Crawley Counter-Protest 9th August 2024

About a week after riots kicked off in various towns in England, in the wake of the murder of three young children, a counter protest was held in Crawley against what the protestors saw as the country descending into far right fascism. The original protest against which they were opposed was cancelled a few days before as the organiser did not want any violence to break out. The counter protest went ahead anyway. I had been in two minds about going to record this event, as the possibility of violence was still there. In the end I decided to go along for about half an hour to see what was happening with my own eyes. As it turned out, I lasted about 10 minutes before some young anti racists decided I was a fascist on the basis that my t-shirt was sporting a fascist slogan. It read "Freedom can't be cancelled". I believe the link was made via the word 'cancelled', because of 'cancel culture'. After a brief and very surreal conversation, I left for my own safety. I was hoping the microphone would pick up what was said, but unfortunately the chanting has drowned it all out. I was confronted by the angry youngsters at about 10 minutes into the video, and that is why the camera starts to record at a greater angle than usual. I was no longer paying attention to what I was filming, for obvious reasons.