Rioters, far right activists and owner of X Elon Musk, propagated the idea of “two-tier policing” in the aftermath of the far-right riots last summer.
The Home Affairs Select Committee has published a report today revealing that the right-wing claims of ‘two-tier policing’ in the aftermath of the Southport riots last summer were unfounded.
The MPs’ report rejected accusations that those who rioted after the killing of young girls, Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar were policed more strongly because of their supposed political views.
After Axel Rudakubana attacked the young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on 29 July, far-right rioters tried to break into asylum hotels and attacked mosques, community centres and libraries.
Misinformation spread online, first from website Channel3Now, which falsely claimed that the Southport attacker was a Muslim and an asylum seeker.
In the aftermath of the riots, right-wing figures accused the police of ‘two-tier policing’ – more harshly policing far-right rioters than left-wing protestors.
X owner Elon Musk used his social media platform to spread the conspiracy theory, calling the PM two-tier Keir’ over the police’s response to the riots.
However, the select committee report rejected these claims outright: “Those participating in disorder were not policed more strongly because of their supposed political views but because they were throwing missiles, assaulting police officers and committing arson.”
It added: “It was disgraceful to see the police officers who bore the brunt of this violence being undermined by baseless claims of ‘two-tier policing.”
A paper by professors at the London School of Economics called ‘The truth about two-tier policing’, argues that claims police are overly lenient towards protesters of progressive causes and racial minority protesters, compared to others, gets things backwards.
The professors, Lilie Chouliaraki and Kathryn Claire Higgins, say that it is a “communication strategy of reverse victimization by the far right”.
The paper states that “If #BlackLivesMatter made one thing indelibly clear, it is that police officers do treat citizens in highly unequal ways, especially when it comes to decisions about how and when to use violent force.”
For example, police disproportionately stop and search black people. In the year ending 31 March 2023, 24.5 stop and searches were carried out for every 1,000 black people, and 5.9 for every 1,000 white people.
Use of weapons such as tasers, as well as police sexual misconduct, and deaths in police custody, disproportionately affect Black and other ethnic minority communities, as well as people from lower socio-economic backgrounds and women.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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