I know the Essex town of Epping reasonably well. As a teenager I used to enjoy cycling and would regularly cycle there from East London and when I got there I would have something to eat and then get back on my bike. I would then go to the north of Epping, turn right onto Stonnards Hill, enjoy the rush of speed on the descent before ambling back via Abridge, Whalebone Lane North and Whalebone Lane South, through Dagenham and Barking and then back to home. Back then Epping was the quintessential Home Counties market town full of people whose families had worked their arses off in order to make it and make it sufficiently well to move to places like Epping.
Now, Epping is a place in turmoil and it is in that state because of decisions taken by central government. The government decided that they would place dozens of unvetted and illegal migrants into a hotel in the Epping area. One of the migrants burned down this hotel so all these migrants got moved to the Bell Hotel in Epping. Unfortunately it did not take long for these migrants to wear out any welcome that they might have had in a place that once welcomed Ukrainian women and children seeking refuge from the war in that country. I’ve seen accounts that seriously disturb me including migrants wandering around Epping Forest sleeping out and frightening dog walkers and families, migrant males, who are the majority of those staying at the Bell, hanging around Epping town centre intimidating men, women and children and generally being a pain in the arse. However a few weeks back one of the migrants decided to up the ante and sexually assault a schoolgirl in Epping. The 38 year old migrant from Ethiopia who allegedly carried out the sexual assault on this schoolgirl has been arrested and charged with three counts of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ with the schoolgirl.
Local people have obviously had enough of the trouble caused by these migrants from the Bell Hotel and about a week ago or so held a peaceful demonstration calling for the dangerous migrants to be moved away from their area and for their children to be able to move around the area in peace and safety as they once could. This demonstration was countered by those associated with the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) front group ‘Stand Up To Racism’ (SUTR). During this demo there were some minor scuffles between local people and the SUTR demonstrators with the result that the SUTR demonstrators ran away under police escort. Incidentally SUTR demonstrators are beginning to earn themselves the nickname of ‘paedo protectors’ among some normal people. This is because SUTR make a habit of turning out to loudly and aggressively protest against women speaking up about matters such as Islamic Rape Gangs and about the growing number of sexual assaults and rapes that have been carried out by those imported into the UK.
The original protest was mainly good natured with little in the way of violence. The initial protests were excellently reported on by Adam Brooks on X. In the reports by Mr Brooks we saw ordinary Britons, the vast majority of them local to the Epping area protesting for the safety of their children. Yes there was someone who allegedly roughed up one of the security guards protecting the unwanted migrants but that’s pretty minor compared to some of the stuff that I saw when I was a public disorder photographer many years ago. Bearing in mind the depth of feeling against the unwanted migrants and those who serve and protect them this attack seems to be pretty low level in the great scheme of things.
However the protest that happened outside the Bell Hotel on the 17th July was a different kettle of fish. As with the previous protest it seems that this one was primarily made up of local people who are at their wits end after having to put up with so much disturbance from the government imposed migrant savages at the Bell Hotel. However what was different was the behaviour of the police. Officers from both Essex Police and the Metropolitan Police which was policing the demonstration allowed about 40 or so counter-protesters from SUTR aka ‘the paedo protectors’ to come right up to the local people protesting against the dangerous migrants staying at the Bell Hotel. Now as someone who has attended probably more demonstrations and street aggro than most, I can quite accept that when there is a protest then counter-protestors should, for the sake of democracy, be facilitated. However this facilitation should not make a public order situation worse than it already is which is why when there is a demo, counter-protestors are kept out of reach of the main protest either with a manned policed gap or barriers or by having the counter-protestors a safe distance from the main protest. None of this happened in Epping from what I can see. The police escorted in the SUTR counter-demonstrators and let them get so close to the main anti-migrant protestors that it was bound to kick off and kick off it did.
Local people were in my view quite rightly angry that SUTR had turned up to scream in the faces of local resident that they were ‘racist’ and ‘fascist’ and soon verbal anger turned to physical anger as SUTR counter-protesters goaded those who had only turned out to protest for the safety of their children with gross insults. I don’t know who threw the first punches at this stage but I would say that there may have been no punches at all thrown had Essex and Metropolitan Police officers kept the SUTR types well away from the main demonstration against the Bell migrants.
The officers from both the Met and from Essex Police then went on to give us another demonstration of why allegations of two tier policing are not going away anytime soon. Officers from both forces engaged in extremely brutal policing tactics that they rarely, if ever, use against left wing or Islamist demonstrators. Forces who would pander to the middle class extremists of Just Stop Oil or Extinction Rebellion or who excuse Islamists shouting for Jihad in the centre of London or calling for the extermination of Israel’s Jews for a year and a half, broke faces the faces of British working people and ran over with police vans local people who were just out to protest the appalling danger that the Bell Hotel migrants pose to their children. I have placed below this piece media showing both the demonstration itself, the deliberate moving in of SUTR activists to confront local people and the worryingly violent behaviour of these two tier police forces.
All this aggravation could have been avoided. It’s another of those situations that fit in this blog’s ‘I told you this would happen’ strand (use these words to search to find other examples) where I have predicted trouble because the State has not acted in response to their population’s needs and fears. When the State fails to protect its people from assault or from victimisation or from intimidation by external groups or imported ideologies then confidence in the ability of the State to deal with these problems diminishes rapidly. Eventually people will start to take the law into their own hands sometimes with disastrous results.
I spent a lot of years in my earlier life on demos and I’ve seen what happens when a mob forms and it’s rarely anything good. Because of my experience of public disorder and the negative effects it can have, I have grown to have a great dislike of mobs as they can often be inherently unjust and target not just the guilty for their attentions but also the innocent. This is why I’ve always called for a political solution to things like migration, Islamic extremism and similar problems because the alternative might be much worse. The problem is in situations like that in Epping and in other places where these unwanted and dangerous migrants have been dumped is that people tried the political route first and tried very hard to make that political route to getting these dangerous migrants out, but it didn’t work. People objecting to the unwanted imposition of often dangerous illegal migrants near to their homes and their children’s schools should be listened to and should have their concerns prioritised by the State.
We should be extremely concerned that this situation has developed in Epping as it is a situation that should never have happened. The borders should have been secured to such an extent that illegals didn’t get in, those illegals that did get in should have been deported immediately, the illegals should never have been place among vulnerable communities like that of Epping and similar places and instead they should have been kept in secure accommodation until deportation. That this trouble happened in Epping, a relatively peaceful and prosperous town close to London is extremely worrying. This is because if such trouble and the causes of this trouble can happen somewhere like Epping then it can happen almost anywhere. Sadly I predict that we are in for a long, hot, disturbing and politically challenging summer. Hold onto your hats I think that we are in for a rough ride. This is not something I want to see but it seems that is something we are going to get.
Links
Daily Mail report on the migrant accused of sexual assault on a schoolgirl
Adam Brooks X account
https://x.com/EssexPR
Media. All from the X platform. Sources acknowledge where known.
Videos embedded at this site https://www.fahrenheit211.net/2025/07/18/i-told-you-this-would-happen-epping-edition/