Published on 12, July, 2020
First of all a heads up - this post is intended to give the facts about what riots have happened in the UK this century but not to discuss their politics.
There have been a number of posts that descended into political debate that caused them to become locked and I want to avoid this.
The purpose is to show the patterns to riots and their possible causes (the links to articles about each are shown on the link below if you want to research more). I draw no conclusions other than wondering what the heck is wrong with Belfast - it dominates the llst!
Make of it what you will but please don't start with points scoring over right vs left, racism, sexism or any of the other dog whistles of arguement.
The list is compiled from Wikipedia, specifically:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_riots
2001- May Day Riots, May 1, 2001 (London, England).- Oldham Riots, May (Oldham, Greater Manchester, England)- Harehills riot, Leeds, June, (West Yorkshir, England)- Bradford Riot, July (Bradford, England)- July 2001 Belfast riots, (Belfast, Northern Ireland)- Holy Cross dispute, Summer (Belfast, Northern Ireland)- November 2001 Belfast riots, (Belfast, Northern Ireland)2002- May 2002 Belfast riots, (Belfast, Northern Ireland)2003 - none2004 - Boston, Lincolnshire, Croydon, and other UK towns. Fans rioted after England lost to France in their first game of the UEFA Euro 2004 group stage.- Dublin May Day riot2005-2008 - none2009- Rioting in Belfast, Northern Ireland after St Patrick's Day on March 18.- Riots in Birmingham, United Kingdom, when far-right activists clash with anti-racism protesters and local members of the Muslim and Afro-Caribbean community on August 8- Riots in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on August 32011- Riots in Northern Ireland. Police estimate that million in damages were caused, and over 80 police officers injured by nationalist rioters.- Student riots in London, 14 injured, 35 arrested- More student riots in London. Twelve police officers were injured with six requiring hospital treatment. 43 protesters injured, and 26 arrests made. - Anti cuts riot in London, around 250 thousand people, initially a small protest- Riots, three separate outbreaks in June and July, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, over 300 injured.- Riots in London which spread to other cities in England, over a hundred injured and 5 killed. Related to the death of Mark Duggan2012- Riots in Belfast, Northern Ireland.- Rioting during the Belfast City Hall flag protests in Northern Ireland2013- Riots in Belfast, Northern Ireland during the flag protests. 29 police officers were hurt- Riots in Belfast, Northern Ireland following July 12 parade and over several days. Dozens injured mainly Police Officers- Riots in Belfast, Northern Ireland on August 9.2014 - none2015- July: Three days of riots in Belfast, Northern Ireland following the July 12 parade.[2016 - none2017- August 7: Rioting in Belfast, Northern Ireland2018- April 2: Rioting in Derry, Northern Ireland, following an illegal republican march2019- April 20, riots in Northern Ireland- August 30–September 1: Riots in Glasgow, UK. Attack on Irish unity march by opposition and subsequent clash of both parties with the riot police- November 25: Brawl between hundreds of knife yielding youths turned into violent riots a movie theater in Birmingham2020 - none2021- March 21–29: Riots in Bristol, UK, at least 25 arrested- March 31 – April 9: Riots in Northern Ireland are caused by tensions relating to a post-Brexit arrangement introducing a sea border.- April 24–25: Anti COVID-19 lockdown riots in London, 5 arrested2022- August 28-September 19: the 2022 Leicester unrest, a series of riots and street fights between members of the Hindu and Muslim communities- September 16: Anti-monarchy protests against King Charles III of UK turned into violent rioting forcing police to crackdown on the protesters and calming the situation2023- August 21–23: Riots in Derbyshire, UK surrounding a Kabaddi event. Knife attacks and gun shots were reported- November 23-24: Riots in Dublin, Ireland in the evening following a stabbing incident outside of a school in Dublin. 34 arrested2024- 30 July-present: Riots across many cities in the UK by the political right
I hope this can dispel some of the misinformation that has been going around here.
Thanks for the information Iain. This list is factual enough - we like facts, figures and lists! But, there was something that made me uneasy about it that I couldn't put my finger on and niggled at me, but I then thought about it during my morning walk. I came to the following conclusion
I think it that most of these riots in your list (as far as I can tell), are pretty much against "The Man": a faceless entity.
What I find most appalling about these recent ones (and a couple in your list), is that they are against real people, in the places that they live.
Hi Mark
The recent ones are prompted by:
1. Fear, that their children might be killed
2. Anger, that "the establishment" did not protect children from being attacked
The reaction is tribal: children in their identity group have been attacked - they cannot attack the person who carried out the crimes, they can only attack others who they see as belonging to his identity group. It also signals to the government that they will not accept people being allowed into this country who are not vetted properly. (Not my views, just what I think are their reasons)
It may seem senseless to attack.others for something someone of their race did, but there again many men have killed others of different races in wars, who had done nothing personally to them.
Hi Pixiefox,
This argument sounds rational, but on closer scrutiny misses something that I think is key.
If a fish and chip shop gives you food poisoning, do you punish that shop or all fish and chip shops?
If a dog bites your friend, do you put down just that dog or all dogs?
It's the inability of people to see everyone as an individual and instead grouping them together under some arbitrary category (e.g. race or religion) that irks me. What that person did to those girls is horrendous and disgusting and despicable, but it's on him and not some vaguely related community.
No one rioted against white people when the Soham murderer was found and many others of his ilk. It is obvious to people that it would be absurd to do so.
Oh, I didn't know that happened. I don't follow the news any more as I find it depressing - I only looked up why the riots had started.
I think I'll leave it there and go back to living in my own bubble.
To be honest Pixiefox I wouldn't dignify what they did with a veneer of anything understandable. People who try and set fire to a building with children inside need jailing for a long long time as they obviously have no respect for life or for the safety of those around them.
To me this is yet another example of toxic masculinity, this isn't just kids, its men older than you and I, one was jailed earlier today aged 69! When you get people af the sorts of ages of these thugs, rioting then what hope is there for their children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren if that the sort of attitudes they've been brought up with?