Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the vigil for the Southport stabbing victims being disrupted by protestors

A vigil for the victims of this week's deadly stabbing in Southport was disrupted by protestors, resulting in destruction and injuries.

Protesters, believed to be supporters of the far-right English Defence League, threw bricks at a local mosque, set vehicles on fire and threw bottles and bricks at police.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey says unconfirmed reports about the 17-year-old behind the attack may have prompted this attack.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And we're welcome from the UK. Kevin great, Hello Gevin,
Oh I thought you were on a different line. Hello
Gevin either Andrew all right? Southport? Of course, the three
kids now that were knife to death. We get thirty
nine police officers injured after and risk broke out at
a vigil. Now what's that about?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, well, extraordinary scene. So that there had been a
peaceful vigil in Southport, Northwest England, to commemorate those who
were the three who were killed, plus those who were
injured and remain critical in the hospital following the stabbing attack,
and then later in the evening, just a short distance away,
some extreme violence broke out in Southport and what had

(00:44):
happened Andrew sadly is police have been unable to give
much in the way of details of the main suspect.
We believe him to be a seventeen year old. We
believe his parents to be Rwandan and he was born
in the UK, lived in Cardiff, then moved to so
But it was rumored on social media and such like

(01:04):
that he was an illegal migrant had come over in
a small boat. A q of course, anger from the
right and indeed action from the far right. It's believed
who started to gather around the local mosque in Southport,
throwing bricks at the mosque, setting far to cars and
wheely bins, causing damage to a local convenience store. The

(01:27):
police attended, they were pelted with missiles, some quite big
bricks and missiles generally bottles too, and thirty nine have
been injured, twenty seven police officers taken the hospital, twelve
retreated and discharged at the scene, and police have put
in a what's called a sixty order, a Section sixty order,
basically giving them the right to disperse anyone there. But

(01:49):
I'm afraid tensions remain very high, with the vast vast
majority of the town in mourning, supporting one another, and
a small group believed not actually to come from the
town who have moved in, believed to be from the
far right, and supporters of what's called the English defensevely
chanting British till I die. So the thing, you get

(02:11):
the picture, and I'm afraid some pretty awful scenes.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
There, classic classic social media misinformation. But here's the thing
we saw. I saw these rumors on social media from
the moment of the stebbing, from the moment of the incident.
People were making speculations about this kid and where they
come from, etcetera. And the longer that the police took
to name and to identify who the perpetrator was, the

(02:36):
more this sort of grew and mushroom within the minds
of the deluded. And has it been criticism of the
police for keeping mum on it for just too long
and letting the speculation brew until people became murderous.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
No, I mean it was fairly early on it was
said this is not being treated as a terrorist incident.
And then it came out, of course that the suspect
is from Rwanda. The police were quick to say he
was born in this country, you know. So I think
they caught between a rock and a hard place, because legally,
of course, in this country, until you're in that court
for the first time and you're charged, then you are,

(03:13):
you know, have the right to that anonymity.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Oh, it's a tragedy for everybody. Apparently the dead appearance
Dead was a Christian, hardworking father, stay at home mother.
They were very, very normal. The kid was quite reclusive
and the boy was born in Cardiff and they've been
here since two thousand and six. All right, we have
a separate in the southeast of England. Six people are
risted in. Now what's happened there?

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, I mean quite extraordinary on the same night. I
dare say part of the extreme heat that we've been
having with temperatures up for up and over thirty celsius
might have got people slightly agitated. But again I really
this was quite a nasty disorder in South End on Sea,
which is down to the southeast of England. Police putting
another dispersal order there. There were problems that the city's

(03:57):
seafront South End on Sea, of course, right by the
sea down in the Essex area, and also on the
high street. Appeals for calm. Now nobody quite short what
kicked all this off, and actually that's part of an investigation,
but it thought lots of people came into the area
on the UK's hottest air of the year to get
by the beach and perhaps that's where they're when the

(04:20):
pictures I've seen certainly suggest some sort of gang problems
with it. Members of the public dispersed by about eleven
thirty at night, with the order disorder having begun some
four and a half hours earlier. Lots of young people
involved in this so you know, one does begin to
wonder if that was gang related, but either way, some

(04:40):
very unpleasant scenes for local residents who are used to
a much quieter town.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
We only have a minute lyft, but we actually had
a Sleik committee about television and now State TV today
and the State TV came out and seen basically the
days of teristional TV on your telly are numbered. And
you've got some statistics out of the UK about viewership
with the youngsters which is quite worrying for television.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Indeed very worrying. So we're looking at a sixteen to
twenty four year olds, the so called Generation Z, less
than half of them in the UK and now watching
traditional TV that's live programming but also catch up programming
on a television set at home. Just forty eight percent
tuned in on an average of last week compared with
seventy six percent five years earlier. They're only watching an

(05:25):
average of thirty three minutes a day. That's down sixteen percent.
That's not good for TV.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
Traditional Kevin Gray from the UK, I thank you for
your time.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
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Speaker 1 (05:38):
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