Dover, England: Activists spoke of ‘attacking Muslims’, why did police underestimate the threat?

The controversy is growing in the United Kingdom after the revelations about the far-right mobilization which paralyzed part of Dover, in the south-east of England, on Saturday September 5.

Because the Kent police had been alerted the day before that a major mobilization was being prepared. Hundreds of men had converged on Preston-next-Wingham, a small village located around thirty kilometers from Dover, which would have served as an assembly point before their departure for the port. Even more serious: according to The Guardian and the anti-racist organization Hope Not Hate, witnesses reportedly heard some of these activists explain in a pub that they planned to go to Dover to “attack Muslims”. The information would have been passed on to the authorities, but Hope Not Hate claims that little or no interest would have been given to this report.

Residents had also reported the numerous vehicles parked in an unusual manner in the village. According to the testimonies collected, several hundred men had practically “taken possession” of the premises for several hours. Here again, some reports would not have resulted in any immediate intervention. The next morning, around 7 a.m., hundreds of men dressed in black, many in hoods, arrived in Dover. Images show some participants getting out of vehicles before blocking several strategic roads around the port. The movement caused several kilometers of traffic jams and disrupted access to one of the main British ports for several hours.

And yet, no arrests were made during this mobilization in Dover, according to The Guardian. The police initially described the gathering as “spontaneous”. A presentation that is now seriously called into question. Roger Gale, Conservative MP for the constituency and resident of Preston-next-Wingham, also disputes this version. He highlights the presence of around fifty cars in the village and believes that the operation was on the contrary “carefully coordinated”, the participants having probably been transported to Dover in vans.

Kent Police finally admitted on Tuesday that they had received information on Friday evening announcing that a demonstration could take place the next day. Above all, she admits that this information has not been fully evaluated and that a better analysis could have allowed her to adapt her police resources. The police nevertheless affirm that better use of this information would not have prevented the holding of what they consider to be a legal demonstration, nor necessarily the disturbances which followed.

The matter therefore goes beyond the simple question of a poorly anticipated demonstration. Hundreds of men gathered the day before, some spoke of “attacking Muslims”, vehicles were mobilized to transport the participants and, a few hours later, hooded men blocked access to a strategic port. How, under these conditions, could the authorities initially speak of a “spontaneous” mobilization? And above all: would the threats explicitly targeting Muslims have been treated with the same lightness if they had targeted another community?

In Dover, this is now the question that arises: that of the capacity – and will – of the British authorities to take seriously the rise of far-right groups that are increasingly organized, structured and capable of quickly mobilizing several hundred men.