The drugged, the bad and the ugly...

As the sentences mount, the far right turns its fire on "two tier justice"

From Beowulf to James Bond the essence of English heroism is supposed to be fearlessness combined with a kind of cool, ironic self-control. That’s why so many of the villains in our literature are depicted as the opposite: drugged-up berserkers whose rage turns into terrified compliance once defeated.

So it was ironic to hear rioters chanting “We want our country back” as they staged cocaine-fuelled arson attacks on refugee hotels. These self-styled patriots were exhibiting the very opposite of the English values they claim to defend.

And sure enough, once arrested, many became tearful wrecks: some blaming their behaviour on the cider and ketamine they had downed beforehand, others claiming to have had no racist thoughts at all prior to shouting “P**i” at lines of riot police, and chanting “Who the f**k is Allah?”

That said, it has been heartbreaking to read the stories of some people sentenced for taking part in the riots. Alongside the career criminals, “football lads” and far-right conspiracy nuts there were, unfortunately, plenty of people simply swept up by the events.

But it’s only heartbreaking until you realise the enormity of what they inflicted on the rest of us.

Though the riots have subsided, the attacks on mosques, hotels, Uber cars and non-white individuals have left many in Britain’s ethnic minority communities terrified.

Because the violence and intimidation inflicted between 29 July and 5 August, across Belfast and 12 English cities, exceeded anything the UK far right has ever perpetrated. The far right have picketed hotels before, and even invaded them, and put bacon on the doorsteps of mosques, and sprayed graffiti: but simultaneously trying to torch hotels with people in them crossed a huge psychological line, both for the perpetrators and victims.

Footage was live-streamed and shared by the activists, in the hope of triggering a self-defence response from the Muslim community, and thus to boost the narrative of a “coming civil war”. And that footage cannot be unseen.

In the aftermath of the riots, the far right and its sympathisers in the right-wing media have switched to a narrative of unfairness in the criminal justice system. People are being jailed simply for “free speech”, goes the argument, while actual violent criminals are being released to make room for them.

We’ve even got Boris Johnson claiming – without any of the context required by the criminal justice system – that “ordinary British people are being jailed for a mistaken tweet”.

And far-right Telegram channels are sharing unsubstantiated stories of victimisation of rioters in the prison system - "by Africans and Muslims", according to one sound file being widely shared. They are revving up for an autumn of unrest, focused on the expected arrest of Tommy Robinson on his return to the UK.

So there is a lot more work to do. Because, while jailing the perpetrators swiftly is the right response, it is not a political strategy.

It cannot be left to judges and magistrates to explain to the rest of society why the sentences are just; why taking part in mass racist violence is not the same as joining a brawl outside a pub on a Saturday night; and why tweeting incitement to violence in this context can land you in jail.

In this edition of Conflict & Democracy I will explore, from the evidence we have, who the rioters were, what it tells us about where the riots fit into the wider far-right strategy, and where it’s going next.

Who were the rioters?

There is no central database of those convicted and sentenced. The Crown Prosecution Service (which covers only England and Wales) releases regular updates on number charged – currently 522 people - and occasionally lists their names.

But numerous anti-racist websites have been keeping tabs. One is Far-Right Criminals, which originated as a monitoring site for the (now defunct) English Defence League. Surveying their summaries, together with local newspaper reports, the rioters fall into four broad (and overlapping) categories:

Far-right identity: Peter Lynch (61) was jailed for two years and eight months after pleading guilty to violent disorder during the attack on the refugee hotel in Rotherham. He shouted racist insults, called the refugees “child killers”, told police “you are protecting people who are killing our kids and raping them” and was a “full participant” in the riot, which lasted several hours.

Notably, however, he had also turned up with a placard outlining a classic far-right conspiracy theory. Pictured below, it accuses virtually every public institution of being part of a freemasonic conspiracy overseen by the World Health Organisation. This is a core component of the far-right’s online identity, and a consistent element driving people to extremes of violent behaviour - both here and in the USA on 6 January 2021.

There have been others convicted who are overtly associated with organised far-right groups, or found with swastikas in their homes, but as far as I can see they are a small minority.

Instead, the most serious participants in the rioting look to have been white, male, manual workers caught up in the wider far-right subculture: men whose identity is formed through the consumption of conspiracy theories, misogynistic porn, far-right propaganda, alcohol and cocaine.

Career Criminals: There are lots of these, and they fall into various subcategories. (i) organised crime gang members; (ii) men with a history of domestic violence; (iii) men with a history of football hooliganism and (iv) people trapped in a cycle of offending (many of whom also fall into the category below).

Matthew Putson (27) for example, from Middlesborough was given 32 months after pleading guilty to violent disorder, for throwing bricks and bottles at police, and kicking a police officer. According to the local newspaper:

“Putson has 30 previous convictions for 53 offences which include battery, numerous criminal damage convictions and the possession of a blade.”

He has, said his defence lawyer, spent most of his adult life in prison.

Failed by the system: These, sadly, form another clearly identifiable group. Like the two women who pleaded guilty to violent disorder in Bristol, and the 22 year-old man from Middlesborough who threw a vacuum cleaner through someone’s front window and ran away laughing.

John Cann (51) sentenced to three years for his role in the Plymouth riot, was subject to national ridicule after the judge pointed out:

“You have 10 aliases, four fictitious birth dates, you're 51 years of age, you've been convicted of 170 offences, you been convicted of theft, arson, taking cars, handling stolen goods, obtaining by deception, burglary, dangerous driving and possessing bladed articles. In all over the years that you've been visiting the criminal justice system you've received sentences totalling 357 months in prison, many of them concurrent.”

Cann’s defence lawyer pointed out that he had a PTSD diagnosis, had been in care from the age of 6, wore a prosthetic leg and had been clean of heroin for three years.

Young people with no previous record: One 20-year old, for example, said he was driving past the Southport vigil and, by his own account, got caught up in the subsequent riot. He threw rocks at a police line. A landscape gardener with no previous convictions, he was given 18 months in a young offender institution after admitting violent disorder. He had, according to his defence, no history of racism or involvement with the far right. Also in this group are the 58 children, some as young as 12, who have been so far charged.

In summary, the rioters were a mixture of people wrapped up in the far-right identity, habitual criminals, people living chaotic and addicted lives, and young people simply enthralled by events they barely understood.

All seemed to believe their whiteness, and the inefficiency of the criminal justice system, were an insurance policy against paying the price.

It is, of course, nonsense to say the rioters represented the “white working class”. And some of the media distaste shown for the cultural stereotypes on display - the shaven-heads, snaggle-teeth and jogging bottoms - is evidence of class prejudice.

But we do have to recognise that the rioters were often drawn from a distinct subculture that has grown up, celebrating racism, crime and hyper-masculinity, in poor white communities that are just as alienated from the police as many black communities.

That’s a product of the kind of society neoliberalism has created - where years of free-market economics, the promotion of individualism, tolerance for organised crime and a criminal justice system that does not rehabilitate people, have combined to produce the raw material for far-right violence.

In the popular police drama series Happy Valley, the heroine - PC Catherine Cawood - calls such people “scrotes”. I always winced at that, because Karl Marx coined a less value-laden term, with proven historic validity: the “lumpenproletariat”.