As many of us know, Norfolk has been embroiled in a fight with the fascists over peoples right to perform story times in drag and to take their children to such events. Tensions have broiled to such a point that violent clashes have taken place between Patriotic Alternative protestors (strangers from several parts of the country) and locals who defend our rights with passion.
Such an event occurred on Wednesday the 16th of August, outside the millennium library in Norwich city centre to defend Titania Trust and the families attending the event. Due to the media attention a huge number of people came out to support Titania, and drag in general, with 167 people listening to the story time and an estimated 300 counter protestors, compared to the estimated 25 fascist protestors.
Counter protestors turned up early at 11, a small group beginning to collect and prepare for a hard day. PA began turning up at roughly 11.30, starting with the collaborators who film these events and rile people up in advance to provoke more extreme reactions by being physically threatening, shoving cameras into peoples faces, invading personal spaces and trying to bludgeon people with aggressive arguments disguised as interviews that people have no choice in participating in.
The words “No,” “Leave me alone,” and “I don’t want anything to do with you,” have no value to these people.
PA members regularly stopped passers-by for impromptu grilling, many of whom suspiciously shared the same accent of the fascists who had travelled across the country to attend this event. Watching them back is like a terrible Monty Python sketch.
By this point he proceedings were well underway, and the police were late.
By some miracle they turned up just as one fascist, the father of one of the filmers, dove into the crowed of counter protestors shoving and attempting to start a direct fight. The police managed to steer him away, but no action was taken against him. This set the tone for the day, with community policing and aid from the forums private security having been seen as the most helpful and productive. Many reported dedicated Anti-Fascist having protected them from violence and looked after everyone’s welfare.
Many times the public called for help against violent encounters with fascists, and too often no officer came to help.
Pointless.
Useless.
Uncaring.
The tensions continued to mount and mount, with shoving and grabbing being the hall marks of the nazis, attempting to wind the crowed up further. Counter protestors faced harassment with bravery, with slurs and slander being hurled from PA members, with accusations of Paedophilia, grooming, kidnapping, and the T slur being thrown around like rubbers in a school classroom. The police made no move to intervene, instead choosing to focus on one counter protestors sign that used the word “fuck”. one officer reported that minor crimes during protests would not be prosecuted by the courts – one wonders what constitutes a “minor crime” when slander, hate incidents, threats and assaults (including grabbing someone by the throat), don’t seem to be of interest when they happen right in front of the police’s nose.
The fasc were extremely aggressive to everyone, including the police, watching the live streams they always insist on taking of these “protests” always show their full arses and exposes their crimes for anyone to see, and all to often are overlooked.
While the police occasionally attempted to control them, they didn’t bother to make any arrests – a striking difference to the hustings protest a week later which saw at least 5 times the amount of uniformed officers (and drones, and vans, and specials with guns) were they arrested a protestor for “breach of the peace” after an officer pushed them from behind and the victim said: “get off me”.
Bizarre how a young queer person objecting to police abuse was deserving of arrest when a group known for violence and links to terrorism commit actual crimes and are ignored.
It very much stinks of discrimination. More on the Hustings protests in a later article.
Perhaps the most disgusting behaviour was the shouting, insults, and harassment of the event goers and their young children. At what point it seems like acceptable behaviour to verbally attack children is frankly beyond me, and many of us I’m sure. This abuse of minors though was left unchallenged by the authorities.
One woman bravely stood in front of the PA banner, waving a trans flag like an absolute hero and ruining all their photo opportunities. Here, we stand for the flag.
Partway through the protest, shortly after the story time had begun, a funeral arrived at the church opposite the library, which broke most of the tension that had been climbing. The patriotic alternative were strong armed into more meek behaviour, while the counter protestors remained quiet and watchful of the opposition.
The atmosphere remained dampened, up until the PA made moves to “leave,” upon which time it became obvious that they had marched 100 yards away to city hall, waving their banners and flags, and looked like they were setting up shop for another demonstration until they noticed we had followed them – at which point the continued their march down the street, looking like they had plans to circle round. Police remained uninterested in PA activities until they saw the counter protestors leaving the area.
It seemed that our refusal to let them illegally march through town began to scare them off, at one point counter protestors had them surrounded in the streets, and the penny began to drop that fascists would never be welcomed or unchallenged in Norwich. Going back over their footage makes it clear that counter protestors put up more resistance than they anticipated for a city our size, they said: “There’s more here than we were expecting,” with the official estimate of attendees being 300 counter protestors to 25 PA members.
Eventually the police stopped counter protestors from following any further as the PA member broke off into small groups and began to pass St Andrews car park. When an officer was asked if they were planning on escorting PA members away they said: “We’re on it,” even though they were clearly leaving unattended despite the far-rights reputation for looking for victims to assault after a rally. An officer was then asked if they were aware that PA were a known Nazi group with links to terrorist organisations and the counter protestor was told to “Grow up,” and to be “tolerant of other peoples views,” that LGBTQ+ people are abominations, paedophiles, groomers, who should be put down.
An incredible show of insensitivity, ignorance, discrimination and unprofessionalism.
Shortly thereafter both sides dispersed, with the PA having been spotted at a nearby pub later that day.
Many things came to light that day. Perhaps obviously, claims that Norfolk police are not like the others is a lie, and they are extremely ignorant – which can only be attributed to being poorly trained. They were not equipped to deal with a situation of this magnitude and have let us all down.
Remember: Policing should be beholden to public opinion. It isn’t the one percent on the ground being abused, and the government routinely prove they can’t be trusted to make moral decisions and rules about our safety – if we want better treatment we must demand it.
We can draw comfort from the fact that fascism in this county will not be tolerated, and that community policing is far more effective and worthy of respect than state police.
If you have experiences you’d like to share from that day please get in contact, and if you’d like to make a complaint please see the IOPC (independent office of police complaints) website.
Our solidarity to Titania Trust, who’s had to bare the weight of this awful harassment and abuse in her professional and personal life.
