Councillor challenges PSNI and anti-racism campaigners about annual sectarian hate attacks on Fountain Estate in Londonderry
A UUP councillor has asked if police and anti-racism campaigners are using double standards to deal with sectarian hate crime in Londonderry, compared to racist hate crime elsewhere.
Alderman Darren Guy was speaking after renewed stone throwing attacks on the tiny Protestant enclave of the Fountain Estate – which as normal caused parents to call in their children on Saturday night.
Mr Guy also criticised campaigners at an anti-racism rally in the city on Saturday for failing to call out the persistent hate crimes against the estate every summer – and urged police to use the same measures against rioters in Londonderry as they did in Newtownabbey.
A knife attack on a man in north Belfast last Monday was followed by racist mob violence across Belfast and other parts of Northern Ireland over the past week. The alleged attacker is a Sudanese national.
Police arrested five male youths aged 13-16 at the Fountain Estate on Saturday evening after youths with hoods pulled up engaged in “a short period of spontaneous disorder” of throwing stones into the Fountain. Police seized items including a golf club.
One teen was charged with riotous behaviour, one was released unconditionally, while three others were released pending reports to the Public Prosecution Service.
Police said they were treating the violence as “sectarian motivated”.
When the News Letter asked if sectarian violence is not by definition hate crime, police amended the classification to hate crime.
Mr Guy said: “Quite rightly there were rallies against hate and racism last week in Belfast and Londonderry. However, I note the organisers and speakers at the Londonderry rally didn't mention the ongoing persistent sectarian hate crimes against the Fountain which have been ongoing since spring.
“There would be a feeling in areas like the Fountain that those holding these rallies are selective in what they rally for, and that any condemnation of violence at the Fountain is hollow.”
A Protestant friend at the anti-racism rally was verbally abused by a man in a republican hoody, he said.
“On Wednesday evening a young man was walking home in the Fountain and was hit across the jaw with an iron bar by someone on an e-bike, breaking two teeth.”
He also cited the stone throwing attack on Saturday night – which caused parents to bring their children inside for safety.
Youths in black on e-scooters were involved in a car windscreen being smashed with a fire extinguisher on Hawkins Street in the Fountain at midnight on Saturday, he said.
Mr Guy said the majority of attacks “are organised” and not spontaneous. “People don't randomly walk through the streets with a golf club,” he said.
He also said that if police are publishing photos of suspects from riots in Newtownabbey last week, they should also publish them from regular rioting at the Fountain interface.
The News Letter invited Sinn Fein and the SDLP to comment. Sinn Fein did not respond.
SDLP Foyle MP Colum Eastwood said: “These latest attacks on people in the Fountain area are wrong and the SDLP has repeatedly called for the local community to be allowed to live in peace. I repeat that call today.
“Dealing with these issues requires leadership and no community should feel at risk of repeated attack.”