You’ve read it here before. The north of Ireland is the most racist region in these islands and Belfast is the racist capital of these islands. In order to drive home the point a group is to stage a march on Saturday stating in a piece of gratuitously ignorant nonsense that they are marching ‘against the influx of refugees/terrorists coming to the shores’.
To add insult to injury they style themselves the ‘Protestant Coalition’. They are nothing of the sort which the main Protestant churches have made clear in their statement condemning the march.
The first and deputy first ministers have also condemned the march which will disrupt Belfast on a busy shopping day in the run up to Christmas. Fair enough, but response so far has been sadly lacking. The figures for racist attacks and hate crimes here are so bad you would think serious action is long overdue. Don’t hold your breath.
For a start, the response from the PSNI to racism has been deplorably ineffective. Every year they produce figures which show that racism is becoming worse. There were 307 racist crimes in Belfast in 2013 and 476 in 2014. Racist crimes were up 43 per cent in the eight months to January 2015 with the biggest increase, 73 per cent in east Belfast. There, Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr said in 2013 the UVF were behind many of the attacks which he added, ‘leave the unpleasant taste of ethnic cleansing’.
A shop in east Belfast told the BBC they sell at least one Ku Klux Klan flag a week, always to men under thirty. They didn’t say why they stock KKK flags.
The arrest rate is small to non-existent. As for convictions, negligible. In the five years before 2014 there were 14,000 racist crimes reported in the north. Fewer than ten per cent were even prosecuted. There were twelve, yes twelve convictions.
These figures are all the more disgraceful when you consider that despite the lies and vitriol racists and bigots here spout the 2011 census showed there are only 32,000 people from ethnic minorities living here, a vanishingly small percentage of the population.
Fewer than one per cent of all non-EU/EEA migrants come here. You wonder why? Yet the PSNI can’t guarantee their safety.
Even more disturbing is the standard response from the PSNI about manifestations of racism like Saturday’s parade. ``To date no complaint has been received.'' So what? Police don’t need to receive a complaint before they take action. Indeed it is a police officer’s duty to take action if he or she believes an offence has been committed or an action is likely to cause a breach of the peace.
Too often after a racist attack on a home a police statement is issued saying ‘a motive is still being sought’. Give us a break. Maybe somebody took offence at the pattern on the curtains or the colour of paint on the front door?
Even more culpable are the main political parties. There was a Racial Equality Strategy which ran out in 2005. It took nine years to produce another draft in June 2014. Since then, despite the consultation period expiring in October 2014 it’s still sitting there. Nothing. In the end it doesn’t matter because the draft was lousy anyway. No plan, no time frame, no resources allocated and when a draft is like that you know it’s not serious.
Unionists have most to lose in the matter of racist crime. Yes of course there is racism in nationalist districts but the vast majority of attacks take place in unionist districts. Unionist politicians need to address that. They didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory after Pastor McConnell’s anti-Islam outburst last year.
Ritual condemnation of attacks on houses and property are not enough. We need to hear a considered speech from a leading unionist politician calling out the bigots and racists in their community.
A statement from OFMdFM is alright as far as it goes but as ACC Kerr pointed out there is a whiff of ethnic cleansing about the way attacks are organised not only against immigrants trying to set up home in loyalist districts but also setting up businesses.
Let’s hear forthright comprehensive condemnation not reaction to a journalist’s question.
