LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday that a “standing army” of specialist police would be set up to deal with rioting and that the justice system would be ramped up to handle hundreds of arrests after violent disorder rocked cities across the nation over the past week.
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.
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LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday that a “standing army” of specialist police would be set up to deal with rioting and that the justice system would be ramped up to handle hundreds of arrests after violent disorder rocked cities across the nation over the past week.
Members of the public place gather outside the Town Hall in Southport, England, Monday Aug. 5, 2024, ahead of a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday. (Ryan Jenkinson/PA via AP)
Members of the public take part in a vigil outside the Town Hall in Southport, England, Monday Aug. 5, 2024, to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday. (Ryan Jenkinson/PA via AP)
Children form bubbles outside the Town Hall during a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Violence and unrest erupted in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of last week's stabbing. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)
Members of the public take part in a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Violence and unrest erupted in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of last week's stabbing. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)
Children form bubbles outside the Town Hall during a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Violence and unrest erupted in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of last week's stabbing. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)
People look at the floral tribute at the Atkinson arts centre in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024 after three young girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club last week. Violence and unrest erupted in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of last week's stabbing. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)
People look at the floral tribute at the Atkinson arts centre in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024 after three young girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club last week. Violence and unrest erupted in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of last week's stabbing. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)
FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Ministers' Questions session in parliament in London, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)
Members of the public place and look at the tributes outside the Town Hall in Southport, England, Monday Aug. 5, 2024, ahead of a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday. (Ryan Jenkinson/PA via AP)
Members of the public place and look at the tributes outside the Town Hall in Southport, England, Monday Aug. 5, 2024, ahead of a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday. (Ryan Jenkinson/PA via AP)
Oliver Coppard, South Yorkshire Mayor, speaks to the media outside the Holiday Inn Express where anti-immigration rioters smashed the windows before starting fires on Sunday, in Rotherham, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Lawlessness has swept the country over the past six days as right-wing activists used social media to spread misinformation to whip up anger over a stabbing rampage at a dance class that left three girls dead and many more wounded. (Dave Higgens/PA Wire/PA via AP)
Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, centre, arrives at Downing Street, where Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is chairing a meeting of the Government's emergency Cobra committee following ongoing unrest across parts of the country, in London, Monday Aug. 5, 2024. (Aaron Chown/PA via AP)
“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.”
On Sunday, angry mobs attacked two hotels used to house asylum-seekers, breaking windows and lighting fires before police dispersed the crowds and residents were evacuated. Dozens of police officers have been hospitalized for injuries in the past six days after being struck with bricks, bottles and large wooden posts.
More than 375 people have been arrested in the mayhem so far and more are expected, the National Police Chiefs’ Council said.
Many made court appearances Monday and found themselves facing at least several weeks behind bars awaiting their next court hearing.
Deputy District Judge Liam McStay in Belfast Magistrates’ Court refused bail for two men who had participated in a march that trashed businesses and set a supermarket on fire in the capital of Northern Ireland. He said he couldn't allow that to be repeated and “visited on other people.”
“The events at the weekend were absolutely disgraceful: a concerted and deliberate attempt to undermine public order and to then domineer the community and there were racist elements to it," McStay said. "The message has to be if you allow yourself to become involved in these matters for whatever reason, then you will face the consequences.”
Starmer’s plan to beef up the criminal justice system and deliver quick justice faces significant challenges as courts are already backed up and prisons are so overcrowded that plans were already in the works to release inmates early, said Cassia Rowland, a senior researcher at the Institute for Government think tank.
“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.
“The disinformation that we’ve seen online attracts amplification from known bot activity, which, as I say, can be linked to state-backed activity,” a Starmer spokesperson said in a read-out of the meeting.
Starmer’s office condemned Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, for responding to a post of footage of the violence by saying: “civil war is inevitable.”
“There’s no justification for comments like that,” the spokesperson said. “We’re talking about a minority of thugs who don’t speak for Britain.”
Near Rotheram, in Northern England, where a violent mob on Sunday stormed a Holiday Inn Express where migrants were housed, throwing chairs at police and setting a fire, a crowd of volunteers showed up Monday to help clean up the mess.
Police guarded the building as glass from broken windows was swept up. A wooden fence behind the building had been destroyed by men who tore off planks of wood and hurled them at police.
“I’m horrified. I’m appalled by the violence that we saw yesterday,” Oliver Coppard, the mayor of South Yorkshire, said. “We saw a violent far-right mob come down to attack 240 of the most vulnerable people in our society and try and burn them in the hotel in which they were living. That is not OK and there is no excuse for it.”
In Southport, where rioting first broke out July 30 — the day after the horrific stabbing there — police said only one child remained in the hospital. The seven other children and two adults who were seriously injured had been discharged.
A vigil was held Monday to remember the three girls killed at the Taylor Swift-themed dance class: Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9.
Hundreds of parents and children gathered around bouquets of flowers and stuffed animals outside The Atkinson arts center in memory of the girls. As a piano played, children blew iridescent bubbles that hung and swirled in the air before they were gone.
Police officers watch members of the public outside the Town Hall during a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Violence and unrest erupted in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of last week's stabbing. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)
Members of the public place gather outside the Town Hall in Southport, England, Monday Aug. 5, 2024, ahead of a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday. (Ryan Jenkinson/PA via AP)
Members of the public take part in a vigil outside the Town Hall in Southport, England, Monday Aug. 5, 2024, to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday. (Ryan Jenkinson/PA via AP)
Children form bubbles outside the Town Hall during a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Violence and unrest erupted in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of last week's stabbing. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)
Members of the public take part in a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Violence and unrest erupted in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of last week's stabbing. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)
Children form bubbles outside the Town Hall during a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Violence and unrest erupted in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of last week's stabbing. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)
People look at the floral tribute at the Atkinson arts centre in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024 after three young girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club last week. Violence and unrest erupted in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of last week's stabbing. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)
People look at the floral tribute at the Atkinson arts centre in Southport, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024 after three young girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club last week. Violence and unrest erupted in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of last week's stabbing. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)
FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Ministers' Questions session in parliament in London, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)
Members of the public place and look at the tributes outside the Town Hall in Southport, England, Monday Aug. 5, 2024, ahead of a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday. (Ryan Jenkinson/PA via AP)
Members of the public place and look at the tributes outside the Town Hall in Southport, England, Monday Aug. 5, 2024, ahead of a vigil to remember the victims of the stabbing attack last Monday. (Ryan Jenkinson/PA via AP)
Oliver Coppard, South Yorkshire Mayor, speaks to the media outside the Holiday Inn Express where anti-immigration rioters smashed the windows before starting fires on Sunday, in Rotherham, England, Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. Lawlessness has swept the country over the past six days as right-wing activists used social media to spread misinformation to whip up anger over a stabbing rampage at a dance class that left three girls dead and many more wounded. (Dave Higgens/PA Wire/PA via AP)
Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, centre, arrives at Downing Street, where Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is chairing a meeting of the Government's emergency Cobra committee following ongoing unrest across parts of the country, in London, Monday Aug. 5, 2024. (Aaron Chown/PA via AP)
