Riots break out in Ireland after a mass stabbing injured five people including children.

 

Riot police form up near the site of the stabbing. Fox News/Reuters.

Riots have broken out in Ireland after a mass stabbing injured five people including children. Fox News. Four children and an adult woman were injured in the mass stabbing with one of the little girls in critical condition. Police haven't released the motive for the attack but said the attacker was in his 50's. Civilians managed to subdue the attacker and sent him to the hospital as well. The attack angered the local community to the point where much of Dublin was hit by riots. Rioters set fire to vehicles and fought with the police using stools taken from pubs. 

My Comment:

The elephant in the room that isn't really mentioned in the Fox News report is the fact that the suspect is believed to be an Algerian immigrant and not an Irish national. That hasn't been confirmed as the Irish police are being very cagey of the attacker's identity. There is a possibility that the attacker was not an African Muslim but I would think if it was an Irish attacker we would have already known about it now. 

The motive of this attack is unclear at this point. It's very likely terrorism, possibly retaliation for the Israel-Hamas war. However, it's possible it was just some random nutjob as well. Ireland isn't getting the best immigrants and I wouldn't be surprised if they had a lot of mentally ill people in with the migrants. 

If the rumors of him being an Algerian are true, I would expect this to be Islamic terrorism. Mass stabbings are a common tactic for them and there certainly has been an elevated threat from Islamic terrorists lately. There isn't really any surprise about a mass stabbing in Europe at this point. 

The good news is that bystanders stepped up and beat the hell out of this attacker. It's unclear who the heroes that stopped this man are but they did what you are supposed to do when there is an attack like this. Fighting back is dangerous of course, especially in Europe where nobody is allowed to be armed, but if you wait for the cops to come and shoot the attacker, people can die. If those people hadn't intervened, more people could have been stabbed or even killed. 

I am not surprised that people started rioting after this attack. From what I understand the status of African immigrants has been extremely controversial and the Irish government simply isn't listening to demands to not bring these people in. Given the fact that this attack was entirely predictable I don't blame them for being upset. 

Was it right to riot though? Probably not. Burning police cars and city busses are not really going to do much. Public disorder rarely accomplishes anything unless it advances to an actual insurgency. And I don't see that happening in Dublin anytime soon. 

I do expect that these kinds of riots will be more common in Europe. People are incredibly sick of the damage caused by these immigrants. They are sick of crime and terror attacks and they are reaching the limit of what they are going to accept. If Europe is lucky that simply means that right wing parties, like the Party for Freedom did in Holland. If they are not expect to see more riots and possibly even civil war...