Police 'Clarify' Unite Against Hate March Was NOT 'EDL Rally', No Apology

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have told Breitbart London that the issue of officers caught calling Sunday’s March Against Hate an “EDL rally” was a “misunderstanding” which they claim now to have “clarified … with all involved”.

But speaking on Breitbart News Daily one of the organisers of the march, Tommy Robinson, denied this to be the case.

The Rebel Media correspondent said police misrepresentation could only have been intentional, reporting that officers on the day “told everyone who went near the march, ‘Stay away, English Defence League’.”

Accusing GMP of “doing everything they can to put [rally supporters] in harm’s way”, he told told Breitbart London editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam police took several measures “to make [the march] fail”.

These included boxing the rally into a “caged square” next to far left “anti-fascists” so as to incite violence that the media could then imply was caused by supporters of the anti-Sharia event.

Organised by Gays Against Sharia, the march through Manchester was to “honour the victims of hate” following the suicide attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester which killed 22 people.

The event hosted a range of black and minority ethnic (BAME) speakers, such as Sikh Awareness Society leader Mohan Singh, and Christian convert Mohammed Fiaz, but the BBC largely ignored the 3,500 supporters in attendance to falsely report it as an “EDL rally”.

The BBC’s reporting was blasted on Twitter by attendees and opponents of Sharia law, who encouraged people to lodge complaints against the state broadcaster, whilst others on the social media platform highlighted examples of police mislabelling the march as EDL-organised.

LISTEN: March organiser Tommy Robinson joins Breitbart London editor in chief on Breitbart News Daily Sirius XM 125 Patriot

A video taken at the event shows an officer who, asked why he was telling members of the public the march was “an EDL demonstration”, said he was given this information by people at the rally.

Challenged, the officer admitted the event was a protest against the terror attack at the Manchester Arena, but insisted it was organised by the EDL.

The march was also described as an EDL rally by Mounted Officer Kerry Dawson of Greater Manchester Police, who has since deleted her Twitter account.

A spokesman for the force told Breitbart London: “GMP has been made aware of a number of comments stating the protest on Sunday 11 June 2017 was organised by the English Defence League.

“This information is incorrect and we have clarified this with all involved to avoid any further misunderstanding.”

Policing at the rally was also questioned after a video, which went viral on Facebook garnering 1.7 million views, showed a police liaison officer telling a black supporter of the march to “move on”, who had been defending the event against so-called antifascists who called him a “Nazi”.

(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.9”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));