Leeds: massive riot against the child-snatching authorities

A large-scale riot broke out in the working-class neighbourhood of Harehills in Leeds, yesterday 18th July 2024. Fights with police started in the afternoon after social services tried to abduct four Roma children from their home. The children fought off the agency workers and were joined by a crowd of locals who attacked the police, as they evacuated the ‘social care’ workers and attempted to drag away the intractable kids. One van left through a jeering and combative crowd with smashed windows.

Several more police cars were smashed, overturned and destroyed. Police were attacked with stones, bricks and bottles, before being forced to make a ground retreat, chased by a crowd that grew to several hundred, maybe a thousand. Public-order cops in riot gear were seen escaping in vans under a torrent of projectiles. Burning barricades were constructed with bins and other objects. A double-decker bus was destroyed by fire. Police reportedly called on regional reinforcements, but it was not until 1am that they returned to the streets with the fire brigade. Nobody was reported hurt although it seems unlikely that all cops escaped unscathed, no matter how fast they ran away.

The next day, as fires still smouldered, police began ‘several’ arrests and promised to ‘hunt’ the combative youth in the area, calling for snitching and DIY surveillance footage and working with ‘community and religious leaders’, and ‘reassurance patrols’, to pacify the population, fearing another hot night tonight (19th July).