Geoff Pearson

1/3 Why do people riot? Why do riots spread? theconversation.com/why-do-peopl...

Useful account of how a peaceful protest became violent and how protesters and rioters united against police in the Paris events www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Ah, Brian Bilston is at it again -- and just in time!

Blaming the escalating disorder on the police running out of munitions simply demonstrates just how many decades behind the French are, in modern public order policing tactics and crowd science. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

Well this all sounds like a great use of NHS time, money, and resources.

Lord Macdonald's independent review has reignited debate on policing protest. On 12 Nov, N8 PRP Co-Director @profgeoffpearson.bsky.social is speaking alongside Lord Macdonald, PSNI ACC Melanie Jones, and others about practical and legal implications: www.westminsterinsight.com/conferences-...

Interested in contributing to Public Law as Co-Editor of the journal's 'current survey' section and member of the journal's editorial committee? Then look👇

It's absolutely staggering that any police force dealing with public disorder involving children could consider stun grenades and rubber bullets to be appropriate tactics. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

Things that are terrorism: chucking paint, holding placards. Things that aren't: blowing up national infrastructure with homemade bombs.

Points deduction? Relegation? Expulsion? All but one of the charges against Manchester City have been proved. Football Law’s latest article explains what the Premier League Commission found and, perhaps more importantly, what could happen next. #MCFC #PL www.footballlaw.co.uk/articles/-ma...

Happy Manchester City Appeal Announcement Day! (I know nothing, but I think we’re all anticipating it.) PL Rules, r. W.86 provides Standard Appeal Directions that would ordinarily see, inter alia, an appeal concluded within 12 weeks of being made. However, those directions can be varied (W.85).

There's a fine line between an organisation being held liable for so many allegations of financial irregularity (and trying to mislead the investigation), and individuals in that organisation being criminally investigated for fraud. www.telegraph.co.uk/football/202...

While I'm sure these are all individually deserving of the appointment, there's something quite striking about this line up in this day and age.

Speaking as a United season ticket holder, I can confirm that we all lost confidence in Jim Ratcliffe quite a while ago.

The first Orangeman to back a united Ireland.

It will be interesting to see how the police response develops to repeated assemblies by this group. There are operational (and I argue legal) reasons why public order conditions, disperals, and arrests are more likely at repeated gatherings. inews.co.uk/news/no-mask...

Why did the influencers Man City want have to be male. And have neither they nor this marketing company heard of sex discrimination (I believe this kind of advert has been unlawful for about 50 years)? www.prolificnorth.co.uk/news/manches...

A huge amount of effort, from police, the CoP, & academics has gone into the slow, quiet revolution in football policing in this country. It's not perfect, & things would be simpler without the alcohol prohibitions, but it's a real success story for UK policing. www.theguardian.com/football/202...

I'll make myself unpopular now, but peaceful assembly, even if disruptive and unlawful, and even if being carried out by horrible people, is a human right and the police are obligated to protect it. The failure to do so in some other high profile cases does not change this legal position.

This afternoon at #sls2026 I'll be presenting the findings of my upcoming monograph with @hartpublishing.bsky.social on policing and human rights. It's a big lecture theatre so please come along and support me!

Surely you can already do this as a condition of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order?

Wow, 25 years ago. A rare occasion on which the football violence (and there was a lot in Munich that day) was knocked off the front page by the actual football.

I know this isn't terrorism. You know this isn't terrorism. The authorities know this isn't terrorism. But, once again, they have labelled protesters "terrorists", as part of the long-running programme to ensure that no one dares protest about anything any more. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

If the reports are true, this is absolutely nuts.

Are you around Manchester on 7 October? We've invited @iainbrennan.bsky.social to deliver a public seminar at @criminologyuom.bsky.social titled “Focused deterrence: Evaluating America's most successful violence intervention in an English context”. Registrations: eventbrite.co.uk/e/prof-iain-...

We have just witnessed an incredible A/B test showing how plagiarism allegations at Cambridge University play out depending on how racialized the subject of the allegations are and it says nothing good about our society or the state of "race relations". O'Reilly is still in post.

That UK wildfire alert suggests government has learned nothing from the criticism received for the vague and confusing messaging during Covid-19.

It's a good job that in the UK's HEI crisis - which is basically leading to a handful of big universities eating the smaller ones to the detriment of both students and the economic welfare of small/medium cities - the powers that be have been so focused on trans-people's access to toilet facilities.

The cosmic ballet, goes on (filmed in Vinaros).

I feel seen.

We put this to Arday 24 hours before his resignation. Our findings include: - A false claim of Mind funding his research - His claim that his participant committed suicide, in a study with no ethics approval and unreported in the final paper - evidence of fabricated participants - nonsensical errors

Incredible picture from metro in Kyiv, which is pelted by bombs daily as Russia tries to destroy Ukraine’s economy and population. 📸 T. Berezhna

Funny how talk of social contagion is always about restricting the identities and behaviours of young people, never about, say, once-respectable academics collecting reactionary ideas like an 8 year old collects interestingly-shaped rocks

Not even close.

Rupert Lowe claims to detest far-right ethnonationalism and neo-Nazism. Yet a string of extremists have been out campaigning for Restore candidate Marlon West ahead of Thursday’s Greater Manchester mayoral election.

Women's experiences of roads and transport networks are not always fully reflected in the evidence used to inform road safety policy and planning. A new study aims to better understand women's experiences of travel and road safety across Greater Manchester www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/w...

Can economists please stop confusing "there is a surprising dearth of research on X topic" with "economists have not looked at this yet". www.theguardian.com/science/2026...