Gary Bartlett and Safeguard Force: public posts and racism concerns

Bartlett did not only allow vile Islamophobic hate and misinformation to circulate in that space - he was also an active poster himself. One of the most widely reported examples, covered by the Daily Echo, was his post about setting up turrets along the clifftops of Bournemouth to shoot down refugees. Most concerningly, he framed this as his “latest business venture”

While this was obviously a sick joke rather than a literal business proposal, it cannot be ignored that Bartlett went on to establish Safeguard Force shortly afterwards: an organised vigilante-style project claiming to provide “community safety”. That raises serious questions about the group’s true intentions.

While not currently endorsed by BCP Council, the looming threat of a Reform UK government could see Safeguard Community Support get official endorsement by BCP Council in the future, leading to a greater role in “community safety” and an informal power in our community, without the democratic accountability, training, transparency or oversight expected of genuine public services.

Below is a gallery of images taken from Gary Bartlett’s Facebook. Bartlett has since removed these posts, apparently as part of a swift audit of his online trail to maintain the image of a community-minded founder of Safeguard Community Support.

Can people change? Of course. But change has to mean more than deleting old posts and hoping nobody notices.

People can move away from racist ideas. They can learn how refugees, migrants and Muslims are scapegoated by politicians, the press and the ruling class to distract from the real causes of poverty, housing shortages, crime, underfunded services and social crisis.

But that kind of change usually comes with some evidence of reflection. It means publicly rejecting the views you once promoted. It means explaining what changed. It means challenging the racism you previously helped spread. It means showing, through words and action, that you now stand with the people you once mocked or scapegoated.

That is especially important when someone is not just a private individual, but a public-facing figure involved in a group claiming to provide “community safety”. If Gary Bartlett has changed his views, residents are entitled to ask where the evidence of that change is. Where is the public apology? Where is the clear rejection of Islamophobia and anti-refugee racism? Where is the commitment to challenging scapegoating rather than reproducing it?

The Football Lads Alliance (FLA) is a far-right movement in the United Kingdom founded by John Meighan in 2017. According to The Times, "the movement was set up as a self-proclaimed 'anti-extremist' movement" but has increasingly become associated with far-right politics and far-right activists/

Gary Bartlett shared this AI-generated image onto his racist Facebook page claiming "just one more boatload" of women in bikinis.

Not only is this degrading and sexist (they're not wearing it for you, Gary), it also puts his racism on full display: white people are welcome, brown people are not.

This image shows Gary pleading to his racist followers to "keep the hate speech down" so the group didn't breach Facebook's guidelines.

He is not concerned about the hate speech itself, but for his group to stay active and continue to spread racist misinformation.