MARK SCHOLL reports on events in Southport, Merseyside, and of being far too close to the tragic, awful events that unfolded…
Monday morning. A sunny, Summer day. I check the news. Habit. Stomach churns. Panic spreads throughout my body. Stabbing attack in broad daylight in the coastal town of Southport.
Where my daughter and grandchildren live.
Worse, I happen to know that today, of all days, she’s decided to go shopping, meet friends and check out a dance event for kids, an early holiday offering with a Taylor Swift theme.
More details emerge from a confused mass of hysterical media reportage and speculation. But I’m not interested in that, only in getting hold of my daughter.
Finally, after many attempts, she answers. “We’re OK dad. But we were within metres of the whole thing. It was horrible, like a film except in real life in front of our eyes. The children saw it too, they’ll never unsee it.”
God.
“How close then?” I ask.
“A few metres. We had to barricade ourselves behind a door with some other people.”
And she saw the killer. “He had a mask on. I got the impression he was just a kid. He was just…hacking at people, children.”
Tears. Lots of them. Sobbing. Heartbreaking. It’s as if she’s now thinking about the thing with a different perspective. Some time has passed. She knows so many of the people involved directly it’s painful to hear. My guilt kicks in. Should have been there. Even though I couldn’t have been.
“What about your sister?” I ask.
“She’s coming over right away, straight from work.”
“OK. Good…”
I suggest they hug, pray, remind themselves of good things in life, of non-horror moments, of nature and beauty, of pets and family. I suggest they put the children’s favourite programme on TV. Paw Patrol. They all end up watching it. Silent. Stunned.
Not long and we discover that, more than likely, the person arrested is a 17-year-old migrant. The rumours fly: some say Somalian. Others Libyan. Maybe Ugandan. Speculation and fact combine.
Early far right tweet – all lies
What we know for sure, 24 hours after this shocking series of events, is that the assailant is British; born in the UK, lived in Cardiff. It is said that his parents are Rwandan migrants, but we don’t know this for sure. There has been a suggestion, largely from extremist elements online via social media channels, that the assailant “is Muslim”. But there is no evidence to suggest that this is true and in fact, the vast majority of Rwandans are Christian
Indeed, we may not know the whole truth for some time and as the alleged perpetrator is so young the police will keep many of his details private. Anything that might serve to identify him. The media will fill the whole, and the hole, with bile.
And they already are.
And, of course, fascist social media channels are having a field day. There are no highlights, only lowlights, as if each channel is seeking to outdo the other in its vicious, cerebral response:
“They should be rounded up”.
“Shot.”
“Killed.”
“Locked up for life.”
“Deported.”
One says “tortured” for heaven’s sake.
Because the fascists want him to be a migrant. But he isn’t.
Yet when we step back, my feeling, my anger – because everyone is angry today – is directed towards the authorities. Having worked upon a time in the mental health field I know the brutal truth. That terribly vulnerable people are being left to suffer, struggle every minute, deal with voices in their head, and that the strong medication is not always enough. They actually cannot help it. Don’t even know what they’re doing sometimes. They should be in secure units, but we’ve closed the vast majority down in order to offer “care in the community.” But there is only minimal care and community is just a word…
Is this what’s happened here? Is this the true background to this hideous incident? And saying this it is not to diminish the horror or the suffering of those families. I’ve met some of them. They’re beautiful everyday people, mums and dads, trying to bring their children up in the best possible way.
Nothing will undo today’s carnage.
Against this background, lurking in the corners of social media, are the disgusting specimens of the fascist and far right. They’re loving this. Their mock outrage impresses nobody. Danny Tommo, fugitive Tommy Robinson’s right-hand man, “former” drug addict, convicted kidnapper and supposed born again Christian, publishes online a violent video, in itself a horror movie.
https://twitter.com/Searchlight_mag/status/1818056258894667832
He wants violence. He wants race war. He’s calling for it. Openly. (Where are the authorities today?)
Most days, Danny and his ilk are laughing at asylum seekers drowning in the Mediterranean or the Channel. Calling for migrants to be machine gunned when they arrive in the UK. Cracking jokes in their chat rooms about another brown face suffering. Of bombs dropping on Palestinian or Sudanese children….
Danny Tommo – online race hate rant
And Danny Tommo wants a pogrom in Southport. Monday night gangs of local hooligans were picking out local people with a different skin colour. Someone threw a brick at the local mosque that has been in town for years without the hint of a problem.
Tonight, Tuesday 30th July, fascist gangs, thugs, criminals, hate merchants, the scum of the earth, are threatening to descend on St Luke’s Road, Southport. “Enough is Enough” screams their online imagery complete with bloodied hand. Enough of what? Underfunding of mental health services? Who can disagree. Enough of failures to protect the public from people identified as dangerous? Certainly.
But that’s not what this lot mean, not at all. This is about race, plain and simple, and we at Searchlight are hardly surprised. Yes, a few non-white faces might have been seen at the recent Tommy Robinson event in London but 99.9% of his supporters are racists first and foremost. This whole movement is nothing new. It’s the lowest form of politics appealing to the lowest types of people.
And as we have seen with the Southport incident, “Muslim” is code for “black” which is code for racist hatred.
Danny Tommo, one of the main spokespersons for gutter commentary, claims to be a Christian and he already says that the boy responsible for the stabbings “is Muslim.” Maybe. Probably not.
Yes. We can understand anger. We can understand people’s need to blame someone. But blame is not as easy, not as immediate, as it might at first appear.
Soon enough we’ll hear of systemic failings. Of who knew what, and when. Of an asylum system that’s beyond broken. Of backlogs. Of inhumane conditions. Of successive governments trying and failing to get a grip on the situation. A situation that is totally, and truly, international, and whose impact is felt by innocent women and children in a previously sleepy coastal town known for its shops and coastline attractions.
And then the people of Southport will be left with their pain, their questions, and their hopes for a better future for themselves and especially their children…
And, tonight, as we publish this just after the fascist get together in Southport, listen to words of my daughter, long-time resident, survivor and parent:
“You can tell people this, dad. It’s disgusting, this event tonight.
“The attacker was born here but people are using it as an excuse to hold a race hate rally.
“We don’t want them. The families don’t need them.
“And Southport will reject them…”
Latest: A large vigil was held in Southport at 1800. The emphasis in speeches has been on community cohesion, healing, understanding and reaching out to victim’s families. There was also a huge emphasis on knife crime.
Meanwhile, fascists rioted and attacked the police, and the local mosque