It’s difficult to know what to say about the events of the past week. It’s almost too much to find the right words.
Using last week’s horrific events in Southport as a jumping-off point, bad actors have brought violence and intimidation to communities across the country.
It was only a matter of time before it risked reaching us.
So it was that yesterday, word started to spread on social media that the far-right were planning ‘demonstrations’ across the country on Wednesday night. We’re formatting the word like that as the post, originally taken from a Telegram organising channel that has been involved in the riots seen over the past week, was littered with suggestions that these would be far from peaceful protests.
Surrounded by flame emojis, phrases like ‘they won’t stop coming until you tell them’ and ‘mask up’ offered a pretty clear insight into the kind of ‘demonstration’ they were talking about.
It was inevitable that Medway would appear, given the long list of targets. While previous attacks around the country have centred on locations like hotels housing asylum seekers and mosques, groups are now targetting the offices of lawyers offering immigration advice. We aren’t publishing the exact details here, but they are now being widely shared on social media.
Amongst this, confusion and misinformation have begun to swirl on social media, with users reporting a litany of different potential locations that may or may not face issues in the coming days. Certain community groups have announced they are postponing events, and some shops and businesses have told customers they will close early tomorrow.
We reached out to Medway Council, who declined to comment on the situation, while Kent Police offered the following statement:
“Kent Police is aware of possible protest dates and locations being promoted on social media and is well prepared to respond swiftly and robustly to any incidents of disorder that may arise. The force is continuing to monitor all available information and has sufficient resources in place to respond whilst continuing with the daily business of keeping people safe and preventing and detecting crime. Officers are also engaging with communities to provide ongoing reassurance.”
Inevitably, as soon as word began to spread that the far-right were targeting a location in our towns, counter-protestors began to organise. We say inevitably because Medway has a long history of standing up to the far-right, most notably a decade ago when locals drove Britain First out of Rochester High Street during a period of heightened tensions.
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