Newcastle: Race Riots of 2024

“I wanted to share with you all my "final" thoughts (for now) on the far right riots that I documented over a number of weeks in the north east. The final day I documented, it didn't descend into a riot, it was eerily calm on the streets with only a few small squabbles. Far right individuals still came out but heavily outnumbered by police and counter demonstrators. It felt for me like a real closing note on this dire chapter of events, not because we should forget it at all but because it seemed to me like so many already had forgotten. The sentences rolled out and the cell doors slammed but incarceration does rarely change political views. I barely saw a baton lifted at far right rioters, Ive seen more forceful and violent police responses to vigils and children stealing chocolate bars from Poundland. They didn't protect us a few weeks ago and they won't protect us next time. While the police did make arrests in Newcastle, they also profiled and aggravated local working class people who were just passing by and cleared the streets of anti racism protestors way before they cleared the far right. Arrests made ≠ Job well done.”