EDL Vigilantes in Eltham Videos

The EDL have responded to the riots and looting by calling upon members in some locations to prepare to defend their neighbourhoods, homes and families. This elicited a good response in Eltham, where about 50 members of the EDL came down to help the locals nip any trouble in the bud. With local non-EDL, their total numbers came to somewhere between 200 (according to the Daily Telegraph) and 500 (according to the Casuals United blog). The Daily Telegraph report on the joint EDL and local attempt to defend Eltham was not framed in a complementary manner, and neither was it accurate, describing the EDL as a 'political party' which anyone who has heard of the EDL knows that it is not, as well as 'far right', which is a straightforward baseless slur upon the good name of the movement. The movement should be congratulated in taking the initiative to help English communities to defend themselves at a time when the police find themselves overstretched and unable to respond to every call for assistance.

Vigilante groups have sprung up elsewhere in London, with another instance of English vigilantism being in Enfield where 350-400 people turned out on Tuesday night to keep rioters and looters out. Another notable new instance of this phenomenon was in Southall, where Sikh men gathered to defend their gurdwara. All of these instances follow on from the formation of 'local protection units' by Turkish and Kurdish shopkeepers in the Wood Green area of London over the weekend following an overspill of the initial violence from Tottenham. 

The first of the videos below shows EDL vigilantes on the streets of Eltham looking to ensure that the looters don't trash their community. The second video is from the Daily Telegraph and features an interview with the EDL's south-east regional organiser, Jack England. Unfortunately, this video demonstrates that the Metropolitan Police seem to have fallen for the smears about the EDL and sent a significant number of officers to kettle the EDL and other local residents who had come out to defend their neighbourhood. This is a great pity, as obviously these desperately-needed police resources should have been deployed elsewhere in the capital where they were needed.

Vigilantism in North London: ‘Local Protection Units’ formed to confront Rioters

Last night’s rioting in Tottenham is reported to have spilled over into Wood Green, and it is feared that there will once again be unrest tonight. Reports indicate that it took only 200-300 rioters to wreak havoc in Tottenham, endangering life and limb as they looted and set light to properties, businesses and vehicles. The cost of the damage is already estimated to be many millions of pounds, and fearing that the Metropolitan Police will again be overwhelmed by violent criminals, the London Daily News reports that a number of shop owners have formed their own ‘local protection units’. A spokesman for the Green Lanes ‘unit’ told the paper "We do not have any trust in the local police, our shops are next on the target list by the thugs who have ransacked Tottenham, we will protect our property."

That people feel that they need to do this is a shameful indictment of the inadequacy of the police force. Nobody should feel so fearful for their physical safety and that of their property that they feel compelled to form voluntary defence associations, but this is what is happening. This failure to honour the most basic duty of any government – to safeguard the physical safety of citizens and their property and to uphold the rule of law - whilst the ConDem administration prioritises foreign aid and costly wars which have nothing to do with our national interest, indicates that there is something dangerously wrong with the thinking of those in government. To cut police budgets and spending on other essential public services and allowing civil order to disintegrate whilst appropriating our money to spend on their pet projects abroad represents a grotesque abuse of office. Moreover, it is of course not only the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats who approve of increasing foreign aid and meddling in overseas conflicts, but the Labour Party too.

It is time that it was made crystal clear that the duty of any government that purports to represent its citizenry is first and foremost to preserve public safety and the rule of law. Without seeking to prioritise and secure these basic preconditions of a stable civil society, it cannot be said to be a government in any meaningful sense of the term. Worryingly, those who have banded together to form ‘local protection units’ in Wood Green, Turnpike Lane and Green Lanes, are said to be Kurds and Turks, or, to put it bluntly, Muslims. If our forces of law and order are seen to be failing so spectacularly, to whom and to what do you think they might turn?

Tottenham High Road Ablaze