The deeply alarming upsurge in racist intimidation and violence during the summer has so far been mainly centred on the greater Belfast area, where a range of serious incidents have taken place.
Police initially struggled to cope with the scale of the disorder, but have since responded robustly through widespread arrests and increased levels of patrolling, and the huge backing which ordinary citizens gave to anti-racist demonstrations was also significant, with some but not all of our politicians also speaking out firmly in support of the most vulnerable elements in our society.
While it would have been completely premature to suggest that the appalling campaign of hatred had been brought to an end, there was at least substantial evidence that, after an exceptionally difficult period, the tide was beginning to turn, so it was disturbing to find the threats spreading well outside Belfast, with crude imagery under investigation in counties Tyrone and Derry over the last 48 hours.
Malicious individuals went to considerable trouble to produce a sign, resembling an official government message, which was placed beside an Orange arch in the loyalist village of Moygashel near Dungannon, where other displays of racist and sectarian intolerance have been witnessed in recent years.
It carried the slogan “No illegal migrants for 1 mile” and was accompanied by an offensive image depicting people in a small boat, in a clear reference to the thousands of innocent victims who have drowned during the refugee crisis across the Mediterranean and the English Channel over the last decade.
The next shocking episode was in a new housing development under construction in the mainly loyalist Tullyally estate, close to Altnagelvin Hospital in the Waterside district of Derry city, where the walls of homes on Church Brae were sprayed with appalling graffiti, which included “No Taigs,”, “No scum”, “No migrant” and “Enter at own risk”, shortly before prospective purchasers were due to visit.
While no section of the community has a monopoly on racist and sectarian attitudes, it cannot be disputed that the vast majority of recent cases have been linked to loyalists.
The PSNI yesterday confirmed that the number of race hate crimes reported in the last year had risen by one third, with the additional bill for policing street violence over the last month alone increasing by £3.5m.
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These are unacceptable figures at every level, and, in addition to increased security measures, they will need to be addressed through educational and PR initiatives which set out the truth about migration patterns in the modern world.
We are also entitled to expect that regular and directly expressed condemnations of racist thuggery will be issued without exception by all our leading elected representatives.
