The night rioters came to town....and were met with swift justice

THE HERALD REMEMBERS A NIGHT OF UNREST THAT SAW 150 POLICE ON DUTY WITH RIOT SHIELDS

- HERALD REPORTERS

THE fatal stabbing of three young girls at a dance class in the seaside town of Southport, in the north of England, on July 29, 2024 was followed by the worst unrest the UK has seen in more than a decade.

The violence, in towns and cities across England and in Northern Ireland, was fuelled by online misinformation and anti-immigration sentiment, much of it inflamed by EDL founder and far-right activist Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), who posted messages on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) to his thousands of followers.

Communities all over the country responded with a series of rallies organised against the riots, with thousands gathering all over the country.

In Plymouth, an ‘anti-immigration’, ‘stop the boats’ protest was planned for 7pm on Monday, August 5th – the date, time and location having being posted beforehand on X by Robinson.

In response, a ‘Stand Up To Racism’ counter demo was planned, to begin an hour earlier, at 6pm.

Knowing all this, here at The Herald we immediately requested – and were given – a three-hour extension to our normal Monday night press deadline of 6pm (extended until 9pm), to give us time to cover the story for the next day’s edition.

Our reporter Carl Eve was dispatched to cover the event, which he did, as always, with enormous professionalism.

Surrounded by riot police behind glass shields, Carl sent back both words, pictures and videos (for both printed newspaper and our sister digital website, Plymouth Live), while having bricks thrown at him by protesters for his trouble.

Not only did publish Carl’s brilliant coverage from the front line of the riot itself, but we covered the consequent events as they unfolded across the entire week – including the ‘swift justice’ that followed (Thursday’s splash was ‘Men Plead Guilty to Violent Disorder’, while Friday’s was simply ‘Swift Justice – Riot thugs are charged, convicted and jailed, all in 72 hours’).