0:00
Are they moving quickly enough in terms of police now
0:02
I know they did, you know, I think everybody feels they did well to say more about the suspect last night, and it definitely helped
0:09
But do you think they could move any quicker today? Should we hear more from them today, for example
0:16
Well, there will be more today. And look, they are acting as quickly as it's feasible to do
0:22
The first thing they have to do is obviously to secure the area, and they did that very quickly
0:27
and if you have a look, people dispersed really very quickly once the police were on scene
0:35
and I'd just like to thank all the people who were here for doing that
0:40
because then that allowed them then to gather the evidence and now they're assessing all of that
0:45
and of course they'll have conversations with the driver who's apprehended at the scene and arrested
0:51
so all of that is in line now and we'll make certain that if there is anything to say
1:00
it's the police who allow us to speak to the press after they've, of course, put a statement out or had a press conference
1:09
Mayor Alderan, you touched upon some of the negative social media reaction
1:13
Do you think it's significant that the police chose to name the suspect's race in this case
1:17
That's not something that usually happens. I mean, what does that say about the state of the country at the moment
1:21
Well, it says that social media can be a cesspit. There are lots of good things, as you just said, about people offering lifts and opening the doors
1:29
But social media could have created the conditions where more concern could have been raised for the people who were stuck here
1:36
Because we had to shut down the transport system. That what happens when there a major incident So all of a sudden they can get away from the city and yet there are people nefariously online telling them that there possibly other things that have happened
1:53
which were untrue, of course. And so I didn't want that speculation to cause any concern
2:00
and that's the right decision taken by Merseyside Police to put that information out
2:05
Sorry, I'm just conscious of Mayor Rotherham's time. One last question. There must have been a part of your head last night
2:13
when that social media speculation was gaining traction that was thinking about last summer's riots
2:18
and worrying that something similar might happen. Do you worry that we live in a society now
2:24
where things can very quickly escalate to that point? First of all, I'm a human being and then I'm a dad
2:30
and then I'm a politician. So as a dad, first of all, when your kids are here
2:37
or some of your family, you're concerned about that. The bit about the politician is that you have to learn lessons
2:45
and I've seen from what's happened previously that those things can run right
2:50
and you have to put them to bed very, very early and very quickly. I think that's why Major Society Police acted so quickly
2:58
and so correctly in trying to dampen some of the nefarious stories
3:04
that were abounding at the time. Otherwise, you can imagine people would have been worried about whether there's other things that they're going to walk into
3:12
And at the first opportunity, we opened up the public transport system
3:17
And it was the staff who volunteered to stay late and run late services because we'd had the hiatus where it was all locked down
3:25
And they got people home safely. And there's some of the other people who need to be recognised in this narrative as well
