Communities in Northern Ireland are experiencing a fourth day of fear and anxiety as masked protesters continue to wreak havoc and commit acts of fiery vandalism on residential neighbourhoods
Northern Ireland communities are enduring a terrifying fourth day of unrest as masked vandals continue to cause chaos and set fires in residential areas. On Thursday night, the anti-immigrant mob focused their attention on Portadown, Co Armagh.
One protester, filming the standoff with PSNI riot police in Portadown, was seen on video being forcefully pushed by an officer, who waved pepper spray at him while dealing with the disorderly crowd.
The officer can be heard saying “You’re going nowhere” while the man protests his innocence, saying: “Hang on boys. I’m going home, you going to pepper spray me for going home?” Unlike the more than 40 officers injured in the riots this week, the man seems to walk away unscathed.
Meanwhile, as PSNI officers were trying to control the situation across the town, a group of police took cover behind riot vans while crowds hurled objects at them. In a chilling echo of the violence faced by law enforcement this week, one group can be heard cheering after a thrown petrol bomb explodes against a police vehicle.
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This is the first night of violent unrest in Portadown, but the fourth for the wider communities who have witnessed cars being torched and homes set ablaze every night since Monday’s riot in Ballymena.
Yesterday, PSNI labelled the actions of masked mobs in Larne as “racist thuggery” after they torched a local community leisure centre after hearing that it was sheltering migrants from Ballymena.
Additionally, chaotic scenes ensued as masked groups obstructed railway services by dragging wheelie bins onto the tracks in Coleraine, Co Derry and setting them ablaze, inflicting significant damage to the infrastructure and shutting down the line.
In a press briefing today, the PSNI has disclosed that the individual who was allegedly sexually assaulted in Ballymena, the incident which originally sparked the demonstrations, has been left ‘mortified’ by the brutal unrest that has since swept through her hometown, with migrants now fearfully hiding in their attics to avoid the marauding, masked gangs.
The Chief Constable of PSNI said: “The people who protested about what happened to this poor victim on Monday, they did lawful protest.
“The people who are threatening families, who are different to them, who are law abiding members of our community, that is racism and it’s criminality, and there’s no place for it in our society. History has shown us here more than anywhere, what happens when communities fracture.
“We, of all, people, should have learned from that, and we have. So let’s not stand for this nonsense any longer.”
When probed for further details, the Chief Constable remarked emphatically that there seems to be “no other reason” to concentrate hostility towards migrant families “from ethnic and diverse backgrounds”, challenging those who have taken issue with the force for terming the instigators of the protests as “racist”.