The woman accused of being first to spread the fake rumours about the Southport killer which sparked nationwide riots has been arrested.
Racist riots spread across the country after misinformation spread on social media claiming the fatal stabbing was carried out by Ali Al-Shakati, believed to be a fictitious name, a Muslim aslyum seeker who was on an MI6 watchlist.
A 55-year-old woman from Chester has now been arrested on suspicion of publishing written material to stir up racial hatred, and false communication. She remains in police custody.
Chief Superintendent Alison Ross said: ‘We have all seen the violent disorder that has taken place across the UK over the past week, much of which has been fuelled by malicious and inaccurate communications online.
One false statement by a random woman was like a match lighting the powder keg. I kinda always figured the British were less racist than us Americans…
They INVENTED modern imperialism, first trialling it in the “Irish plantations” starting in the 16th century, long before America’s colonies. If one could go back in time to stop anything…
Before that Greece, before that Persia, before that Assyria, before that Babylonia, before that Egypt, before that Sumeria… Sometime before that Cro Magnon Man. The list gets bigger; The Mongols, Timurids and other turkic groups like the Mughals, the Han…
Even specific to the British Isles (the Angles, Saxons and Jutes; then the Vikings; then the Normans (French descendants of Vikings).
In other words all roads don’t lead to Rome, it’s just a thing that humans do.
Edit: Clarity, Grammar, More Pedantry
Modern? As in naval ships as command zones in the Middle East modern? Or subverting latin American democracy modern?
Migration was the one big issue that carried Brexit. It made them all forget anything else and blindly believe brexiters, if only there were no more brown people coming into the country.
It was the racist vote.
But besides that, there is racism everywhere. How its dealt with is the difference. I’m personally very glad to see the big counter protests now. They have become too confident to be loud about their hate again and we all have to put them back into their place, making it clear that this is not acceptable.
… Where did you think we got it from? Just look at how the Aussies treated the Aboriginals.
It’s a real mixed bag from what I know. They got rid of slavery much earlier, I don’t think they have the baggage of Jim Crow that US frankly still has. Afaik black people were more accepted in society. But the recent immigration trend changed things and there is real anti Islam sentiment afaik. I’m really not that well versed in it though.
Immigrants always get blamed in troubled times. It’s a story as old as time. If wealth wasn’t so concentrated and everyone had a good job and a nice place and whatever no one would care about migrants.
Yes migrants also get jobs and live in houses but they’re not the underlying cause.
They replaced slavery with indentured servitude.
They didn’t got rid of slavery, they got rid of chattel slavery (with the State paying massive amounts of money to the slave owners) and replaced it with a different kind based on debt.
Just like the idea that Britain isn’t racist, the idea that Britain were the first to end slavery is Image Management Propaganda Bollocks anchored on misrepresenting what actually happens.
I lived for over a decade in Britain and had both afro-descendant and muslim friends who were discriminated against over there, even before Brexit.
Even I got discriminated against because of being Portuguese (though nowhere are much as they did).
Britain has for long been one of the most rightwing countries in Europe, it’s just that they’re very good at image management and their far right leaders are posh types with upper class education and accents, not slang-using rabble rousing loudmouths with low-class accents.
Brexit didn’t happen in a vacuum.
Kavernacle just did a very succinct video on this exact topic https://youtu.be/JmA-0it04Wk?feature=shared
It really does feel like that right now, as someone who lives in northern England.
I’m Portuguese, lived almost a decade in The Netherlands and then over a decade in Britain.
It’s funny that after some years in Britain, on my own I reached the exact same conclusions as this guy who is local born and bred.
More like Americans are still relevant. They were still plenty loud when they did the Irish and Bengal Famines.
What’s this mean? Uk racism is very relevant, so is American
How is the UK not relevant in a conversation about the UK?
I always like to say that the USA kept all the worst parts of British culture. That’s not to say that Americans aren’t decent generally speaking. Just that…idk…imperialistic tendencies, systemic racism, highly stratified social class dynamics, random violence…kinda shitty politics dominated by 2 parties who are centre/right and shifting further right.
“Oh nooo. It wasnt my fault I just mindlessly spread russian lies and hate about brown people. Who would have thought that words can have consequences?!”
What a … I don’t even have a word for so much, idk mindless hate?
its not consequences until it starts affecting her, which in this case did. I hope other people jointly sue her for damages or sth so that at least she has to go to court and pay lawyer fees
I hope other people jointly sue her for damages
Now that would be interesting to see. With a dynamically updating billboard tallying her dues under the title “Hateful spread of online lies cost this woman GBP xxx”
She owes me £30 since one of the rioters stole my wheelie bin, and I’m still annoyed about it. They made a big pile of everyone’s bins at the end of the street and melted them all, twats.
Edit: also the racism is bad too I suppose.
In hindsight, maybe the police saying nothing didn’t help matters.
The internet exists, and it’s fast. Waiting a few days to say the suspect was British was not the right call. Especially when they’d already said the wonderful phrase “police do not believe the incident to be terror related” which as far as I can tell is code for “the suspect is not white, and Tommy Robinson is already on his way”.
If you create a void of information, somebody will fill it. There were plenty of eyewitnesses going around telling people what happened, and it’s not a far cry from “he was black” to “he was an asylum seeker”. There are bad actors out there, and they will use that void to their advantage.
Like you don’t need to give out personal info, or make stuff up, but a simple “police believe the suspect to be British” might have saved a lot of trouble.
Unfortunately their hands were tied. They don’t release information about minors. That’s just the law. It was determined shortly after by a judge to release the information due to the growing disinformation to quell violence, but the die had already been cast.
The reason they don’t release information is simply because they’re children, and they don’t want idolisation but also harassment to occur.
Same reason why names of mass murder events shouldn’t be released anyway, to prevent the perpetrators from becoming martyrs. They’re just known as “the killer” etc
Now this usually works fine as much as there are arguments for and against, however this event became somewhat a unique case, and an opportunity was found by malicious actors to use it for their own benefit.
After the Reform party gained considerable ground, they now need to keep momentum of having a constant “enemy” and “other” in the public eye, a never ending threat. Fascism 101.
And so, stoking the flames of the current migrant “crisis” if you let slip in certain places that the perpetrator was a migrant Muslim, you hope that the snowball can become an avalanche. And avalanche it did.
All the while the leaders such as Farage can claim innocence with very particular wording to wriggle out of any scrutiny.
The police cannot be going around releasing information the otherwise wouldn’t do just to stop dipshits online. There’s a reason they don’t release this information right away.
Let’s say there’s an investigation and somebody is murdered and in the course of the investigation for some reason the police think that you might be the murderer. They arrest you, and you provide DNA and it proves that you are innocent. I am sure you would not want your information released to the public in advance of a conviction.
This isn’t just a hypothetical either there has been plenty of cases where innocent people have been accused of a crime, and then exonerated, but by that point the damage to their reputation has already been done even though they did literally nothing wrong. The police have to confirm that the person they have in custody is the right person before they release info to the public. Also if the person is a kid there are even more protections in place.
Well she has a . . . what’s the opposite of “kindly” . . . face.
