Warning of more arrests after city violence

FURTHER arrests are expected as missile throwers and other law-breakers caught on video during protests in Bradford city centre on Saturday are identified, police have warned.

Several specialist officers using video and stills cameras were on duty as skirmishes and missile-throwing broke out.

Thirteen people were arrested on the day but police have warned that more arrests are likely as officers review the day’s events and identity the troublemakers.

Although eight of the 13 people arrested are from Bradford, police and community representatives praised residents for remaining calm and not responding to any perceived provocation.

West Yorkshire Chief Constable Sir Norman Bettison said all of those arrested were from the protesting groups.

He said the citizens of Bradford were “unmoved and untroubled to any significant extent” by the protests.

He added: “The ban of the march seems to have worked. No officers were seriously injured and there was no damage to property.

“The containment of trouble comes at a cost, but has been money well spent. The consequences of the disorder in 2001 amounted to 11m in damage and an awful lot of community heartache.”

The police costs, likely to run into hundreds of thousands of pounds, will come on top of the 100,000 spent by Bradford Council reinforcing fencing around the urban garden where the English Defence League were penned in.

Praise for Bradford residents also came from a civil liberties group, Just West Yorkshire.

Group spokeswoman Ratna Lachman described the chants by EDL supporters – which included abusive references to Allah – as “Islamaphobic”, but she said that young Asian men had “showed remarkable restraint” .

She said mosques had urged young people to either stay away or to remain peaceful:

“Mosques had emphasised the need to be calm and peaceful during the holy month of Ramadan. The message was to keep away from the EDL and the city centre.”

She said the city had “come a long way” since the 2001 riots, which resulted in 191 arrests and jail terms totalling more than 500 years for those who took part, mostly young Asian men.

Ms Lachman, who watched events unfold on Saturday, spoke to several young Asian men at the scene.

She said: “They remember 2001 and said they did not want to end up with a jail sentence.”

However, she was critical of the decision to allow the EDF protest to be held in a city centre location, and for it to be next to a building site strewn with stones which some young men used as missiles.

This decision was a “profound mistake”, she said.

“The police should have anticipated that the location of the demonstrations at the Urban Gardens, next to the Westfield building site, was a misjudgment.

“Locating an organisation that has a record of violence next to a building site that is littered with stones, masonry and metal, was in terms of police logistics leading up to the protests a failure and it not surprising that the EDL demonstrators scaled the barriers and armed themselves with these missiles before fanning out across the city.”

Supporters of the EDL, who at one point appeared to be fighting amongst themselves, said they were disappointed with the turnout and others directed their anger at those who threw missiles.

One supporter, writing on a Facebook forum, said: “Look at the support we lose every time a stone is thrown or a fight is started.” Another wrote: “How come only 1,000 in Bradford? I expected 5,000 plus.”

Comment: Page 10.

[email protected]