The British police response to Sunday’s Birmingham 90-minute killing spree with a knife was inadequate, József Horváth, security policy expert at Hungary’s Fundamental Rights Center think-tank told television channel M1 on Monday.
Horváth said that the simple fact that the perpetrator was allowed to run amok for 90 minutes should prompt an internal investigation into why the Birmingham police reacted so slowly. He said the available recordings of the incident make it obvious that the perpetrator is a young man with an African immigrant background.
Britain has become a multicultural country in recent years, and — as Horváth said — coexistence and intercultural divergence result in risks and problems, the management of which poses a great challenge to the country.
He also pointed out the fact that although the perpetrator’s relationship and background are still be investigated, the British media and police authorities are not treating the case as a terrorist attack. From this, according to the expert, it can be felt that politics might be “interfering” with the case.
Horváth also said that the Birmingham knife attacks in the vicinity of Chinatown and a gay bar are two locations that make it conceivable that the violence was motivated by resentment towards minorities. In June of this year, there was also speculation about the potential motives regarding another knifing attack by a Libyan refugee in the British city of Reading that resulted in the death of three gay men.
The United Kingdom, along with other countries that have embraced mass migration, has been beset by rising crime, knifings, and an increase in terrorism cases. Countries like Sweden, Germany, and Italy have seen similar issues. Countries like Hungary and Poland have not seen a single terrorist attack on their soil.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has also said in the past that terrorism is clearly linked with migration.
The series of knife attacks happened in downtown Birmingham in central England on Sunday, in which a 23-year-old man was killed, as well as a 19-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman, while five others sustained minor injuries. The 27-year-old suspect was taken into custody on Monday.
Police were also slow to release information about the suspect, prompting criticism from Brexit party leader Nigel Farage.
Why have West Midlands Police not told us who committed the knife attacks last night? I think I know the answer.
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) September 6, 2020
On Sunday, both police and British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said there were no indications that the attack had anything to do with terrorism.
In addition to Horváth, other Hungarians have pointed to the perils of multiculturalism for state security. This year, Balázs Orbán, state secretary in Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s office, said that public safety was far better in Budapest than in London in response to statements made by Budapest’s liberal mayor, Gergely Karácsony.
“With this statement, the mayor of Budapest has named as a role model a city leader under whose rule London public safety has deteriorated significantly,” Balázs Orbán wrote. “This was also confirmed by the BBC. The British public service media reported that 16 of Britain’s 20 most dangerous areas are in London. (…) But knifings are not the only problem in London. The number of terrorist attacks has also increased, Londoners having suffered nine such attacks since 2015.”
Title image: A police officer and vehicles are seen at a cordon in Irving Street in Birmingham after a number of people were stabbed in the city centre, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2020. British police say that multiple people have been injured in a series of stabbings in a busy nightlife area of the central England city of Birmingham.(Jacob King/PA via AP)
