Man arrested over alleged vigilante behaviour

A man has been arrested following investigations into alleged vigilante behaviour, police have said.

The 37-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of assault, theft and causing criminal damage.

Footage circulating on social media last week showed groups of men stopping and intimidating people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Over the past week, police said they had additional targeted police patrols in east Belfast to “engage, challenge and monitor these groups and provide reassurance to the community”.

District Commander Superintendent Gavin Kirkpatrick said: “The activity of these individuals has been generating fear in the community and it has to stop.

“They are confronting and intimidating innocent members of the public, largely on the basis of the colour of their skin.

“Those involved have neither the legal nor the moral authority to do this.”

Supt Kirkpatrick said “these groups are not protecting the community from anything”.

He added that they were “frustrating” the policing service as they are forcing resources to be redirected.

Speaking earlier, Social Democratic and Labour Party’s (SDLP) Séamas de Fáoite said it was “disappointing” that police had yet to make any arrests.

He was speaking after talks involving the PSNI and politicians.

Police had been briefing members of the East Belfast Policing and Community Safety Partnership on their response, which has involved putting extra officers on patrols.

De Fáoite said: “I think it’s very disappointing we are still at a stage where we haven’t seen any prosecutions or arrests.

“I think people need to see clear action and the police taking a pro-active approach.”

He said he accepted the PSNI were stretched in terms of resources and that proposals around hate crime legislation needed to be advanced at Stormont.

“In my view the police should be able to use the public order act in relation to some of these individuals.

“But fundamentally we do need a hate crime bill in Northern Ireland.

“We are not seeing that brought forward by the justice minister.

“The proposals she [Naomi Long] has made, so far, will only come into effect when we get to a prosecution stage, not at a point where we can actually start to tackle those people who are behind this hateful behaviour.”