Documents show officers instead prioritised environmental and pro-Palestinian protests as potential hazards. In the months leading up to this summer’s riots, police leaders believed that the threat of violence from far-right protests was likely to be “minimal”, official papers reveal. Documents from December 2023 show that police instead prioritised the pro-Palestinian movement, environmental protests, football matches and animal rights activism as potentially threatening public order. Police deny that their internal documents show them underestimating the threat from the far right before the worst riots in more than a decade this summer, but experts disagree. The private thinking of senior officers is revealed in the national public order – public safety strategic risk assessment from December 2023, produced by a team at the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC). The document was obtained under freedom of information laws by Liberty Investigates and shared with the Guardian. Among other issues, the risk assessment covered gatherings that could descend into disorder. The paper said of disparate groups making up the extreme far right: “It is also probable that events will be organised by a small cohort of dedicated members, attendance will be at low levels and disruption minimal.” In a document from two years earlier, the far right was listed as a priority potential threat. The December 2023 assessment came a month after far-right violence in London over the Armistice Day weekend, in which 90 people were arrested and police said the level of vitriol they faced was exceptional. It also followed violent scenes outside asylum seeker accommodation in Merseyside earlier in the year. Minutes from a December 2023 meeting of the NPCC’s national police public order working group show those present being warned: “Please ensure you are on top of those other bits that may not be in the spotlight … but very quickly come up on the radar and catch us by surprise.” There have been 1,280 arrests and 796 charges to date after this summer’s violent disorder, and police say there may be hundreds more to come. Those charged include individuals allegedly involved in a riot during which an attempt was made to set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham. Police referred to the far right in the internal documents produced for the NPCC as “cultural nationalists”.
via guardian: UK police risk assessment before riots said far-right threat probably ‘minimal’