People in Norwich have been praised for the way they responded and reacted to the controversial English Defence League march.
The centre of Norwich came to a standstill on Saturday as nearly 2,000 people gathered at the front of City Hall to protest.
A crowd of 1,500 people from community, faith and political groups took to the streets under the collective banner of We Are Norwich in protest at the EDL’s decision to march through the city, setting off from Chapelfield Gardens.
We Are Norwich march against the EDL (photo: Bill Smith)
Police made four arrests during an English Defence League march and counter-protest in Norwich.
Officers from 11 forces were on duty as about 200 EDL supporters and up to 2,000 members of the We Are Norwich coalition marched through the city. Police said the day passed off relatively peacefully, although extra officers remained in the city centre into the evening as a precaution.
A jury has been shown a photograph of a man wielding a stick outside Kingston Mosque moments before an attack by masked and hooded men.
Henry Hunter, 19, denies violent disorder and racially and religiously aggravated criminal damage, after a group of men targeted the mosque in East Road.
At Kingston Crown Court, a jury of eight women and four men heard how Mr Hunter took part in a protest march through Kingston town centre on November 21, 2010.
Prosecutor Anthony Montgomery said that although the march passed without incident, several men who had been captured on CCTV during the protest later threw sticks, bottles and rashers of bacon at the mosque, and damaged a sign attached to the building.
Forgotten estates: far right extremists move into community politics
By Dave Porter and Owen Jones
HOPE not hate, November-December 2012
FAR-RIGHT EXTREMISTS looking to spread their message of hate are infiltrating community protest groups and hijacking them for their own political ends.
Leicester has become the latest battleground for extremists spreading messages of hate under the banner of community activism.
Self-declared racists from the EDL and BNP are hijacking sensitive community issues to their own ends – using them as a fertile recruiting ground while pretending to be non-political.
Through these means, large sections of the community who would normally shun such hate groups are being hoodwinked by racists looking to capitalise on and stir up local feelings.
In Leicester, a group calling itself the Committee for the Forgotten Estates of Thurnby Lodge and Netherall has been central in organising protests against a former scout hut in Thurnby Lodge being converted into a community centre by a Muslim organisation called As-Salaam Trust.
The English Defence League (EDL) and its opposing “We Are Norwich” group are both staging marches on Saturday, November 10.
The counter protesters will gather at Chapelfield Gardens at 11am before marching at 12.30pm to City Hall via Theatre Street, Brigg Street and Hay Hill. They will have speeches at approximately 1pm before dispersing.
At 12.45pm the EDL group will gather at Castle Gardens before also marching to City Hall at 1pm, via Castle Meadow, Opie Street, Bedford Street, Exchange Street and Gaol Hill. There they will have speeches at approximately 1.30pm before dispersing.
Two teenagers involved in racist chanting at a group of boys at an anti-racism football match in Dagenham have been banned from attending games for three years.
Keith Meredith, of Holgate Road, Dagenham, and Lee Bates, of Seymer Road, Romford, both 18, appeared at Romford Magistrates Court on October 16.
They were among 25 to 30 youths seen and heard shouting abuse at the Tower Hamlets schoolboys during a Daggers Against Racism game with Bradford FC, held in Victoria Road, Dagenham.
Labour’s Black and Asian Assembly Members have written to the head of the Metropolitan Police to urge him to revise the Met’s view about the English Defence League (EDL) not being viewed as an extremist group. Last week the Government banned the EDL from marching in Waltham Forest, Islington, Newham and Tower Hamlets for 30 days.
Assembly Members Murad Qureshi, Jennette Arnold OBE, Dr Onkar Sahota and Navin Shah signed a joint letter to Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe asking his to reconsider the EDL’s status.
EDL News profiles “Yorkshire Nici” who along with fellow Nazi sympathiser Trudie Toker has announced that she will be attending Remembrance Day in London next Sunday.
A man launched a drunken attack on a mosque after watching a news report about the desecration of Commonwealth graves in Libya.
Barry Stanbury, 42, was caught on CCTV cameras at shortly before 2.30am on March 5, wandering around the Exeter Mosque before a window was smashed, Exeter magistrates heard.
