British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has reacted to the violence and mob action in several British cities over the last week by proclaiming a “standing army” of specialist police would be created to deal with the problem. He also promised to increase the criminal justice system to process the anticipated arrests generated by the new "standing army" of riot police.
Starmer convened an urgent meeting after lawlessness he blamed on “far-right thuggery” that was driven in part by misinformation on social media that whipped up anger over a stabbing rampage at a dance class that killed three girls and wounded 10 people. False rumors spread online that the suspect was a Muslim asylum-seeker led to attacks on immigrants and mosques.
“Whatever the apparent motivation, this is not protest. It is pure violence and we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or our Muslim communities,” Starmer said. “The full force of the law will be visited on all those who are identified as having taken part in these activities.”
The murderer was born in the UK to Rwandan parents. The "asylum-seeker" story was fueled by British laws protecting the identity of juvenile offenders but not the lives of British kids.
Clash of Cultures in the UK Presents a Bleak Future
Riots have wracked several British cities, pitting British citizens demanding justice for the murdered and an end to Britain's ruinous immigration policy against mobs of immigrants.
Margaret Thatcher about Islamism after 9/11 could apply equally well to the situation created by successive British governments through coddling illegal immigrants and allowing parallel institutions to take root, "We have harboured those who hated us, tolerated those who threatened us and indulged those who weakened us."
The slaughter of three little girls, aged six, seven, and nine, and the critical wounding of five children and two adults has accomplished something previously unthinkable.
Prime Minister Starmer quickly took sides, ignoring the mobs assembled by the other side.
“That’s not a problem you can fix overnight and it’s going to be difficult, I think, for the system to cope with the influx of demand that we’re likely to see as a result of this disorder,” Rowland said.
Starmer has dismissed calls to reconvene Parliament to deal with the crisis or send in the army. His office said police can handle the disorder.
In the meeting with ministers and top law enforcement officials, Starmer said social media companies have not done enough to prevent the spread of misinformation that has fueled far-right violence and vowed that anyone who stokes the disorder — online or on the streets — could face prison, a spokesperson said. Some of that false and misleading information has come from foreign states.
Right now, the riots, which are of the British government's making, are localized. Prime Minister Starmer's reaction foreshadowed could go a long way toward changing that.