Opinion / Columnist
British Govt shows the world how to deal with rioters
08 Aug 2024 at 07:46hrs | Views
It's, unfortunately, depressingly familiar. Violence has broken out in the United Kingdom led by loosely organised thugs driven by fake news and hate speech on social media that was made acceptable by legal, if unpleasant political speech, designed to create division rather than inspire debate on disagreements within a united nation.
Zimbabweans know exactly how such violence occurs, having suffered it, and also have developed ways of preventing this violence, without damaging the underlying democracy we enjoy, although many, including a lot now on the receiving end in Britain, have been critical of the quite legal means we have used.
Zimbabwe has never experienced violence of that magnitude.
British government shows the world how to deal with rioters
The British Government, police and judiciary have in the past week followed an almost identical route that Zimbabwe followed: mobilising and deploying riot police, arresting those involved and seeking those who ran away, doing the hard-graft detective work to hunt down the inciters, ensuring that violence trials jump the court queues, and with judicial officers feeling quite rightly that bail is not really an option in these cases.
The only real difference with the Zimbabwean situations has been the attitude of outsiders, condemning Zimbabwean authorities for doing what the British Government is now firmly doing.
The British xenophobic attacks are over quite different grounds from the Zimbabwean outbreaks of violence that were brought under control legally, but the basic conditions are the same: A small thuggish minority, who assume they have wider backing because of how people vote, incitement from figures who do their level best to stand aside from the results they have created directly and indirectly, fake news, and the whole mess dumped in the lap of the police, the Government and the judicial authorities.
The violence in Britain was triggered by the brutal murder last week of three little girls in a small town near Liverpool.
The killer was of immigrant descent, Christian immigrant descent, and a British citizen raised in the country. He was arrested and will face trial for murder and almost certainly be convicted.
But those wanting to use this tragedy for division circulated on social media fake reports, starting with a name change to a Muslim name and false claims that he was a refugee who entered Britain illegally.
These were used to drum up support for protests that were nothing more than assembled thugs determined on violence against British Muslims and the refugees in that country.
The thugs were joined by others who wanted to take advantage of the disorder to loot shops owned by British Muslims. Dozens of police battling to protect the people have been injured, some very seriously with broken bones.
Most Zimbabweans will remember a dreadful tragedy here, when a Chitungwiza security guard was brutally murdered and her body hacked up by a former boyfriend, and people using social media to spread lies that her kidnapping and murder were politically organised. Those lies sparked violence and looting in Nyatsime.
In the UK, 428 men have so far been arrested, and the courts are not messing around with bail. Those arrested for violence and incitement are remanded in custody when they are brought to court.
Those faced with overwhelming evidence and pleading guilty have a very early trial, jumping the backlog queue, and already the first jail terms are being dished out, with the most severe for three years. The Government accelerated the commissioning of 500 new prison places so there was space.
Of course some, and especially those arrested for incitement or passing along false reports, if the Zimbabwean experience is anything to go by, will not plead guilty and then will have lawyers who will use every legal method to delay trial and try and create sympathy.
Detective work is being done to bring in those who incited the rioting, usually on social media, and already there is one conviction for this, with the man in custody until sentencing in a couple of weeks.
Other detectives are going through video of the riots to identify those involved, but still at large, and are using modern technologies to help in this, and they have been warned that they can expect to be arrested.
Severe comment has appeared in Britain over the sea of Islamophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment created by one party, Reform UK, which achieved the third highest percentage vote in the recent elections with 14,3 percent, although very spread out so resulting in only five MPs, and that backed by the wilder elements of the Tory party. They deny responsibility, but were working on division.
The comments centre that although these legal political entities did not pass the fake news or incite the violence, they helped create the conditions and played a part in damaging the otherwise remarkable community relations in modern Britain.
Calls are now being made for far better regulation of social media, so at least those who create the lies and circulate lies will face the courts on the same charges as they would if they shouted the same lies in the streets or printed them in a newspaper. Social media is still media.
The British riots highlight what happens when politicians try and create division rather than underlying unity. We distinguish between division and the normal and sometimes very robust disagreement and debate on policies found in a functioning democracy. Using religion, background, origin and similar attributes to create that division is evil, since it does not involve democratic disagreement.
This creation of such division can then make acceptable views and attitudes that can be exploited by those who want to see a breakdown of society, and make obvious lies and falsehoods believed by some.
We agree that social media platforms need to be made accountable if they allow lies and hate-speech to circulate. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom to lie and incite hatred, and never has.
The rules developed over centuries to mark the boundaries for public speeches and within the print media must be applied to social media as well. We welcome the British Government's decision to deal firmly with merchants of violence out to cause anarchy and disorder.
