/ReutersShare
Updated at 11.16 BST
Far right face off with anti-racism campaigners in Manchester
In Manchester, anti-racism protesters are reported to be outnumbering those who have turned up for an “Enough is Enough” demonstration.
Chris Slater, a reporter from the Manchester Evening News, said an estimated 150 people were taking part in the latter event, while about 350 people had turned out for a “Stop the Far Right” counter-protest.
It is estimated there are around 150 people in the ‘Enough is Enough’ demo and around 350 in the ‘Stop the far Right’ counter protest
— Chris Slater (@chrisslaterMEN) August 3, 2024
Campaign group, Stand Up to Racism, shared an update on X, saying the “they’re [the far right] outnumbered by 300 antifascists”.
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Updated at 11.09 BST
Citizens Advice office set on fire last night, reports ITV News journalist
A Citizens Advice office in Sunderland was set on fire in the violent disorder last night, reports an ITV News journalist.
Jonny Blair shared an image of the burnt out premises and said its manager is “devastated”.
The place set alight last night was Citizens Advice, Sunderland. Its manager this morning told me they’re devastated and now trying to figure out how to help the people they were supposed to see #sunderland pic.twitter.com/QAfPmJnJgh
— Jonny Blair (@Journo_Blair) August 3, 2024
Blair also has shared a series of pictures on his X account that show this morning’s clean up in the city.
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Updated at 10.40 BST
According to the PA news agency, there will be a press conference in Sunderland in just over an hour.
Northumbria police Ch Supt Mark Hall, Northumbria police and crime commissioner Susan Dungworth, Sunderland city council deputy leader councillor Kelly Chequer and north-east mayor Kim McGuinness will all read out a short statement each before answering a few questions at Sunderland city hall from 11.30am. We will bring updates from that as we get them.
ShareJosh Halliday
My colleagues, Josh Halliday and Robyn Vinter, have written about Southport picking up the pieces after week of horror. Here is an excerpt:
Days later, Southport remains in a state of trauma. Many in the seaside town are struggling to come to terms not only with the barbarity of Monday’s attack, which left three young girls dead and several others in critical care, but also how its grief was so violently infringed upon only a day later.
“There is a sense of horror and disbelief,” said the Rev Marie-Anne Kent, whose church, St Philip and St Paul with Wesley, is around the corner from the Hart Space, the yoga studio where the holiday club attacks took place.
Kent, a Methodist minister, was speaking to the Guardian on the frontline of Tuesday’s riot, wearing her clerical collar, when a masked man shouted in her face: “Don’t let Muslims in. They need to fuck off out of our country.”
Horrified and shaken, she said: “I came down to pray for our Muslim brothers and sisters. This is appalling. This isn’t Southport. This isn’t Southport.”
Speaking on Friday, after the violence had spread to other towns and cities across England, with further far-right rallies planned at the weekend, Kent said Southport was “holding our breath, waiting for what’s going to happen next”.
“The events of Monday were horrific. No community should have to go through that, and for that to be compounded by a hate crime …” she said, at a loss for words.
You can read the full piece here:
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Shadow home secretary James Cleverly has shared a post on his X account, saying “we cannot let rioting thugs and extremists win”.
He urged the government to “back our police to do what is necessary to maintain law and order and stop any further escalation”.
We cannot let rioting thugs and extremists win.
Their violence and attacks on the police can never be justified.
The Government must back our police to do what is necessary to maintain law and order and stop any further escalation.
— James Cleverly🇬🇧 (@JamesCleverly) August 2, 2024
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Counter-protests took place in Bradford and Liverpool last night, say campaign group
Campaign group Stand Up to Racism have shared images of counter-protests that took place in Bradford and Liverpool on Friday.
Stand Up to Racism have also encouraged people to join further counter-protests this weekend at locations across England and Wales:
Last night the far right rioted in Sunderland. Today and tomorrow join protests in your area to stand against the fascists. From Lancaster to Weymouth we’ve got protests across the country to stop the far right and say refugees are welcome here.”
🚨 CALL OUT: Last night the far right rioted in #Sunderland. Today and tomorrow join protests in your area to stand against the fascists. From Lancaster to Weymouth we’ve got protests across the country to stop the far right and say refugees are welcome here. Join us. Find your… pic.twitter.com/9zt5COtLLX
— Stand Up To Racism (@AntiRacismDay) August 3, 2024
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Updated at 09.25 BST
Mark Brown
“Far-right racists” who brought violent disorder to the streets of Sunderland will not be allowed to win, the city’s MP has said as residents gather to help clean up.
About 500 people, including parents and their children, gathered ad hoc in the city centre on Friday evening, responding to far-right social media posts to turn up and demonstrate.
It quickly descended into violence, with masked boys and men throwing missiles, including bricks, stones, beer barrels and scaffolding poles, at riot police.
A shopping trolley is thrown at police officers during Friday night’s disorder in Sunderland. Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images
Eight people were arrested and three police officers were taken to hospital for treatment. A parked car and a neighbourhood police building were set alight and some shops were looted.
Lewis Atkinson, the Labour MP for Sunderland Central, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he felt “really sad” for the city.
“Sunderland has got such a bright future, and around what was essentially violent thuggery and rioting last night are such green shoots for the future,” he said on Saturday.
