Removal of anti-immigration posters must not be left to the police to deal with alone, the Justice Minister has said.
Naomi Long said there was a need for all statutory agencies and Executive ministers to show a willingness to “step up” to tackle racism and xenophobia in Northern Ireland.
Ms Long was commenting after a senior police commander expressed frustration at the response of the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) to the erection of anti-Muslim posters on lampposts in the Rathcoole estate in Newtownabbey last month.
PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said the delay in removing the posters was ‘unacceptable’ (Liam McBurney/PA)
Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said it was “unacceptable” that the posters had been allowed to stay on the lampposts for around seven weeks when he would have anticipated a response from the DfI to remove them within “hours” of them going up.
Mr Singleton said the PSNI ultimately took the decision to take down the posters themselves.
He said leaving the posters up for such a “protracted” period was damaging the Muslim community’s confidence in police and other state agencies, and perpetuating a view that the authorities were not taking the issue seriously.
“We didn’t believe that it would take anything like this length of time,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.
“We didn’t think that we would be into weeks, we thought hopefully we would be talking about hours before it’s been removed.
“So, yes, it has taken far too long and it’s got to the point where police have decided that we must intervene, albeit we still maintain the position that actually the removal should have been done by the Department for Infrastructure.”
In response to the claims, the department said that Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd wrote to PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher earlier this month asking the police to remove the posters as he believed their erection constituted a crime.
Northern Ireland Minister for Infrastructure John O’Dowd wrote to the chief constable asking the police to intervene (PA)
A DfI spokesperson said: “Racism is a scourge in our society, and there can be no tolerance for hatred and discrimination in our communities.
“Earlier this month, the Minister for Infrastructure wrote to the Chief Constable to highlight the racist and discriminatory nature of these signs and to request that the police remove them.
“The department has been clear that when a crime has been committed, it is for the PSNI to investigate and to act to resolve matters.
“It appears that the PSNI do, in fact, believe that these posters constitute a hate crime and so it is right that the police act.”
Justice Minister Ms Long acknowledged police had a role in regard to removing hate material but she insisted they could not be left to deal with the issue alone.
“I’m very clear that there’s no place for expressions of hate, for xenophobia, for racism, for Islamophobia, for antisemitism, for hatred at all in our community, whether that’s hanging on a poster on a lamppost, whether it’s scrawled on a gable wall, it has no place in our community, and it should be removed,” she told the PA news agency on Wednesday.
“I am pleased that the police intervened in this occasion and removed those posters. I think that is the right thing to do in terms of keeping people safe and ensuring that they feel safe.
“But it is not only a job for the PSNI, it’s important that all of the agencies, all of the statutory partners, all of my Executive colleagues, are willing to step up and commit to tackling these issues, because it’s only with a whole society approach to tackling not just the visible aspects of racism and hatred, but actually the attitudes that underpin it, that we’re actually going to see a change in our community.
“So I welcome what the PSNI have done. I think that was the right decision. I’m glad the posters have been removed. I hope if they’re put up again, they will be removed again, because we need to send a very clear and very strong message that this will not be tolerated.
“But I also think it’s important that we look at how other departments can make a contribution to ensuring that this kind of stuff isn’t left to fester, isn’t left to hang on walls, because, when it’s left there, it creates the impression that there is some level of tolerance of the views that are expressed on those posters – and there absolutely isn’t, and can’t be and shouldn’t be.”
Ms Long said the police were willing to provide support if other agencies had concerns around threats or intimidation when carrying out the removal work.
But she added: “Every agency needs to be willing to play their part. It can’t only be for the PSNI. They clearly have a key role, but it can’t be only for them to deal with. It’s a societal problem, it’s a community problem, and it’s something that I think the whole of the Executive need to tackle.”