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Police sent to wrong hotel and ‘confused’ during racist violence in summer 2024
An academic study has shed new light on the violence in Bristol in the summer of 2024, highlighting police confusion and the heroic defence of a hotel housing asylum seekers by counter-protesters.
The study used interviews, social media posts, news articles and police arrest data in order to build up a timeline of events and identify the groups involved.
The violence, which occurred on August 3 2024, saw an anti-immigrant mob descend on Castle Park for a ‘stop the boats’ and ‘save our kids’ rally before they crossed Bristol Bridge and targeted the Mercure Hotel in Redcliffe.
The study, which also looked at disorder in Hanley and Tamworth in Staffordshire, discusses how police were initially stationed at the hotel on Redcliff Hill but were pulled away to aid the effort in Castle Park.
When redeployed to address the growing number of far-right aggressors at the Mercure, police were given incorrect information and sent to a Holiday Inn hotel instead, leaving the Mercure unprotected and defended by counter-protesters.
Green Party councillors told the hotel manager that a far-right mob was on the way “and the police wouldn’t be in a position to stop them”.
Several dozen counter-protesters linked arms and formed a protective cordon in front of the entrance to the Mercure.
From around 8.10pm, they were attacked by far-right aggressors with missiles, kicks and punches, as well as racist and homophobic abuse.
Seven officers on bicycles were the first police on the scene, with the study saying “they were clearly heavily outnumbered and sent a message ‘in panic’ to their Bronze commander requesting immediate assistance as groups of participants began to physically assault them to get at the counter-protesters and the hotel entrance”.
— cez (@cezthesocialist) August 3, 2024
Police reinforcements only appeared 30 minutes after the far-right mob first arrived at the hotel.
The study says: “There seems to have been some awareness amongst A&S commanders that the Mercure hotel had become vulnerable and that some participants might be heading there, as had been advertised in the e-flyer announcing the protest.
“The Bronze commander in Castle Park, along with their Public Order Public Safety (POPS) team, was redeployed to organise the protection of the asylum seekers, mainly women and children, and staff at the hotel, but were given incorrect information and sent to a Holiday Inn hotel instead.
“After realising there was ‘nothing going on there’, they returned somewhat confused to Castle Park and continued supervising the operation there.
“This led to a situation where there were no police commanders present at the Mercure when the assault on it by anti-immigrant participants began in earnest.”
According to one police eyewitness quoted in the report, it was in the top-five most violent incidents they had witnessed in their 25-year career.
Only around half a dozen police officers on bikes are currently between protesters at the Mercury in Redcliffe pic.twitter.com/z3GgVrcO9o
— Martin Booth (@beardedjourno) August 3, 2024
A few days after the hotel was bravely defended, Avon & Somerset deputy chief constable Jon Reilly told Bristol24/7 that officers originally stationed at the hotel left “to respond to disorder nearby where the risk was deemed to be greater” but returned “within minutes… as soon as we became aware that the two groups had gathered outside”.
Reilly said: “Hundreds of police officers, many of whom came in to work on a day off, put themselves in harm’s way throughout the course of Saturday 3 August to protect the public.
“Each and every one of them deserves enormous credit for their actions that day, which were carried out in the face of disgraceful violence and abuse.
“It was an incredibly complex and dynamic policing operation which prevented anyone coming to any serious harm.
“Officers were deployed outside the Mercure Hotel throughout the evening before they were briefly used to support colleagues nearby where the risk was deemed greater.
“Within minutes officers returned to separate the two groups gathered outside the hotel. Despite being faced with disgusting physical and verbal abuse, they showed immense courage in protecting the public.”
Reilly added that since August 3 2024, “a thorough investigation has taken place which so far has resulted in 44 people being sentenced for their involvement in the disorder”.
The disorder started in Castle Park before moving over Bristol Bridge to the Mercure hotel in Redcliffe – photo: Rob Browne
The study spotlights the hotel’s defence as an illustration of Bristol’s commendable show of solidarity against racist anti-immigration ideology.
It notes that the 600 to 700 counter-protesters “who constituted minimal if no threat” significantly outnumbered the far-right’s 200 “who were the source of the attacks”.
The study concluded that it would be inaccurate to call the events of August 3 ‘protests’ due to their racist nature, with the study’s writers calling them ‘riots’ due to the violent disorder, pre-meditation and attacks against targeted groups.
In Bristol, however, charges of violent disorder were authorised in the majority of cases and no one has been charged with riot.
Main photo: Aiden Harris
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