Six men surrendered themselves in a police office Monday and Tuesday announced Scotland Yard. They were all arrested for disturbing public order, an offense that can lead to fines and up to six months imprisonment.
Six Londoners were arrested for setting fire to a replica of the Grenfell tower, which was burned in 2017, killing 72 people, a bonfire deemed "unacceptable" by Prime Minister Theresa May.
A video of this bonfire had caused outrage on Monday. She shows a group laughing and joking by igniting a replica of the building about one meter high, on which was written "Grenfell Tower" , paper characters being represented on the windows.
"Lacking respect for those who lost their lives in Grenfell Tower, and their families and loved ones is absolutely unacceptable," Theresa May tweeted.
To disrespect those who have lost their lives at Grenfell Tower, and their families, is utterly unacceptable. https://t.co/i4PeM2cGBd
- Theresa May (@theresa_may) November 5, 2018The Grenfell Tower fire is "one of the worst tragedies of our city , " said London Labor Mayor Sadiq Khan.
An act with racist overtones
Justice for Grenfell's Moyra Samuels described the act as "a disgusting attack on vulnerable people , " alarmed by a "worrying rise in racism in this country at the moment . "
The Grenfell Tower was located in a popular enclave in the affluent Kensington district of West London, and a significant proportion of the victims of the disaster came from immigration.
Many bonfires were held Monday and the previous weekend as every year around November 5 to celebrate the failure of a conspiracy of English Catholics led by Guy Fawkes to kill the Protestant King James I and blow up the Parliament, November 5, 1605.