“I can’t stress enough, the fact that some far-right racists … decided to turn up in Sunderland does not at all represent our city.”
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“Law and order” isn’t going to be enough to tackle the “undercurrent of Islamophobic hate [and] anti-immigrant hate” of the violent disorder that has spread across the country after the Southport attack, said the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain.
In an interview with LBC about Tuesday night’s unrest in Southport, Zara Mohammed said:
I think what’s really important is dispelling the misunderstandings and myths around what are you really afraid of, what is this doing to your society.
It’s been very distressing. I think people have been really really upset and really worried and also terrified about what they saw at Southport.
You know the fact that this was a fake news story and … was so quickly vilified to an extent that these mobs and thugs were coming out to target a mosque, and now we’ve heard lots across social media of more planned attacks. It’s really so coordinated. I think people have been really really upset.
There seems to be this really strong undercurrent of Islamophobic hate, anti-immigrant hate and that’s really boiling up … and the law and order approach isn’t going to tackle that.”
She added:
We are part of a wonderfully diverse Britain and that works because all of us are working together and this constant demonisation and choosing the framing around mosques isn’t actually true.
They’re you’re neighbours, they’re your friends.”
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Updated at 09.06 BST
Dan Sabbagh
Civil liberties campaigners have said that a proposal made by Keir Starmer on Thursday to expand the use of live facial recognition technology would amount to the effective introduction of a national ID card system based on people’s faces.
Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch, said it was ironic the new prime minister was suggesting a greater use of facial matching on the same day that an EU-wide law largely banning real-time surveillance technology came into force.
“Expanding live facial recognition means millions of innocent Britons being subjected to automated ID checks,” said Carlo. “These are the surveillance tactics of China and Russia and Starmer seems ignorant of the civil liberties implications.”
Live facial recognition has, until now, largely been used in the UK by the Metropolitan police and south Wales police, as a real-time aid to help officers to detect and prevent crime, including at public events such as last year’s coronation. It is capable of scanning more than 100 faces a minute for identification.
But on Thursday, Starmer suggested that it should be deployed more widely, in response to the violent disorder around the country after the stabbing and murder of three girls in Southport, Lancashire.
Promising to create a national police capability to tackle the rioting, the new prime minister said forces needed to work better together, sharing intelligence and engaging in a “wider deployment of facial recognition technology”.
You can read the full piece here:
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Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick has condemned “far-right” organising of riots across the country and said “if there is a case” for proscribing the EDL it should be “considered.”
He said the violence across the country must be “condemned unequivocally across the political spectrum”.
Asked by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether he would also condemn the far-right organising as part of the disorder, Jenrick said:
Yes, absolutely. That there are elements of the far right apparently involved in these protests – we need to ensure that the police have all the support that they need.”
Repeatedly pressed on whether the EDL should be proscribed given former supporters appeared to be involved in the violence, he said:
If it meets the threshold for proscription, which is a high mark, then it definitely needs to be considered.”
Jenrick said he did not regret the rhetoric used by him and his party over immigration.
Asked whether he regretted using the slogan “stop the boats” and similar language, the former Home Office minster said:
No absolutely not. I think you’re looking at this in completely the wrong way.”
He added:
There are concerns amongst millions of people in our country – legitimate concerns – about mass migration, about illegal migration. You do not channel those concerns through violence obviously.
But neither should we as politicians or indeed you as the media brush those concerns under the carpet, because that only makes the problem worse.”
It was put to him that the Tory government he served in oversaw a record-breaking high in net migration, to which he replied:
I was the minister who argued consistently to reduce the number of people coming here illegally.”
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Priti Patel criticises government’s reponse to disorder and says parliament ‘must be recalled immediately’
Former home secretary, Priti Patel has criticised the government’s reponse to the violent disorder that taken place across the country after Monday’s Southport attack, and said that that parliament “must be recalled immediately”.
In a post on X, the Conservative MP, wrote:
The events we have witnessed overnight in Sunderland were totally unacceptable. As they were in Southport earlier this week and in Harehills in Leeds a fortnight ago.
We should never excuse, or be apologists for, disorder whoever is responsible. Violence and thuggery is always unacceptable. There is no qualification or exception. And politicians on all sides must be willing to stand up and say so.
Saying the nation is “braced for disorder” is not only breathtakingly complacent, but both troubling and inadequate. The government is now in danger of appearing to be swept away with events rather than maintaining control of them.
That is precisely why as home secretary I brought forward much stronger protections against disproportionate protest and disorder, in the teeth of fierce opposition. But it was the right thing to do and those powers must be used to their maximal extent now.
Now is a moment for national reflection and solidarity – to pull back from the wave of violence we have seen, to call it out for what it is – without fear or favour – and for parliament to speak with one voice in condemnation. We either believe in the rule of law, or we do not.
That is why parliament must be recalled immediately.”
The events we have witnessed overnight in Sunderland were totally unacceptable. As they were in Southport earlier this week and in Harehills in Leeds a fortnight ago.
We should never excuse, or be apologists for, disorder whoever is responsible. Violence and thuggery is always…
— Priti Patel MP (@pritipatel) August 3, 2024Share
Updated at 09.34 BST
Read the full story on www.theguardian.com
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2024/aug/03/sunderland-riot-police-southport-stabbings-protests-far-right