FURTHER STATEMENT FROM SOUTH YORKSHIRE'S MAYOR ON VIOLENCE IN ROTHERHAM

Published 5 August 2024 at 1:48pm

In a further statement since the violent disorder in Rotherham, South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard said: 

“Last night I was with Police and emergency staff who have been working to keep our communities safe. Today I have been on the ground in the Dearne Valley joining the best of our community to clean up the damage done by yesterday’s violence. Like every other decent person in South Yorkshire I have been appalled, angry and saddened by the events we have seen in our community in the last 24 hours. 

 “There is no excuse for what we saw happen in Rotherham, for the damage and destruction that was carried out by those who chose to so violently express their hatred in our communities. There is simply no justification for trying to burn down a hotel with over two hundreds vulnerable and terrified people inside. Those people came here to seek refuge from violence and persecution at home, and yet yesterday they faced that same violence here. 

“The far right have always asked those with little to blame those with even less. What has happened across South Yorkshire and the rest of the country over the last few days is no different. It clearly isn’t anything to do with the three little girls so tragically murdered in Southport. The hatred of others must not be allowed to eclipse their memory. Racism is not patriotism, violence is not grief. 

“The only legacy of the hatred we have seen across South Yorkshire and our country must now be the way in which we respond as a community; that legacy must be found in the people helping to clean up, those offering help and support to the emergency services, the people caring for and looking out for each other when they are scared.      

“My grandparents came to this country as refugees. I am now the Mayor of South Yorkshire. The same opportunity that was afforded to me is what I will fight every day to protect. Everyone – no matter whether they were born here or if they have chosen to make our home, their home – deserves the chance to live out their fullest potential here in South Yorkshire.  

“Over the coming days and weeks we must now show the rest of the world who we really are; a community filled with kindness and hope, where everyone is welcome and safe.”