{"id":235348,"date":"2025-07-03T18:03:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T18:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/235348\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T18:03:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T18:03:13","slug":"more-than-100-officers-were-hurt-in-northern-ireland-riots-boutcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/235348\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 100 officers were hurt in Northern Ireland riots \u2013 Boutcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

However, he warned that a budget crisis facing the force means that its reliance on external support is apparent.<\/p>\n

Violence erupted in\u00a0Ballymena\u00a0in June after an alleged sexual assault of a girl in the town. Two 14-year-old boys, who spoke to a court through a Romanian interpreter, were charged with attempted rape.<\/p>\n

A peaceful protest in the Co Antrim town about the alleged assault was followed by attacks on police and properties housing ethnic minorities, described by police as \u201cracist thuggery\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"BallymenaPSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher described violent scenes as disgraceful (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n

The disturbances lasted for several nights and spread to other areas of Northern Ireland including Portadown, Larne, Belfast, Carrickfergus, Londonderry and Coleraine.<\/p>\n

Police also dealt with several nights of sectarian disorder in Londonderry.<\/p>\n

Speaking during the monthly accountability meeting of the Policing Board, Mr Boutcher said Northern Ireland had experienced \u201cwidespread racially and sectarian motivated rioting and disorder\u201d in the past month.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIn disgraceful scenes reminiscent of last summer, we saw hate-filled mobs throw petrol bombs, masonry, fireworks, an axe, at police officers, targeting homes and businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey targeted law-abiding, decent families from diverse communities who make Northern Ireland a better place, creating fear in people who simply want to live in peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can confirm the final number of injured officers as 107, many with head injuries from masonry and other missiles.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThere is no place for such violence, these actions were not about protest, they were attacks on the very fabric of our society.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat sort of Northern Ireland do we want to live in?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BallymenaSeveral properties were targeted during recent unrest (Niall Carson\/PA)<\/p>\n

The Chief Constable said every incident during the disturbances was being treated as a racially or sectarian motivated hate crime.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cTo date 56 arrests have been made and 27 individuals remanded into custody.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore will follow as we pursue those responsible and bring them to justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deterrents of long prison sentences will be a sobering reality for many of those involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur own no-nonsense approach of arresting suspects with the swift release of suspect images had a further powerful deterrent effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will use the most appropriate tactics, including AEP (attenuating energy projectiles) and water cannon to protect communities and my officers from harm.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur approach will be robust and it will be consistently applied.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Boutcher referred to commentary suggesting rioters were treated differently in separate parts of Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI want to be absolutely clear, we respond to public disorder without fear or favour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no difference to our approach based on the background or motivation of those involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo suggest otherwise removes the focus of condemnation where it rightfully belongs, upon those using violence and spreading hate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is crucial we are collectively seen to be unequivocal in standing together against these cowardly acts of racism, hatred and violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BallymenaA water cannon vehicle at scene of unrest in Portadown (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n

The Chief Constable continued: \u201cOn that first night of disorder in Ballymena\u2026 officers of the PSNI saved people\u2019s lives and they put their own lives at risk to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not have enough officers there because we are not sufficiently resourced and that has got to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Boutcher referred to mutual aid arrangements which led to officers from Police Scotland being sent to Northern Ireland during the rioting.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThat mutual aid was required and again highlights the unacceptable fragility of our own resourcing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur reliance on external support has never been more apparent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, he warned that a budget crisis facing the force means that its reliance on external support is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-235348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114790623220575064","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}