So last night USians were being warned of a terrorist invasion from Canada as right wing news sites extrapolated from no information about a car crash.
Tonight there are rioters in North inner city Dublin over, what on the basis of the small amount of information we have released, is a domestic (male) rampage at a school gate. A middle aged man assaulted a bunch of children and seriously injured one and a teacher.
Obviously we don’t know anything and reporting restrictions here tend to be adhered to but if I had to bet I would bet it was a butthurt middle age man on the road to family annihilation.
Is this weaponisation of any unusual violent event by fascists the norm? Are we going to have to develop protocols on reporting the initial incidents to prevent chaos spreading?
This is a better live feed giving you an idea of just how small scale it is. Problem is they scale up quickly, fash become veterans and heroes, police say they need more equipment, everything escalates. There hasn’t been serious violence on the streets here in decades, not since the height of the Troubles. And now the fash are bringing it to us.
I haven’t lived in the city for the last couple of years but I’m told there is frequent tension between Gardai and youths (I’m not sure how to categorise them, but tracksuit and hoodie wearing youths) who gather around that part of town (O’Connell St./Parnell St.) and behave in an antisocial manner.
I don’t know that they’re fascists but they’re certainly assholes.
They look like the same people who acted out in the lockdown protests. I really don’t think they’re political, they’re just ignorant assholes who will use any excuse to confront the cops. Lunatic Hooligan Faction seems like a fair assessment to me.
As for the knife attack, that seems unprecedented to me. We have some violent crime here, but it’s rare*. And AFAIK, we’ve never had anything like a school shooting here. It’s very odd.
*Ireland has ranked near the top of the Global Peace Index for years
Yes and no. I mean most of the thugs the Nazi party mobilised as street fighters probably weren’t true believers. I first became aware of the looming fascism problem locally via the extreme music scene and how it turned out that some fascists making music had ended up here and how European law enforcement were warning that Nazis were ending up here as they were left alone. The coppers paid no attention to them as they are structurally only really concerned with republicans (not like the american ones: left wing, anti church and all that). Lockdown and policing provided a real point of friction between law enforcement and the white working class. But this was started by far right, racist social media content and provocateurs. Whether the weapons are believers isn’t important. It’s what they do that is.
It seems the rumors are running wild. Do you think It will stir anti immigrants feelings in Ireland? I mean, the police didn’t disclose the origins of the criminal, but the rumors are, as I sid, running wild.
I don’t think it will stir anti immigrant feelings as it’s a bunch of dicks being the dick after a violent man kicked off. But it is the expression of radicalised white, racist violence in a way we have never seen before. Just for historical accidental reasons.
Tell your sister that from here in Dublin it’s just a tiny bunch of people. Bit of looting. Burnt a tram which is a real escalation and a sum total of two cars. Most of what is going on is as @Mercenary_Garage alluded to a feud between coppers and young locals testing what they can get away with. When I’m in the city centre with my children you can see stuff going on which is not dangerous but is worrying. The bike thieves in face masks booting down the wrong side of the road (e-bikes and small motor bikes), the flash mob bum rush shoplifting crowds etc. don’t have much relation to most people but do piss people off. Actually more worrying is if it emboldens the po po to get more power to be honest.
I hope you are right. This horrific attack, especially involving an innocent child, awakens people’s emotional side. Something that can be taken advantage of by unscrupulous manipulators. The most important thing is that this child can recover. Let’s hope for that!
