UK anti-migrant vigilante groups surge to 28 in 18 months, raising disorder fears

Across the United Kingdom, a quiet but accelerating fracture in civic trust has taken visible form: twenty-eight vigilante groups, most born within the last year, have appointed themselves guardians of borders and streets that elected authorities, in their view, have abandoned. From Glasgow's late-night patrols to Channel-side confrontations in France, these groups enact an old and dangerous idea — that when institutions fail, the people must arm themselves with authority they were never granted. Experts warn that this logic, however sincerely held by some, has historically served as the thres