Social media videos are fuelling a potent line of attack on Labour’s mayors – but what is the reality?
In a TikTok video which went viral this summer, a man armed with bricks chases the person filming him in Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens as horrified shoppers watch on.
In another clip published on YouTube this month, teenagers are caught on camera embroiled in a vicious fight involving weapons in the same city centre location on a Saturday night.
Both were shared by a man called Curtis Arnold on his social media channel DJE Media which he describes as “independent journalism done with a twist”.
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Giving his videos tabloid headlines such as “Crackadilly Gardens” and “Most Insane Manchester Video Ever”, Arnold’s footage of people taking drugs, being violent and police making arrests, has earned him a huge following in recent months.
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, and his senior police chiefs are becoming increasingly concerned that this social media activity is creating a negative narrative.
“You do know that most of Manchester is riddled with crime and anti-social behaviour with people too scared to go into town or for a night out?” one viewer told Burnham on social media.
A clip of fighting in Piccadilly Gardens was shared with a caption that stated, without providing evidence: “Gang warfare erupts on the streets of Manchester between illegals fighting over drug trade territory. This is why we need mass deportations now before every city is like this.”
A man armed with bricks chases a person filming him on TikTok (Photo: DJE Media)
A similar phenomenon has already unfolded in London where Burnham’s counterpart Sir Sadiq Khan is frequently criticised for crime rates in the capital, fuelled by videos of people having their phone snatched or shoplifters ransacking shelves with impunity.
Even US President Donald Trump has taken up the story, claiming Khan is “among the worst mayors in the world” because “crime is through the roof”.
For Labour, the danger is that this narrative – of a “fallen” country where civil disorder has broken down due to mass immigration – is now spreading to England’s other cities.
But is it based in reality or is social media distorting the truth?
Lowest number of homicides in a decade
“There is a gap between the negative narrative that some put out on social media and the facts,” Burnham told The i Paper. “The two are quite significantly out of kilter. Manchester is a much safer city-region than some would have you believe.”
Burnham points to figures that show knife crime has halved in the past five years, while there have also been reductions in domestic abuse and vehicle crime.
‘There is a gap between the negative narrative that some put out on social media and the facts,’ Burnham told The i Paper
There were 27 homicides in Greater Manchester in the year ending March 2025, the lowest figure recorded by the Office for National Statistics going back to 2015.
By comparison, there were 66 homicides in 2019, the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic significantly altered crime patterns.
In fact, all crime has fallen by 7.2 per cent in Greater Manchester in the past twelve months, according to the latest data.
It is a similar story in London where there were just 70 homicides between January and September this year, the lowest since records began.
Knife crime has dropped by 7 per cent, while the number of residential burglaries, personal thefts and personal robberies also fell.
In London where there were just 70 homicides between January and September this year
However, as the Piccadilly Gardens videos demonstrate, clearly there are still violent incidents which are frightening the public.
This week, Burnham and Greater Manchester Police launched a new tool, “Travel Safe Live Chat”, which will allow people to raise the alarm while using the transport network.
This followed a survey which found that fears about personal safety was the number one reason stopping people using public transport more often.
“We’re not complacent, we know as a city-region there’s more we need to do and hence the announcement about Travel Safe Live Chat,” Burnham added.
“But Greater Manchester Police is a very different police force today than it was and that is borne out in the crime statistics across the city-region.”
There are still violent incidents which are frightening the public
‘We need to fight back’
The i Paper understands Burnham and Greater Manchester Police became so concerned by the activities of YouTubers and TikTokers they are examining whether new legislation is required to tackle it.
Filming in a public place is not illegal but police can seize phones if they think it contains evidence of a crime.
Individuals such as Arnold often make efforts to befriend police and security officers on the ground in order to gain their trust.
Burnham said he believes content creators such as Arnold are not looking to expose crime issues, but generate income.
Both YouTube and TikTok offer users options to monetise their content in the UK if their audience is big enough.
Arnold has got into trouble over his social media activity.
In 2023, he was one of a number of TikTok sleuths who travelled to St Michael’s on Wyre, the Lancashire village where mother-of-two Nicola Bulley went missing.
After publishing a video of Bulley’s body being dredged from the river, Arnold was arrested on suspicion of malicious communications offences and perverting the course of justice – though he was never charged.
“We have a modern phenomenon going on in the city that I think we need to start challenging more directly,” Burnham added.
“These are people who would call theselves ‘citizen journalists’ I would guess, or auditor, they go under a variety of names.
“And they are out there, on our streets behaving, in my view, sometimes quite provocatively in terms of the way they go about things.
“Creating content which I think they are then selling for quite a large return.
“And I think this needs to be pointed out.
“I’m not saying for a second we’re complacent about levels of crime in Piccadilly Gardens, we’ve had Operation Vulcan in the last year and police will tell you that led to a number of arrests and dealt with some very serious criminality.
“But I don’t think we should just accept that people are able to portray the city-region in a certain way and describe it in a certain way without us fighting back.
“We’re saying ‘do you know what, we’re better than what you’re saying, you may have a low opinion but actually the vast majority of people here can see the change in the city-region’ and the crime stats bear that out.”
When contacted by The i Paper Arnold claimed that his footage has been requested by Greater Manchester Police as part of a number of criminal investigations in recent months.
He did not comment on Burnham’s wider criticism.
‘We’re tackling the things that really matter’
Chris Sykes, Assistant Chief Constable at Greater Manchester Police, said his force has made a “whole host of improvements” in recent years, not just in tackling crime but also in answering both 999 and 101 non-emergency calls much faster.
“Under (Chief Constable) Sir Stephen Watson, we’re really focused on what the public want,” he said.
“They want to see our officers, they want to see our PCSOs, they want to see our staff, they want to see us out there reassuring those communities.
“The public want us to tackle the things that really matter to them, so feeling safe on a bus, on a tram, anti-social behaviour when they’re out walking of an evening, but they want us to tackle those crimes that really matter as well, burglary, robbery, incidents in the city centre around shoplifting.
“And in all those the indicators are that GMP is making really good improvements.”
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