Concerns have been raised over damage to cars following a large gathering in east Belfast.<\/p>\n
Police said they were investigating two incidents of racially-motivated hate crimes.<\/p>\n
The PSNI said it had received a report of a large gathering at Factory Street at around 7.20pm on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was reported that the driver of a silver-coloured car was approached by members of the group. In fear, the driver then exited the vehicle, which was subsequently reported to have been damaged,\u201d the force said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA further report was received that the driver of a navy-coloured car was confronted by the group but managed to drive off. There were no reports to any injuries to the driver or damage to the vehicle at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The force added that officers at the scene conducted an evidence-gathering operation and would review the footage to determine whether any offences had been committed.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnquiries are continuing and at this stage, both of these incidents are being treated as racially-motivated hate crimes,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be an increased policing presence in the area, with officers continuing to engage with relevant partner agencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cSelf-appointed patrols are not accepted and will not be tolerated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would urge that anyone with concerns are reported to police, so they can be addressed by police safely and effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinn Fein MLA Deirdre Hargey described \u201cdisgusting racist violence\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a deplorable attack by thugs in Connswater Retail Park on Monday evening,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is yet another example of the disgusting, sporadic racist violence which we have seen across the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice are treating the incident as a racially-motivated hate crime and have appealed for information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stormont Justice Minister Naomi Long said hate crime was \u201ccompletely unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cRacism and sectarianism in Northern Ireland are two sides of the one coin,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRacist attitudes and the growing anti-migrant sentiment in Northern Ireland will only be addressed through a partnership approach, and will not be solved by one department alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf any individual suspects that a crime has been committed, I would encourage them to report it to the PSNI.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would also urge people not to get involved in this despicable behaviour. You will be held to account and the penalties could include a prison sentence.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a society, we must not stand by and tolerate racism or intimidation.\u201d<\/p>\n
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ADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Concerns have been raised over damage to cars following a large gathering in east Belfast. Police said they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[2378,1144,1618,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-411080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-psni","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115175719420303098","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411080","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=411080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}