Whose side are the PSNI on?

Some members of the PSNI riot squad wore racist symbols on their uniforms as they failed to prevent anti-Muslim violence on the streets of Belfast last weekend.

Members of a Tactical Support Group (TSG) were seen wearing patches similar to insignia used by far-right militia groups in the US.

The uniform patch shows a ‘Spartan’ helmet, an image used by white nationalists to compare themselves to the small number of ancient Greeks who prevented an invasion from Persia in the near east.

The same PSNI members were accused of looking on as Muslim-owned businesses were burned down by a loyalist mob.

A supermarket manager in Belfast said his business had been reduced to ashes after he was told by the PSNI to abandon the Donegall Road premises on Saturday afternoon.

This is the third time Sham Supermarket has been targeted. Bashir, a Syrian, said nothing has been done to protect them.

“They let the people burn our shops… where are the PSNI? If the police cannot stop those people, who’s going to do that?”

Bashir addressed Monday’s special meeting of Belfast City Council which discussed the weekend violence.

He said: “My question is for the PSNI, ‘Where are you? Where are you when we need you?’”

Bashir said he had been facing similar situations since he came to live in the north five and a half years ago.

“This is the third time actually our shop has been burned. The police come, they go, they write a statement, they take the statement, and they throw it in the bin, that’s what they do, if you allow me to say that.

“Because, what I saw, nothing happened. People destroying, burning, I almost get killed. Nobody did anything.”

The businessman said he did not want any more apologies. “I want your action,” he said.

Deirdre Hargey, the local Sinn Fein Assembly member, said there was shock that the anti-immigrant mob had even been allowed to reach south Belfast.

She told the Belfast Telegraph it was “very concerning” that the loyalists were able to march from the city centre to south Belfast.

“We warned about this yesterday and I spoke to the PSNI and said there was refugee and asylum seeker accommodation the whole way up this route.”

Gerard Rice from the Lower Ormeau Residents Action Group, who bravely attempted to defuse the situation on Saturday, also spoke out.

He said when he saw the crowd heading along University Avenue towards the area, he was “surprised at the numbers”.

He described it as “an angry mob of two to three hundred people”.

“I didn’t expect to see what I saw... some of the ones who were coming down the street had bricks and bottles,” he continued.

Mr Rice described how people were very frightened and how he was concerned that protestors would head towards businesses in the Lower Ormeau Road area.

“The police were coming behind them, they weren’t directing them,” he added.

Residents and people in the area gathered to try and stop the protestors.

Mr Rice said he feels there was “definitely a police failing”.

He said: “The marchers at one point weren’t moving on. The police formed a line and were facing the community and nearly allowing the marchers to continue on…it could have been all over in minutes.

“There was a point when police were facing residents who were saying: ‘Just take them away from our community, just take them away’.”

Unlike the fast-track police effort to tackle racist riots in England, only four people have yet been charged in connection with the violence in Belfast.

Patrick Corrigan of Amnesty International said “minoritised communities are now living in fear.”

“An unlawful procession, including masked men clearly intent on violence, marauded across the most ethnically diverse part of Belfast, attacking communities and businesses as they went - and the PSNI did not stop them,” he said.

“There are serious questions for the police, who publicly declared they were prepared, but then failed to protect already vulnerable communities.”

Urgent Appeal