• 3 months ago
Wath residents and people from further afield have come together as an act of defiance and to help clear up the mess.
Transcript
00:00The sun may be shining today but yesterday this place here in Wath-upon-Dern was the place where the riots came to Rotherham.
00:12You can hear people scraping up the debris from the road as the clean up begins at Holiday Inn Express here in Wath-upon-Dern.
00:25We've just helped clean up. It's an absolute disgrace for what's happened to this area but we can't leave it like this.
00:35We can't let the right wing win. They're never going to beat us. We're always going to be stronger and better than they are.
00:43And how did that make you feel yesterday?
00:46It's horrific. It's absolutely horrific to see people who look like they will kill other people.
00:54It's a serious crime. There can't be any justification for it at all. I don't know what your motive is. That isn't protesting, that's rioting.
01:04There's just no excuse for it whatsoever.
01:07How do you feel like the community can recover now?
01:11I think it's going to take a lot of time. I can't see that there's going to be any way in which this hotel is ever going to be able to be used either as a normal hotel or a hostel or a refugee hut. I think it's too far gone from that now.
01:24What would be your message to people who were part of the riot or thinking of being part of a riot?
01:30I'd be absolutely ashamed of myself. You talk about standing up for our country. Well, I don't want to be part of our country.
01:37I'd take a 10,000 refugees any day over somebody who thinks it's acceptable to throw missiles at police officers, to set buildings on fire, to trash local communities.
01:47You're the people that are not welcome here. We don't want you.
01:50Absolutely agree.
01:52Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has condemned this violent act of thuggery.
01:57South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard has said that this was a brutal act of thuggery against some of society's most vulnerable people.
02:09Sophie Malan-Malin reporting from South Yorkshire.

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