The BBC reports that the police took down anti-immigration posters in Rathcoole. From the article:
Anti-immigration posters that were put up in the Rathcoole estate should have been removed by the Department for Infrastructure, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has said.
Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton told BBC News NI it had taken “far too long to have them removed” and police “needed to intervene”.
The posters in the estate in Newtownabbey issued a threat to anyone “facilitating the settlement of Muslims or illegals” in the area.
Most of the posters were erected at the start of August, in what police have described as a hate crime, but have now been removed by the PSNI.
Mr Singleton said the police had tried to engage with the Department for Infrastructure from the start of August but that the process had been too slow. He said it was the responsibility of the department to remove objects from lamp posts.
He said that while police had the power to seize material for the purpose of an investigation, the law was less clear on officers’ ability to do so in other circumstances.”
It got to a point where the PSNI felt we needed to intervene and remove the posters,” Mr Singleton said.
This is a welcome move by the police, the posters should be removed. But it does beg the question why there is no attempt to remove any of the various Loyalist Paramilitary Flags and other intimidating posters all over Northern Ireland.
If it’s Anti-immigration, the police are ‘forced’ to act, but if it’s anti-Catholic, well, they shrug their shoulders and say it’s, not our problem?
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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