MERSEYSIDE”S Jewish community has started a petition calling on Chief Constable Sir Jon Murphy to intervene in a planned demonstration in Liverpool city centre on Saturday by the neo Nazi group, National Action.
The Merseyside Jewish Representative Council’s petition, on change.org, isn’t asking for the demonstration to be banned, but held away from major routes and residential areas - and away from any synagogue, Jewish cemetery or Jewish community centre.
Meanwhile, National Action has denied being behind a letter addressed to Mayor Joe Anderson which threatened the city of Liverpool would “go up in flames” if the march was banned.
The typed letter generated almost a full page of coverage in the Sunday Mirror with the headline "Let us march or we’ll start race riots". The mayor used his Twitter platform to attack it.
National Action deny sending this letter to Mayor Joe Anderson, which made headlines over the weekendMerseyside Police says National Action organisers had been discussing their Liverpool event with it. Nevertheless the letter, which was unsigned and left no contact details, appears to have been taken at face value.
It generated an angry reaction from Mayor Anderson who has called on Home Secretary Theresa May to ban the event. The mayor also wants to be given direct power to ban events likely to cause or incite hatred.
Now the fear is the publicity surrounding the event and the letter - genuine or not - could spark a confrontation by activists opposed to the far right group.
Merseyside Police was today sticking to its line that the event will go ahead as planned, though that could change should any new information or development happen.
The police say: “The intended march complies with the legal requirements of the Public Order Act 1986. The Force will facilitate a peaceful march to allow the applicants to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and assembly under the Human Rights Act 1986.”
National Action in Church Street last year
The march follows an appearance in Liverpool in June 2014 when the group were jeered by largely derisory shoppers in Church Street.
Just four months later one of National Action's supporters, Garron Helm, 21, from Litherland was jailed for four weeks after sending antisemitic tweets to Wavertree MP Luciana Berger.
Now more than 2,500 have, so far, signed the petition calling for restrictions to be imposed.
“We call on the Chief Constable of Merseyside Police to exercise his powers under Section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 to restrict the planned Neo-Nazi demonstration in Liverpool to be held: At a location away from major thoroughfares and residential areas; And for a short time with a small number of demonstrators.
“We also call on Merseyside Police and Liverpool City Council to apply for an injunction under Part 1 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 to ban the organisers and speakers for the planned "White Man March" from: Making or causing to be made or distributing any statement or image likely to cause harassment, alarm and distress; and Holding any kind of public assembly within two hundred metres of a synagogue, Jewish cemetery, or Jewish community or cultural centre.”
