Bolton today - UAF violence - many arrests
The English Defence League (EDL), an organisation which opposes "radical Muslims" and Sharia law, organised the rally in Victoria Square, Bolton, Lancashire. A counter-demonstration by Unite Against Fascism (UAF) was also being held, and hundreds of police officers were trying to keep the two factions separate, aided by police dogs.
Some 31 UAF protesters and three from EDL have been arrested, police said.
Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan, from Greater Manchester Police, who is leading the policing operation, said: "There have been unwarranted attacks on police lines that have resulted in injuries. This is not a peaceful protest and we are facing a lot of hostility. We will take swift action when confronted with disorder. . . I am determined to identify offenders by whatever means and bring them to justice."
Among those arrested is Martin Smith, who runs the Love Music Hate Racism campaign another is believed to be a UAF organiser, Weyman Benett, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit violent disorder. Anindya Bhattacharyya, UAF press officer, said: "A large group of riot police charged in, there were at least a dozen of them. They grabbed him and physically dragged him away even though he was protesting peacefully."
One UAF girl with a megaphone could be heard chanting “we can start a riot, we can start a riot” which as the Times reader who also heard it said, is incitement. I hope she was also arrested.
Protesters for the EDL were escorted away from Victoria Square by police. UAF supporters were then told to disperse by about 1630 GMT. A police spokeswoman said there were now only a few people left in the square.
The BBC have a video clip here of the police quelling a UAF surge including their having to confiscate a ‘diversity’ rainbow flag.
Picture (Getty) below from The Times of EDL members.
Posted on 03/20/2010 12:57 PM by Esmerelda Weatherwax
Comments
20 Mar 2010
Rebecca Bynum
The video I've seen looks like the EDL members were very peaceful - but they sure look like they could take care of themselves if push came to shove.
20 Mar 2010
reactionry
Keep Balloting On
Or: Winnie The Poobah
While I'd rather have a conversation with Lady Godiva than Lady Astor, I should not complain that the decent lass pictured above wrapped herself in more than the flag. Still; "Keep Calm. Carry On"? I suppose that now it's "Ho-ho-ho, KBO has got to go."
- W.C.
How very droll, but for something rather depressing google " 'Challenge Churchill' 512087 " (the URL is so long that it might bugger up this thread). It seems that about a quarter of Brits think that "Winnie" was a fictitious character.
Regular Readers (or perhaps only the obsessive-compulsive ones, and not to be confused with unrusticated rustics who might ask regarding RB's comment, if "push kin come to shove") don't have to ask Who's who* and who is a character from fiction when it comes to the short list which includes "the whore of Babylon" (who shares my surname and was said to have married a cousin younger by about a decade), Van Veen & Ada (worse than said whore or even the consanguinous Paks) and me.
K.
Rm 35, Deathotel
Zermatt, Switzerland
* Also see the Siberian rubes' wrapped-in-the-flag Kto Kogo taiga toga
21 Mar 2010
dumbledoresarmy
Truth will out, it seems, to judge from the fact that the vast majority of persons arrested were UAF not EDL members.
If the EDL can manage to keep going as they have begun, they may eventually be able to convince the decent members of the police force that the *real* problem - the *real* rioters and inciters to riot, the *real* threat to public peace - is indeed among the Muslims and their UAF janissaries.
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