The woman accused of being first to spread the fake rumours about the Southport killer which sparked nationwide riots has been arrested.

Racist riots spread across the country after misinformation spread on social media claiming the fatal stabbing was carried out by Ali Al-Shakati, believed to be a fictitious name, a Muslim aslyum seeker who was on an MI6 watchlist.

A 55-year-old woman from Chester has now been arrested on suspicion of publishing written material to stir up racial hatred, and false communication. She remains in police custody.

Chief Superintendent Alison Ross said: ‘We have all seen the violent disorder that has taken place across the UK over the past week, much of which has been fuelled by malicious and inaccurate communications online.

  • cybervseas@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    142
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    5 months ago

    One false statement by a random woman was like a match lighting the powder keg. I kinda always figured the British were less racist than us Americans…

    • USSMojave@startrek.website
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      58
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      5 months ago

      They INVENTED modern imperialism, first trialling it in the “Irish plantations” starting in the 16th century, long before America’s colonies. If one could go back in time to stop anything…

        • denshirenji@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          edit-2
          4 months ago

          Before that Greece, before that Persia, before that Assyria, before that Babylonia, before that Egypt, before that Sumeria… Sometime before that Cro Magnon Man. The list gets bigger; The Mongols, Timurids and other turkic groups like the Mughals, the Han…

          Even specific to the British Isles (the Angles, Saxons and Jutes; then the Vikings; then the Normans (French descendants of Vikings).

          In other words all roads don’t lead to Rome, it’s just a thing that humans do.

          Edit: Clarity, Grammar, More Pedantry

        • AWildMimicAppears@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          4 months ago

          with the difference that the old romans preferred to integrate other tribes into their empire and raise their living standards to pacify them - and not slaughter them.

      • Irf23@eviltoast.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        5 months ago

        Modern? As in naval ships as command zones in the Middle East modern? Or subverting latin American democracy modern?

        • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          5 months ago

          Britain did in fact refuse to help Simon Bolivar set up democracies in Latin America so… Arguably… The answer is just… Yes? It’s both? They did both of the things?

    • norimee@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      36
      ·
      5 months ago

      Migration was the one big issue that carried Brexit. It made them all forget anything else and blindly believe brexiters, if only there were no more brown people coming into the country.

      It was the racist vote.

      But besides that, there is racism everywhere. How its dealt with is the difference. I’m personally very glad to see the big counter protests now. They have become too confident to be loud about their hate again and we all have to put them back into their place, making it clear that this is not acceptable.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      32
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      5 months ago

      Bro, lol, they’re British…

      Like the Empire?

      They’re historically so racist they genocided other white people for not being English. Sound like anyone else you can think of?

    • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      It’s a real mixed bag from what I know. They got rid of slavery much earlier, I don’t think they have the baggage of Jim Crow that US frankly still has. Afaik black people were more accepted in society. But the recent immigration trend changed things and there is real anti Islam sentiment afaik. I’m really not that well versed in it though.

      • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        4 months ago

        Immigrants always get blamed in troubled times. It’s a story as old as time. If wealth wasn’t so concentrated and everyone had a good job and a nice place and whatever no one would care about migrants.

        Yes migrants also get jobs and live in houses but they’re not the underlying cause.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        They replaced slavery with indentured servitude.

        They didn’t got rid of slavery, they got rid of chattel slavery (with the State paying massive amounts of money to the slave owners) and replaced it with a different kind based on debt.

        Just like the idea that Britain isn’t racist, the idea that Britain were the first to end slavery is Image Management Propaganda Bollocks anchored on misrepresenting what actually happens.

    • kikutwo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      Check out the Catholic versus Protestant angle there, always good for a row.

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      I lived for over a decade in Britain and had both afro-descendant and muslim friends who were discriminated against over there, even before Brexit.

      Even I got discriminated against because of being Portuguese (though nowhere are much as they did).

      Britain has for long been one of the most rightwing countries in Europe, it’s just that they’re very good at image management and their far right leaders are posh types with upper class education and accents, not slang-using rabble rousing loudmouths with low-class accents.

      Brexit didn’t happen in a vacuum.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        I’m Portuguese, lived almost a decade in The Netherlands and then over a decade in Britain.

        It’s funny that after some years in Britain, on my own I reached the exact same conclusions as this guy who is local born and bred.

          • Aceticon@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            4 months ago

            Best place I ever lived in: organized without being controlling and oppressive (as you would find in Germanic nations), good quality of life, genuinely moral liberal, good salaries, great work-life balance, with Proportional Vote hence consensus politics and with people who naturally behave in a more egalitarian way (in all senses) than pretty much everywhere else. As I see it socially they’re decades ahead of the UK and Portugal, though they’ve had right-wing neoliberal governments for over a decade now and it shows.

            Would’ve gone back recently if it wasn’t for their massive housing bubble making rentals extremely expensive pretty much anywhere in the country.

            They do have one thing I really dislike which is Scandinavian levels of personal taxes but with much lower levels of Public Services than most of Europe, probably because their ultra-low taxation for companies results in pretty much the entire budget of the Dutch state being funded from taxation of people so you end up with people paying above European-average taxes and getting below European-average levels of Public Services.

        • GBU_28@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          5 months ago

          What’s this mean? Uk racism is very relevant, so is American

          How is the UK not relevant in a conversation about the UK?

          • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            6
            ·
            5 months ago

            America’s voice is still relevant to global politics, Britain’s problems get glossed over because they aren’t without the Empire

    • protist@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      The British Empire was an egalitarian paradise, imo

      Edit: I guess I have to add an /s lmao