Police are deployed in London amid race riots and threats from far-right

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

After more than a week of race riots across the United Kingdom, police are deployed tonight in and around London, where there are new threats of violence from the far right. Anti-racist protesters are amassing there and in other cities as well. NPR's Lauren Frayer is out on the streets in London and joins us now. Hi, Lauren. I hope you're staying safe.

LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: I am. Thanks for having me.

CHANG: Yeah. Well, what is the situation in London tonight?

FRAYER: I would say it's tense but hopeful. I don't know if you can hear a helicopter over my head right now.

CHANG: Barely.

FRAYER: The riots that we've seen across the U.K. have been largely in smaller, second-tier cities, not in London, but the fear has been that they would come here. Police say there are dozens of specific addresses that have been threatened here in London by far-right groups. Many of them are immigration law offices. Some companies unrelated to that sent their workers home early today. Members of Parliament were even urged to work from home today.

The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, who himself is a Muslim and a person of color, has asked residents to sort of check in on their neighbors, make sure they're feeling safe. Police are out in full force, but so are counterdemonstrators. And they're amassing really, like, by the thousands now. We're seeing them across different neighborhoods of London. Here's what it sounds like tonight in Walthamstow in Northeast London, which is where there were a lot of these far-right threats.

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) When fascists attack...

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) We fight back.

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) When fascists attack...

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) We fight back.

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) When fascists attack...

FRAYER: And they're saying there, when fascists attack, we fight back. There are people waving signs - no to racism and refugees welcome. They're trying to make this city inhospitable to anybody from the far right tonight.

CHANG: Well, beyond London, I know that you've just come back from a trip farther north to areas that have seen most of the violence. How are people faring there?

FRAYER: So that was tense in a totally different way. I was in Tamworth, a town in the Midlands where the main street is sort of lined with pubs filled with mostly white men talking about a big riot there a few days ago that targeted a hotel housing asylum seekers. I went to the aftermath. I saw broken glass, graffiti being painted over. And I've been really surprised at the pretty openly racist things that some people there have told me, even on the microphone, people bragging about having been to this riot.

I also, on the other hand, went to a mosque. I went to a Kurdish barber shop. There is a small Muslim community in Tamworth. They're just trying to keep their heads down. I talked to a man named Sanawar Ali. He drives a taxi.

SANAWAR ALI: To be honest, it's not safe for everyone. I just grabbed my son because he's a young lad. Maybe he's going to be - troubled in somewhere.

FRAYER: His 16-year-old son is doing a summertime test prep course. He'd normally walk to class, and his dad is driving him for the foreseeable future. He's scared that his son is going to get jumped by a racist mob.

CHANG: That's frightening. Well, what is being done to ensure people's safety there?

FRAYER: So aside from deploying thousands more police, the government is handing out harsh prison sentences to people convicted of involvement in these riots, also travel bans. The U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer - he was actually England's top prosecutor during the last bout of major riots in 2011.

CHANG: Wow.

FRAYER: Those happened in London. So he's the one who sped up the legal process for offenders then, and he's doing the same now. Hundreds of suspects have already had court hearings. Some are already in prison. Hate crimes laws are being used, and the penalties are stiff. One guy got three years for punching a police officer. People are getting arrested for inciting violence from their couch in their living room. So the idea is to - on social media. So the idea is to create a deterrent to anyone who's even thinking about stirring up trouble.

CHANG: That is NPR's Lauren Frayer in London. Thank you so much, Lauren.

FRAYER: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.