Police ‘shocked’ by violence in Rotherham – ‘they have been making an attempt to harm individuals’

Seasoned police officers were “shocked” by the scale of violence seen in Rotherham last week, South Yorkshire’s Metro Mayor told the Mirror.

A mob of far-right thugs stormed the hotel in Manvers in Rotherham last Sunday, and set objects on fire in shocking scenes. They forced entry by smashing a window and then marched into the hotel – to the horror of worried onlookers, including children.

“These are long serving officers who have huge amounts of experience – and they were truly shocked by those levels of violence,” Mayor Oliver Coppard said.

“I think this is one of the things that has got slightly lost in the conversation about what happened. They weren’t attacking the hotel. They were attacking people in the hotel. They were attacking the community.”

He added: “They were trying to hurt people. They were absolutely trying to hurt people. And the only thing that stopped them from being able to hurt those people in that hotel was the bravery of the police officers that were on the ground and genuinely some of the most and brave and dedicated people I’ve ever seen”

Mr Coppard said people living in the area were still “terrified” after the shocking display of violence – but also a sense of “hope” after the huge counter protest that took place in nearby Sheffield on Wednesday.

And he revealed he’d filmed a video message to be played out at local Mosques so locals could hear reassurances directly from him.

“I said in our community leaders meeting as well… to those people from women in particular, from minority backgrounds is do not change how you live your life.

“Do not let these people scare you into living your life differently. Strength is absolutely kind of in that we, we are one place, one community, and we look after each other here.

“And we are a multi-faith, multi-ethnic, diverse place, a welcoming and safe place. And nobody should feel they need to change how they live their lives as a result of what we saw on Sunday.”

He added: “We are not that place and we do not want those people to represent us, and we have to have that conversation over the coming weeks and months ahead about how we come together as a community and show that that’s not who we are.

“The far right have always asked those with little to blame those with even less. And that’s what we saw, on Sunday, a hard right attack on a group of vulnerable people.”