Within a few days after massive police deployments finally ended anti-immigrant riots and protests in the U.K., the British government has arrested more than 1,000 people, charged 600 of them, and convicted and sentenced nearly 150 of those to terms often ranging from 18 months to three years in prison. Not only is the Labour government running a “rocket docket” that puts the infamous Alexandria, Virginia U.S. District Court in the shade; it is trying and sentencing Britons for simply supporting or commenting on the anti-immigrant disorders on social media without taking any part in them. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his government think this will stop further outbreaks of rage, often directed at immigrants but caused by the impoverishment called in the U.K. the “standard of living crisis” of the past four years.
The Washington Post reported Aug. 15 that “charges range from assaulting a police officer and violent disorder, to online offenses.” Later it reported, “An 18-year-old who threw bricks at police was jailed for a year and a half. A 38-year-old man who hurled racist abuse at police was sentenced to two years and eight months.” A 53-year-old woman who was not near any riot, got an 18-month sentence for posting a comment that the rioters should attack mosques; a 40-year-old man was charged with posting alleged “anti-Muslim and anti-establishment rhetoric” on social media.
