No sense of irony among rioters filming themselves attacking facial recognition camera
This mob of far-right rioters really put the ‘mindless’ into ‘mindless thuggery’.
The clip posted to social media shows a huge crowd of agitators forcing a police facial van used for facial recognition to leave the area of a so-called protest in Rotherham at the weekend.
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But at no point did it seem to occur to them they were doing the police’s job for them by filming each other as they went about it. One man even appears to have his workplace printed on his back for all to see – and no doubt track down.
At least 10 officers were injured – with one rendered unconscious – when rioters tried to storm a hotel housing asylum seekers in the town on Sunday.
Anti-immigration demonstrators threw planks of wood at officers and sprayed them with fire extinguishers, before smashing hotel windows to gain access to the Holiday Inn Express.
The officer knocked unconscious suffered a head injury, police said, adding that two others had suspected broken bones.
Hotel employees and residents, some of whom are asylum seekers, were ‘terrified’, but no injuries were reported, police said.
The Prime Minister has promised communities they will be kept safe as the country braces for as many as 100 further far-right rallies on Wednesday night.
Approximately 6,000 specialist officers will be at the ready by the end of the week for the so-called ‘standing army’ of police announced by Sir Keir Starmer on Monday to deal with disorder.
These officers have been taken away from their regular duties to deal with the ongoing disorder.
In addition to more riot police being put on standby ready to be deployed to incidents in their regions, forces are also stepping up neighbourhood policing patrols while teams of detectives investigate, drawing on CCTV, body-worn footage and making use of retrospective facial recognition to identify perpetrators of violence, while intelligence teams monitor well-known influencers and organisers for activity.
More than 400 people have now been arrested in the wake of disorder around the country, according to police sources, with the number expected to continue to rise in the coming days.
Around 100 people have been charged, with some already pleading guilty in court appearances on Tuesday.
They include self-employed builder Joshua Simpson, who became the first person to be convicted following rioting outside the hotel in Rotherham after he admitted assaulting a police officer.
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