Far-right violence could reignite 'quite easily' in Nottingham

Far-right protestors faced off with counter-demonstrators in Old Market Square on August 3, with the two groups having to be separated by a line of Nottinghamshire Police officers
-Credit: (Image: Nottingham Post)


Far-right violence in Nottingham could "reignite quite easily" and police are looking out for anything that may indicate a resurgence. Violence was seen in the Old Market Square in early August during a far-right protest that took place as part of a wave of unrest across the country following the murder of three young girls in Southport.

Scores of people have since been arrested for their part in Nottingham's unrest, with incidents including a police officer being assaulted and an Asian man being punched and subjected to racist chants. Gary Godden, Nottinghamshire's police and crime commissioner (PCC), says police remain vigilant in the event of more unrest.

Mr Godden said at a meeting on Monday (September 16): "Although we are in a calm state at the moment, this could reignite quite easily. I'm very aware that there are tensions nationally and locally.

"I will hold the chief constable to account on making sure that there is communication between officers and the public and that we are monitoring for anything that's coming in that might suggest reoccurrences." The far-right protestors in the Old Market Square were vastly outnumbered by counter-demonstrators, but Mr Godden says police need to engage with people on both sides.

The PCC said: "Clearly, the civil unrest has been an issue in Nottingham and also the county. There are certain elements of our community in the county who were affected quite considerably by the civil unrest.

"Fortunately now that has considerably subsided and in many ways it's opened the door for us to think about our relationship with our communities and how we manage that relationship, how we deal with hate crime and how we pull together this type of operation in the future.

"In many ways there's a lot of positives, there's [also] a lot of negatives because there are elements of our community that are clearly dissatisfied with the state of the world at the moment and they're expressing that. We need to learn, understand and engage with elements of that community as well."