English Defense League - who are they?
They were with 1,500 people. And a riot broke out between the police and EDL. The funny thing that happened in England is that Scotland Yard have been accused of underestimating the threat from EDL, because the head of the unit monitoring hate groups declared it’s not an extremist organization, because he looked at their website and said it was not extreme. But they did after all deem it necessary to invite 3,000 policemen to keep a group of a thousand people down. That’s strange. But Breivik shouldn’t work in favour of EDL.
I think after the Breivik tragedy they got a lot of press attention. They wouldn’t have got otherwise.
Yes, but if you get attention like being involved into a huge terrorist attack, that wouldn’t be in your favor, would it?
No, it wouldn’t. And I think maybe their activities had quieted down a little bit. So, I was surprised to hear that they were still holding big demonstration.
I’m sorry to say but this is a kind of vermin and they never quiet down.
Was there a special reason why they chose this day, in particular? Neo-Nazi groups love to play with numbers, dates and stuff.
No, not that I can see. They just want to keep their momentum of demonstrations going, I guess. In Britain, they have a lot of opposition from the state that tries to stop demonstrations because of public order, or to be precise disorder. Then, of course, they started to talk about freedom of speech.
Was there any connection between the last time we talked and now when there were huge riots in Great Britain? Was EDL involved in those extensively, with football fans etc?
As far as I can see, the rioting that went on was a strange mix of things because there were a lot of just ordinary looters. But it started, of course, at a black man getting shot by the police. So, there were a lot of things at the same time. And it’s not in particular EDL. What they did do is they started these neighborhood watch patrols.