Police in Northern Ireland said 17 officers were hurt on a second consecutive night of anti-immigrant riots in Ballymena, the 40-kilometer northwest town near Belfast. The violence broke out following a peaceful protest Monday on behalf of a family targeted by an alleged sexual assault on two 14-year-old boys. The suspects, who were accompanied at court by a Romanian interpreter, cannot be identified because of their age.
After the march, rioting gathered pace as protesters, predominantly youths, hurled bricks, bottles, petrol bombs, and fireworks at police, and set more than one home and several cars on fire. Police employed water cannons and rubber bullets to clear the protesters, arresting five people for “riotous behaviour.” The rioting faded by 1 a.m. on Wednesday.
Officialdom suspects social media provocateurs are inflaming what Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson had denounced as “racist thuggery.” While some politicians such as Traditional Unionist Voice’s Jim Allister attributed “unchecked migration” to the tensions in communities, local Romanians were shocked and horrified by the violence. In a bid not to be targeted, some residents displayed notices stating their country of origin.
Even though the town had Loyalist origins, police discovered no proof connecting paramilitary factions to violence. Northern Ireland is a region with a long and conflict-ridden history of sectarian terrorism, and immigrants have become recent scapegoats for unrest. Police threatened to call in reinforcements from England and Wales if necessary.
Northern Ireland’s power-sharing administration spoke in a joint statement to condemn the violence and call upon the public not to let criminal elements take advantage of the situation. Officials called for justice to be allowed to run its course in the case of the sexual assault, while condemning those fueling racial tensions as enemies of peace and cohesion in the community.
