'The betrayal of Southport'

"Southport was rocked by two tragedies last week. First was the senseless stabbing spree that claimed the lives of six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar. Second was the racist rioting the following evening, when thugs hurled bricks and bottles at the local mosque. While the depraved killings of those three young girls remain front-and-centre in the minds of the people of Southport, tragically, it is those deplorable, ugly scenes on Tuesday night that have had greatest impact nationally, as rioting has since spread relentlessly across much of the rest of England....
    "It’s a journalistic cliché to describe a whole town or entire community as being in mourning. ... [But a]n ongoing sense of unease has kept a lot of [local] people indoors. ...
    "The evening after the murders, the quiet dignity of the people of Southport was utterly betrayed. The riots began just as a vigil for the three girls ...was drawing to a close. ... Cars started appearing ... until they were ‘bumper to bumper’ ... ‘Then, suddenly, people started appearing, mostly young men, in groups, walking towards the mosque… Then another group, and another group, and another group.’ ... these were people ‘who came from outside, looking for trouble’. Initial police reports corroborate this. Of the hundreds of people causing carnage that night, 13 have been arrested and one charged. Three were local to Southport, but many others have been identified as coming from out of town, including from Formby, St Helens and Newton-le-Willows. The latter two are at least a 40-minute drive away....
    "You will struggle to find any support or sympathy for the rioters here in Southport. ... ‘Three little girls have lost their lives in tragic circumstances. There’s a feeling that people are utilising that for their own agendas'."

~ Fraser Myers from his report 'The betrayal of Southport'