Violence<\/a> 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>\nA 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
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
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
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":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-242028","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\/114804900735449069","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242028","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=242028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}