The English city of Liverpool awoke on Tuesday to a blizzard of questions about a vehicle that rammed a crowd of people in a sports parade the previous evening, injuring dozens, two seriously. But amid all of the horror and confusion, one fact emerged: The car’s driver was a 53-year-old white British man, and he had been arrested at the scene. The decision to disclose the driver’s race and nationality so quickly appeared calculated to defuse the rumors and misinformation that have spread after other recent violent episodes in Britain. Last summer, after a British-born man with parents from Rwanda fatally stabbed three young girls at a dance studio in Southport, a town north of Liverpool, false reports that the assailant was an undocumented Muslim migrant spread rapidly online. The next day, a riot broke out in Southport, the first of several in cities and towns across England.

Source: The Times May 27, 2025 17:57 UTC