Can anyone stop the thugs?

Far-right thugs and hooligans don't have a political credence, they just want to smash shit up. What do you do about it?

Last week, Britain was subjected to a depraved and heinous attack on its most vulnerable and innocent victims. The sickening attack, for which a 17-year-old boy has now been charged, was among the worst this country has seen in decades.

But a town and nation in mourning was soon swarmed by a gang of thugs. Men in their late teens and up, all of them white, felt the moment empowered them to take to the streets, throw bricks at police, howl racist chants and start fights. 

These hooligans will claim they were moved to violence by their anger at the attack. But they’re lying. They are heartless: they are racist, opportunistic and violent. They will claim they are patriots trying to protect their country, but they’re lying. Their motivation is to drink cans of Fosters and smash shit up. Too cowardly to go it alone, they wait until the mob moves, knowing that the police can't arrest them all. 

Above all, though, they’re idiots. They belong to tiny pockets of the population who think Tommy Robinson is a genius, and that Facebook memes are more trustworthy than any other source, and that if you call yourself a Sovereign Citizen you don’t have to pay parking tickets.

These men launched flares at a statue of Winston Churchill and threw bricks at police, supposedly because they love their country and value law and order. There’s no credence underlying this, it’s just idiocy to the core.

So what do you do about it? How do you end thuggery and hooliganism? 

First, in the short-term, you arrest them. Police and prosecutors need the powers to quickly charge and convict high numbers of low-level thugs with crimes. Criminal Behaviour Orders (which replaced ASBOs) need urgent reform to enable the police to issue them rapidly, without clogging up the courts or prisons, and on the balance of evidence rather than beyond reasonable doubt. Criminal Behaviour Orders can keep people out of prison while still ensuring they face punishment for smashing up our communities. 

We should not give police a power that has any subjectivity, that risks over policing. There should be a very clear list of behaviours that warrant their use. For example the use of projectiles in public spaces, damaging public infrastructure like buses or lampposts, or starting dangerous fires. It’s vital the right to protest is always protected, but that a firm and specific line is drawn between protest and the scenes we’ve seen last week. 

Right now, these guys are safe in numbers and the vast, vast majority will face no consequences for their actions. It is insane to me that after the violence and disorder of the Euros 2020 finals, where 19 police officers were injured, only 39 arrests were made. 

We should be leaning much more on technology to identify thugs and to enforce criminal orders. 

There must be punishment for this behaviour. If these idiots want to play stupid games, we must start doling out stupid prizes.

But, more importantly, what do you do in the long-term? How do you dismantle this hooliganism and thuggery that seems to rear its ugly head every few years. 

There is a crisis of masculinity across the Western world and it is fuelled by extremities on both sides of the political divide. The left is convinced that there is too much masculinity, and that it’s all toxic; the right is convinced there is not enough masculinity. Both seem to think young men and boys are being radicalised: but they disagree on if they’re becoming toxic misogynists or ultraliberal drag queens. 

The truth is, as ever, to reject both extremities.

We need to script out a modern masculinity that rejects extremism, violence or misogyny but that also embraces itself and the positive values that can be connected with it: strength, service, care. Richard Reeves, a scholar, author and political advisor, puts this very well: if we don’t want Andrew Tate telling young men how to be, we have to start telling them something ourselves. We can’t just expunge masculinity, we need to rescript it. He also has some great, practical policy interventions to help here, but the bottom line is that we need to think about it, not ignore it - for the sake of everyone.

You see, at these far-right rallies and bouts of violence, kids - who are there copying their boozed-up, bloated and sweaty dads bellowing some racist crap at police officers. There's no hope for the grown-ups, they should have a tag round their ankle or a stint behind bars to keep them away from society. But it feels like it’s not too late for the young men if we can offer a truly compelling alternative. An alternative that shows that true strength comes from moderating your emotions and controlling your actions. That true, 1940s-style masculinity, is about valour and service and community - not self-righteousness and unmodulated aggression. That you can be angry, or support a football team, or down tins, and you can demand and fight for social change - and you can do it all without lobbing cones at police officers or smashing the window of a kebab shop. 

That script must come from schools, from government, from the media, from role models: and it must cross boundaries of class and geography to reach everyone. Young men would have a better life if they were not thugs, we have to show there is a route to it.