We need to talk about the Harehills riot

A double decker bus on fire. A police car flipped onto its side as adults and children smashed its windows inside. its contents ignited. These were just some of the many disturbing scenes at the Harehills riot in Leeds on Thursday night.

The immediate spark appears to have been ignited by a dispute between a Roma family and social services. Employees at the agency are said to have faced “hostility” while trying to take three children into care. Around 5 p.m., the police were called to the scene and a crowd began to gather. As tensions rose, rockets were fired at the police. When it became clear that the officers were outnumbered, they retreated, leaving a police car behind, which was ransacked by the mob. With the police away from the scene, the rioters were then free to torch a double-decker bus and other vehicles. Thousands of people took to the streets, either taking part in the unrest, observing the unrest or, in some cases, confronting vandals and arsonists.

These horrific scenes speak of a spectacular failure of integration. Harehills is a diverse deprived community with 43% of residents born outside the UK, spanning over 80 nationalities and ethnicities. It has been described as a “21st century ghetto”. Places like Harehills are almost hermetically sealed off from wider British society. One of the suspected rioters, a Romanian citizen, who was accused of setting fire to a bus after standing next to it with a lighter, had to follow the court proceedings through an interpreter because English was inadequate.

When migrants are not integrated, they tend to have little trust in national or local institutions. This is probably why the state’s attempt to take care of a family’s children has been met with such hostility. Although a Roma family was at the center of the initial altercation, the riots appear to have attracted people of many ethnicities. A suspicion of the authorities is perhaps one of the few things that bind people in such an area.

The British state’s embrace of multiculturalism has undoubtedly helped to inflame tensions and fuel a sense of discontent. A report published last year by Leeds City Council notes with approval how “wealthy and proud” local Roma and Romanian residents are of their ethnicity. A statement released by the council on Friday praised these residents for “contributing much to the diversity” of Harehills. Meanwhile, some residents were quick to blame “systemic racism” and “persecution” of Roma for social services’ decision to intervene in a family’s affairs. Here they precisely echo the identity narrative that is promoted by state multiculturalism. It is difficult to integrate migrants into British society when the state itself is so keen to celebrate ethnic differences and cast suspicion on national and local institutions.

The police must also bear a great deal of responsibility for allowing the riot to spread. The residents of Harehills were abandoned to the mob for several hours. No doubt the police had to leave and regroup after being hit with rockets during the initial outbreak of unrest. But to not have returned with reinforcements as soon as possible, effectively deciding to let the mutineers tire themselves out, is a catastrophic abdication of responsibility. It is all too telling that on the same evening, the police appear to have arrested a single, middle-aged woman after she expressed her frustration with the riot. The police may be nervous about controlling violent disorder in a place like Harehills, but they are keen to put an end to speech crimes.

Despite what some seem to imagine, last week’s unrest was not a “rebellion” against a distant state, whatever. After all, the main target of vandalism and arson was the community of Harehills itself. It was their streets that the rioters were burning. Frighteningly, some have since said they have “no regrets” about taking to the streets on Thursday night.

Harehills is no stranger to violent disorder. In 2001, 26 cars were burned in six hours of rioting following allegations of wrongful arrest of a South Asian man. Twenty-five men were later imprisoned. Then, on Bonfire Night 2019, there were pitched battles between the police and youths armed with fireworks, bricks and axes.

While last week’s riot was universally denounced by the political class, from Britain’s prime minister on down, much of the national conversation focused not on the violence but on how it was interpreted on social media. Police chiefs and politicians have consistently warned social media users not to “speculate” about the motivations behind the unrest. West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin, while condemning the scenes which were “horrific to witness”, saved much of her anger for online commentators. “Dog whistle politics from people outside our region who don’t know our community or the facts,” she said, “are offensive and unwelcome.” Similarly, local Labor MP Richard Burgon spoke of meeting residents “traumatized by Thursday, horrified by misinformation” – as if some ill-informed tweets somehow equated to the violent destruction of one’s neighbourhood.

What these politicians fear is that the Leeds riots will provoke an honest and robust conversation about the causes of the disorder. That we might begin to question the now hallowed politics of multiculturalism. But they cannot avoid these questions forever.