Racists fly Ku Klux Klan flag in east Belfast
Naomi Long MP says flag adds “sinister edge” to recent race attacks in the area
A Ku Klux Klan flag has been erected in east Belfast, where racist attacks have taken place.
The blue ‘New Order Knights’ flag was pictured flying from a lamppost off Island Street on Tuesday morning.
East Belfast MP Naomi Long has hit out at those behind it, saying it adds an “even more sinister edge” to recent race-related incidents.
Mrs Long said she had received a number of complaints from constituents regarding the flags, which she has passed to the PSNI for action.
“Yet again we see those who wish to bully anyone different from them use flags and emblems to assert dominance and control over a community. To do so at all is to be condemned but to put up these flags in broad daylight shows just how brazen the culprits are,” she said.
“To use flags hailing a hate group such as the KKK is sickening and lends a further menacing element to recent events. It is essential that every right-thinking person unites against those who engage in racist, bigoted or otherwise intolerant behaviour and does so with consistency.
“It is also critical that the all-party talks this week stop ducking the issue of the use and abuse of flags and emblems for the purposes of intimidation, and face up to dealing substantively with this challenge to a shared future and to the rule of law.”
Last year 982 racist incidents were reported to the PSNI – an average of up to three every day.
That marks a big rise on the year before – there were 750 reports about racist incidents in 2012-13.
But only 12 people have been successfully convicted for the 14,000 hate crimes reported in Northern Ireland in the last five years.
Police have said the loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) has been orchestrating racist attacks in south and east Belfast.
They attacks on three homes in the Roslyn Street area of east Belfast.
Graffiti saying ‘locals only’ and ‘get out’ was scrawled on walls of the properties.
A 28-year-old Polish woman who lives in one of the homes, said she and her nine-year-old child were considering leaving the area because of the incident.
On April 30 a Romanian man had faeces thrown at him as he cycled along the Newtownards Road.
