The Poisonous Politics Behind Britain’s New “Patriot Patrols”
There is something profoundly disturbing about a group of self-styled “patriots” deciding that they have the right to patrol public spaces, approach people they regard as suspicious and tell them to move on.
That is what makes the reported incident involving Ryan Green and Scott Brodie, linked to the Blackpool Patriot Platform, so troubling.
According to reports, the men filmed an encounter with a Black man sitting with his bicycle on Thornton Village Green. He was approached and told that women and children did not feel safe with “foreign men” sitting nearby. When he asked whether the comment was about him, he received the extraordinary response that it was not about him specifically but about “other people”.
🚨RACISTS Told a Black Man To Get Off a Public Park Bench
— i Expose Racists & Pedos (@SeeRacists) September 28, 2026
A young Black man is sitting on a public bench. He is on his phone.
Ryan Green walks up and tells him to leave.
On the video someone says, “There’s one sat here.”
Ryan Green is the man who walked up and told him to… pic.twitter.com/RrtvRGsDdc
But if an individual is approached, filmed and told to move because people supposedly feel uncomfortable around “foreign men”, the distinction is meaningless.
He had apparently done nothing wrong. There was no reported allegation that he had threatened anyone, committed an offence or behaved improperly. Yet he was singled out and made to feel that his presence in a public space was somehow unacceptable.
That is not community safety. It is intimidation.
The most revealing element may be the language used afterwards. The Blackpool Patriot Platform reportedly described its members as being on a “peaceful patrol” and encouraged people to contact the group if they saw “migrants hanging round your local areas”.
That should concern anyone who believes in the rule of law.
Britain has police officers for dealing with suspected criminal behaviour. We have courts to determine guilt. We have democratic institutions and established procedures for addressing genuine concerns about public safety.
We do not need self-appointed patrols deciding who looks suspicious enough to confront.
Nor should legitimate concerns about crime, antisocial behaviour or the safety of women and children ever be weaponised to justify racial stereotyping. Someone’s appearance, perceived nationality or status as a migrant is not evidence that they pose a threat.
The incident also demonstrates how easily modern technology can turn intimidation into propaganda. Film the confrontation, publish it online and suddenly an ordinary person becomes content for an audience encouraged to view strangers through suspicion and hostility.
Patriotism should mean caring about the country and the people who live in it. It should not mean dividing communities into those deemed to belong and those who are expected to explain their presence.
A public park belongs to the public.
A bench is not the property of a vigilante group.
And nobody should have to prove that they belong in Britain before being allowed to sit quietly in a public space.
Whatever someone’s views on immigration, the answer is not mob rule. It is democracy, evidence, due process and the law.
Once we allow self-appointed “patrols” to replace those principles, we are not making our communities safer.
We are making them more fearful.
By allowing some politicians to exploit this bigotry, we are creating hell on our own doorsteps.
