EDL-Stoke
We have been following the EDL since their inception. This past week has seen more of their crazy racist and violent antics. Remember these groups are not disconnected from Islamophobes in America, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer both are connected with Euro-Supremacists and fascists. Pamela Geller has gone so far as to imply that criticism of the EDL is unfounded.
‘We’re here because we want our country back’ — More on Stoke EDL Protest
Double-decker buses started arriving at Wetherspoons in Hanley city centre shortly after noon. The passengers shouted “England, England, England” and “EDL, EDL, EDL”. Two were arrested within seconds of them getting off the bus. “I’m English ’til I die, English ’til I die,” was the next song, one of many chanted by the protesters throughout the afternoon.
Although many had travelled from the other side of the country, the Potteries was well represented. Adam Daniels, aged 23, from Tunstall, said: “We want equal opportunities. They seem to get housing before us.” Daniel Lucas, aged 28, from Ball Green, said: “The door should be shut to this country because it is full. We are a minority in our own community.”
Forty-two-year-old John Sanders, an HGV driver who travelled from Bristol, said: “I am here because Islam is taking over the country.” Former Stoke-on-Trent city councillor Jenny Holdcroft, aged 60, from Biddulph, said: “People have to come out and be strong and stand together because if not, we are going to lose this country.”
Several people hurled bottles and other missiles towards police. Some men jumped on the top of a bus stop outside Argos while two youths could be seen showing off with a police helmet on the top of the arcade roof. There was another surge towards the officers when they went to arrest those youths.
Lines of police stopped the mob walking down Percy Street and into the city centre. Thugs tried to tip over a yellow police van, brought in from Warwickshire, and one hooligan jumped on the bonnet and repeatedly kicked the windscreen until it smashed.
Paul Walker, spokesman for EDL Stoke-on-Trent, said he was upset by the trouble. He said: “EDL members have been antagonised by the police. We are not racist, not bigots, not Nazis, we are shocked how we have been portrayed.”
See also Lancaster Unity, which reports:
“EDL say they support British laws and that they’re not racist or connected to the BNP, but after the EDL demo in Stoke on 23 Jan 2010, EDL supporters ‘dispersed’ into side-streets to break windows and attack cars owned by Stoke residents. EDL co-founder and convicted knife criminal Jeff Marsh filmed the police ID-ing him by name (0:02 ‘Jeff Marsh, turn round and go back’) and then filmed EDL supporters chanting ‘BNP, BNP, BNP’ (0:26). Police then chased the EDL into a nearby park where EDL accused police officers of being ‘Paki loving bastards’ (0:35), ‘Fucking cunts’, and one officer of being a ‘wanker’ and ‘Fucking paki lover’.”
The attack on Mosques continues. I guess this is what EDL partner organizations mean when they say “Stop the building of Mosques.”
Graffiti attack on Stoke Mosque ahead of EDL Protest
A mosque in Stoke-on-Trent was sprayed with graffiti referring to an upcoming English Defence League rally. Mosque administrators discovered the daubed message at 0630 GMT on Saturday and had removed it within two hours. Staffordshire Police said a criminal damage investigation was under way into the incident in the Normacot area.
According to one report, the mosque was “daubed with EDL and ISLAM SCUM as well as some cars”.
A hallmark of totalitarian and fascist movements: Intimidation.
Stoke Cab Companies were Forced to Suspend Service due to EDL Threats
Taxi firms suspended services in Stoke-on-Trent following police warnings and threats from right-wing extremists. Most of the city’s largest private hire companies stopped running between 11pm on Saturday and 4am yesterday to protect drivers and passengers. It followed advice from Staffordshire Police in the wake of violence which erupted at the English Defence League (EDL) rally, in Hanley, on Saturday afternoon. And it has emerged some taxi firms also received phone calls from individuals threatening to target Asian and Muslim drivers.
Basharat Hussein, who runs Auto Cab Private Hire, in Normacot, said his firm was among those targeted. The 41-year-old manager said: “We were having threatening calls over the phone and were scared for the safety of our drivers and our customers. They were threatening to target our drivers because many of them are Asian or Muslim. We had also been getting advice from the police before the demonstration and therefore decided not to go out.”
Mohammed Mushtaq, aged 36, manager of Tunstall-based City Centre Private Hire, said he took the decision to suspend services following a call from the police. He said: “One of the sergeants at Tunstall rang and warned us that if we did go out, it would be at our own risk. The police said anyone working in and around Cobridge was particularly at risk. We carried on until about 10pm, but, after the police warning, we decided it was not worth the risk. The drivers were too scared to carry on, so we stopped all services between 11pm and 4am.”
January 27th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Hooligans on the march again. Are they growing or shrinking? Maybe UK readers could help us with that?
Anyway, it is a little crazy to see what they are up to. IT creates a lot of tension in the air.
January 27th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
EDL=BNP no surprise there unfortunetly same scum with a different names .
Very predictable . Nazi trouble makers.
I used to live in East London where they would hold marches in Bangladeshi areas ( average hieght 5ft 3) but not in areas where the Somalis or Jamacians lived ( average height 6ft) odd that
I hope showing their true colours means the end of their electoral support in this part of England
January 27th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
I don’t know what’s going on but the right-wing nuts are at it again. This time it’s about connecting the Mufti>Hitler>Islam> and the holocaust. Anybody at LW or LW readers following that lately? I’m confused.
January 27th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Those guys in the photo look like UVF members.
January 27th, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Awww come on guys! These people are freedom fighters to EXTERMINATE THE DEVIL KNOWN AS ISLAM! /sarcasm
I’m not surprised by this news. Islamophobia is certainly on the rise.
January 27th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
I guess u won’t see this on fox or CNN. Ms.Gellar and Mr. Spencer aka Mr. And Mrs. Loon are no different than those who support ” Islamic Terrorism”… they support extremism in the opposite ways… basicly their idiots and hypocrits.
January 28th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
I knew I shouldn’t have clicked when I saw “EDL.” It always ruins my day hearing about them.
February 2nd, 2010 at 5:29 pm
I am from the UK & have relatives & friends from all over the country, including Stoke. With regard to the Stoke rabble-rousing, this casts a justified pall on the reputation of the EDL.
They strive to present themselves as genial,law-abiding,proud,tolerant & essentially peaceable Englishmen, being taken advantage of by extremist unintegrated immigrant hordes (W.O.G.s). Think WW2 & Churchill crossed with Richard the Lionheart & the Victorian Empire Raj.
The reality is that they are at best a mixture of patronising angst-laden middle-aged supremacist Little Englanders, & at worst street-fighting Nazi fascist thugs. The street element is fed by the notorious English football Hooligans, vide Serb-Croat proto-militias.
Thankfully, Stoke showed up the unruly “White Trash” hard-core binge-drinking racists who hate the the pigs (police) which is the last thing that the “moderate” face of the EDL was trying to portray.
In reality, the acceptable face of anti-Semitism is against the faith arising in Arabia i.e. Islam. The Goebellian propaganda Der Sturmer machine of today includes the Daily Mail, Daily Express & the populist Sun, which are casting Muslims as a 5th column. The EDL, BNP & C18 are the WW2 Moseleyites of today i.e. Brits who sympathised with Hitler’s racist worldview. As in fascist Italy, the democratic system is being portrayed as weak. There are glimmers of hope, as the majority of Brits are an essentially pragmatic people, as the Harrow mosque united front showed. The British Jewish leadership played an honurable role for civic society, by standing against the swivel-eyed Zionist fringe.