On Sunday 26th September 1993, 57 members of the British National Party who were assembling in East London, prior to a regular newspaper sales drive at Brick Lane, were arrested and detained for several hours without charge.

The Anti Nazi League had announced its intention to occupy the BNP sales pitch. Dep. Asst. Commissioner Michael Taylor told the Evening Standard :

"The fact that the BNP have, for a number of years, been distributing leaflets and selling papers does not give them a right to come into an area where their presence is extremely likely to cause serious public disorder.

This decision, so far from being based on impartial public order criteria, was deliberately perverse – part of Scotland Yard's strategy to "build a positive image of the police among ethnic minorities".

We assert this in the light of the decision to allow the ANL to march against the BNP in Welling, Kent, not once, but twice (8th May and 16th October, 1993). Rioting, murderous attacks on the police and looting occurred on both occasions.