While the government response to far-right street violence around the country in August has been to promise more resources for public order policing, it is impossible to characterise the shocking wave of racist and anti-migrant attacks as ‘protests’.
Instead, what we have seen is terrorised communities and numerous anti-fascist counter-demonstrations called to defend them. Community and anti-fascist groups have come together to defend homes, businesses and places of worship, sometimes having to offer physical protection against far-right violence.
Netpol has spoken to several frontline legal groups who have been supporting the counter-protests by monitoring the police. Their experiences reveal how policing operations have been far more chaotic than portrayed in the media, and have frequently targeted anti-fascists while failing to contain far-right violence.
Legal observers and others told us officers were often more interested in anti-fascists and in legal observers who were monitoring the use of police powers than in the far-right groups attacking communities.
They also documented incidents of the police racially profiling Black and brown youth attending anti-fascist protests, and aggressive and Islamophobic policing of racialised protesters attempting to defend their own communities.