South Wales Police prepares for demonstrations over coming days

Emily Price

South Wales Police says it’s preparing for planned demonstrations over the coming days.

Violent riots spread across England last week with mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers targeted by the far-right.

The disorder began in the Merseyside town of Southport after misinformation was spread online about the ethnicity of a man arrested for killing three children at a dance class.

Violence quickly spread into other cities with thugs looting shops, smashing up cars and injuring police officers.

In Wales, a street in Newport was daubed with Islamophobic messages and Nazi symbols and several mosques have been targeted.

At the weekend, a number of counter-protesters gathered in the Welsh capital after social media rumours spread of a far-right march being staged there.

Anti-racism groups came together in Cardiff’s city centre and outside the Senedd for a vigil to show support for the families of the children tragically killed.

Far-right group Voice of Wales had planned an anti-migrant demonstration – but it was called off before it could take place.

Misinformation

Suggestions spiralled online last week that the dance class murder suspect was a Muslim refugee who had arrived in the UK on a small boat in 2023.

But the suspect, Axel Muganwa Rudakubana was born in Cardiff to parents who had migrated from Rwanda, a country that is not Islamic. He now lives in the Lancashire village of Banks.

The seventeen-year-old appeared at Liverpool Crown Court charged with three murders and 10 further counts of attempted murder after eight other children and two adults were seriously injured in the attack.

Gatherings

Police in England remain braced for planned unrest by “hateful and divisive groups” as they monitor reports of at least 100 possible gatherings and threats against immigration law specialists.

The Crown Prosecution Service says that more than 140 people have been prosecuted as police chiefs continued to warn rioters they could “expect a knock at the door”.

In Wales this coming Saturday (10 August) several unions and anti-fascist groups will meet near the Nye Bevan Statue on Queen Street in Cardiff for a national day of protest.

Advertising the event on Instagram, community group We Are Cardiff wrote: “Do you think fascist gangs should be able to throw bricks and petrol bombs at mosques, surround, storm and set on fire a hotel while refugees are in it, set up apartheid checkpoints where they only let white drivers through, stab people, smash up shops?

“Will you not stand with your neighbours? Is this the kind of country you want? If not, join us on the streets this Saturday – outside Nye Bevan statue – 1PM.”

A South Wales Police spokesperson said: “South Wales Police is aware of planned events in the force area.

“A policing operation will be in effect, and we will be working to ensure that they take place safely, lawfully with minimum disruption to the wider public.”