However, we cannot help, but point out the naked duplicity and double standards applied when it comes to Zimbabwe which is often faced with such outbreaks of violence spawned by opposition elements and activists.
It is ironic that the British Government and its American cousins are usually at the forefront of demonising Zimbabwe for seeking to maintain law and order.
Zimbabweans know exactly how such violence occurs, having suffered it, and also have developed ways of preventing this violence, without damaging the underlying democracy we enjoy, although many, including a lot now on the receiving end in Britain, have been critical of the quite legal means we have used.
Zimbabwe has never experienced violence of that magnitude.
British government shows the world how to deal with rioters
The British Government, police and judiciary have in the past week followed an almost identical route that Zimbabwe followed: mobilising and deploying riot police, arresting those involved and seeking those who ran away, doing the hard-graft detective work to hunt down the inciters, ensuring that violence trials jump the court queues, and with judicial officers feeling quite rightly that bail is not really an option in these cases.
The only real difference with the Zimbabwean situations has been the attitude of outsiders, condemning Zimbabwean authorities for doing what the British Government is now firmly doing.
The British xenophobic attacks are over quite different grounds from the Zimbabwean outbreaks of violence that were brought under control legally, but the basic conditions are the same: A small thuggish minority, who assume they have wider backing because of how people vote, incitement from figures who do their level best to stand aside from the results they have created directly and indirectly, fake news, and the whole mess dumped in the lap of the police, the Government and the judicial authorities.
The violence in Britain was triggered by the brutal murder last week of three little girls in a small town near Liverpool.
The killer was of immigrant descent, Christian immigrant descent, and a British citizen raised in the country. He was arrested and will face trial for murder and almost certainly be convicted.
But those wanting to use this tragedy for division circulated on social media fake reports, starting with a name change to a Muslim name and false claims that he was a refugee who entered Britain illegally.
These were used to drum up support for protests that were nothing more than assembled thugs determined on violence against British Muslims and the refugees in that country.
The thugs were joined by others who wanted to take advantage of the disorder to loot shops owned by British Muslims. Dozens of police battling to protect the people have been injured, some very seriously with broken bones.
Most Zimbabweans will remember a dreadful tragedy here, when a Chitungwiza security guard was brutally murdered and her body hacked up by a former boyfriend, and people using social media to spread lies that her kidnapping and murder were politically organised. Those lies sparked violence and looting in Nyatsime.
In the UK, 428 men have so far been arrested, and the courts are not messing around with bail. Those arrested for violence and incitement are remanded in custody when they are brought to court.
Of course some, and especially those arrested for incitement or passing along false reports, if the Zimbabwean experience is anything to go by, will not plead guilty and then will have lawyers who will use every legal method to delay trial and try and create sympathy.
Detective work is being done to bring in those who incited the rioting, usually on social media, and already there is one conviction for this, with the man in custody until sentencing in a couple of weeks.
Other detectives are going through video of the riots to identify those involved, but still at large, and are using modern technologies to help in this, and they have been warned that they can expect to be arrested.
Severe comment has appeared in Britain over the sea of Islamophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment created by one party, Reform UK, which achieved the third highest percentage vote in the recent elections with 14,3 percent, although very spread out so resulting in only five MPs, and that backed by the wilder elements of the Tory party. They deny responsibility, but were working on division.
The comments centre that although these legal political entities did not pass the fake news or incite the violence, they helped create the conditions and played a part in damaging the otherwise remarkable community relations in modern Britain.
Calls are now being made for far better regulation of social media, so at least those who create the lies and circulate lies will face the courts on the same charges as they would if they shouted the same lies in the streets or printed them in a newspaper. Social media is still media.
The British riots highlight what happens when politicians try and create division rather than underlying unity. We distinguish between division and the normal and sometimes very robust disagreement and debate on policies found in a functioning democracy. Using religion, background, origin and similar attributes to create that division is evil, since it does not involve democratic disagreement.
This creation of such division can then make acceptable views and attitudes that can be exploited by those who want to see a breakdown of society, and make obvious lies and falsehoods believed by some.
We agree that social media platforms need to be made accountable if they allow lies and hate-speech to circulate. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom to lie and incite hatred, and never has.
The rules developed over centuries to mark the boundaries for public speeches and within the print media must be applied to social media as well. We welcome the British Government's decision to deal firmly with merchants of violence out to cause anarchy and disorder.
However, we cannot help, but point out the naked duplicity and double standards applied when it comes to Zimbabwe which is often faced with such outbreaks of violence spawned by opposition elements and activists.
It is ironic that the British Government and its American cousins are usually at the forefront of demonising Zimbabwe for seeking to maintain law and order.
Source - The Herald
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