LONDON — Britain was on edge on Wednesday as police and anti-racism activists, fearing a possible outbreak of the right-wing riots that have broken out across the country in recent days, raided several neighborhoods with large immigrant populations.
The handful of anti-immigrant protesters encountered by police in north London neighborhoods such as Finchley and Harrow were far outnumbered by the hundreds of counter-protesters carrying signs reading “Refugees Welcome” and “Racists Out, Refugees In.”
And in the east London district of Walthamstow, there was an even larger gathering of more than 5,000 anti-right protesters chanting “Love, not hate”, as hundreds of police stood guard.
Large, peaceful protests in support of refugees also took place on Wednesday in the cities of Birmingham, Sheffield, Southampton, Liverpool, Newcastle and Bristol.
“We’ve put thousands of officers on the streets and I think the show of force from the police and frankly the show of unity from the communities together has overcome the challenges that we’ve seen,” Mark Rowley, the commissioner of the city’s Metropolitan Police Service, said in remarks to the BBC early on Thursday.
“It was very peaceful last night. We had a few local criminals turn up at a couple of locations and try to create some anti-social behaviour and we made a few arrests,” he said. “But it was a very successful night and the fears of far-right disorder have been allayed.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan also thanked “those who came out peacefully to show that London stands united against racism and Islamophobia” and praised the “heroic police force”.
A total of 10 people were arrested in the south London borough of Croydon, including one accused of assaulting an emergency worker and four accused of violent disorder, police said. Four people were also arrested in Waltham Forest, including two accused of weapons offences, including a knife and a golf club, while another person was arrested in Hounslow and accused of possessing a weapon, police said.
“I’m here to stand up for human rights,” said Jones Percival, 25, a plumber, in Finchley. “I don’t believe in fascism. People of all colours and creeds are welcome.”
As Percival spoke, like-minded protesters began chanting, “Say it loud and clear, refugees are welcome here!”
One of the anti-immigration protesters in Finchley carried a St George’s Cross flag, the national flag of England, which is regularly flown by far-right groups.
Another anti-immigration protester, who identified himself as Paul, was 55 and from north London, said: “I think this country is at boiling point” and blamed the French for not stopping asylum seekers from reaching British shores.
“I don’t care what colour you are, this country has become a softie,” he said. “We pay the French to stop the migrants, but they look the other way when asylum seekers come to this country. We have to stop them. We voted for Brexit to stop this, and it didn’t happen.”
Last week, violence broke out across the country after three young girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, north-west England.
Fueled by false rumours that the suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker, right-wing gangs attacked hotels housing asylum seekers, as well as mosques and libraries, arresting hundreds of people.
The suspect in the fatal stabbing, Axel Rudakubana, 17, was born in the Welsh capital Cardiff and lived for many years in a village near Southport, police said.
Some north London residents said they felt caught between competing political forces.
“My problem here is that two things have been hijacked,” said a 44-year-old resident who gave his name as Isaac and described himself as a “proud” British Jew. “The far-right movement has hijacked the deaths of those poor little girls.”
But some of the people who stand up for the migrants are also anti-Semites, comparing Zionism to racism, Isaac said.
“They said in the advertising for this event that they wanted to get rid of Nazis, fascists and Zionists,” he said. “That scares me a little bit.”
The police actions in London were similar to security operations carried out elsewhere in Britain over the weekend.
Thousands of officers, many in riot gear, were sent into the streets to prevent protesters from showing up. More jail cells were made available in case they were needed. And law enforcement readied its surveillance and facial recognition technology to identify suspects.
Meanwhile, courts adjusted their opening hours so that judges would be available if the system became overwhelmed with newly arrested suspects.
In Merseyside, near Southport, three men were jailed on Wednesday on suspicion of taking part in what police described as a violent disturbance, with hundreds more arrested.
Police say many of the actions are being organised online by shadowy far-right groups, who are drumming up support online with phrases such as “save our children” and “stop the boats”, referring to small vessels, often rubber dinghies, that ferry asylum seekers from France across the English Channel.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X, added fuel to the fire by claiming the UK was on the brink of a “civil war” after more than a week of right-wing riots.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office quickly dismissed Musk’s comments, saying in a statement that such remarks had “no justification.”
The riots are one of the first major challenges for Starmer, whose centre-left Labour Party swept to power in a landslide election last month, ousting the Conservative Party after 14 years.
Despite being one of the world’s richest countries, the UK is facing a cost-of-living crisis and its public health system is struggling to meet demand. And despite being the world’s sixth-largest economy, it has the highest levels of child poverty of any rich country, according to UNICEF.
Although the Labour Party was successful in the general election, part of that success was due to the far right, which was strengthened by growing support. This divided the right-wing electorate and caused many Conservative lawmakers to lose their seats in parliament.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
