A SENIOR police commissioner sought to justify the wave of riots incited by the far right today as institutional racism continues to plague the force.
Tory politician Donna Jones, Hampshire’s police & crime commissioner since 2021, also chairs the Association of Police & Crime Commissioners. She said that arresting people was “treating the symptom and not the cause.”
In a now-removed statement, she said claimed the protests focused on “the desire to protect Britain’s sovereignty” and “the need to uphold British values.” She went on to ask for the government’s solution to “mass uncontrolled migration.”
Today Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer gave the police his “full backing” to take any action necessary to respond to “extremists” as violent outbursts sweep British towns and cities.
The PM is looking to increase police powers in the wake of riots incited by the far right after the stabbing of three young girls in Southport last week. The crime was falsely attributed online to a non-existent recently arrived Muslim migrant. The suspect was later identified as a local 17-year-old of African heritage born in Cardiff.
Sir Keir announced a national violent disorder programme which aims to expand the use of facial recognition technology and criminal behaviour orders to limit movement.
But director of Stop Watch Habib Kadiri has warned that the plan could run the risk of “enabling the overuse of a power on already overpoliced and racialised minorities.”
The facial AI technology has also been criticised as wildly inaccurate, with research by Big Brother Watch finding that over 89 per cent of police facial recognition alerts have wrongly identified members of the public as people of interest.
Although the government recently announced the early release of some offenders to ease prison overcrowding, Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson insisted there is jail capacity to hand custodial sentences to those marauding the streets.
When asked if courts could sit overnight to fast-track prosecutions, she told the BBC that the government will do “whatever it takes,” but said that there had been no discussions about bringing in the army to quell the protests.
Chief Constable BJ Harrington from the National Police Chiefs’ Council has said that there are now 4,000 extra officers deployed across the country.
“So if you’re planning to cause trouble and disorder our message is very simple: we’ll be watching you.”
