A woman is shouting through a letterbox to friends inside a house with smashed windows: “The pastor is here, I promise you it is safe.” Behind them, the house next door is on fire. In the street, dozens of young people, masked and dressed in black, burn bins – thick black smoke fills the rain-soaked air of north Belfast.
The torrential rain eventually forces many of those who had gathered to disperse, but not before two cars are set alight and homes are burning. Fire crews and ambulances arrive amid real concern about injuries and the risk of a gas explosion. Earlier, a group of African women are led to safety – one collapses into the arms of firefighters, overwhelmed by the ordeal of the last few hours. She is placed into the back of a waiting car; the others walk.
“Racist violence erupts in Belfast after knife attack; pastor Jack McKee condemns attacks on black families.”
Pastor Jack McKee, from the nearby New Life City Church, is part of the rescue mission. He tends to members of his congregation he has helped to safety. He is furious. “These members have been with us for 20 years. They’ve been put out of their home,” he tells the BBC. “They are good Christian people and they are getting put out just because they are black. You are hurting innocent people here. There are men, women, and children living in fear. I am angry. I am disappointed that this is the response of people in our community.”
The disorder did not emerge from nowhere. The violence of the past two days, as the New Statesman reports, cannot be separated from the online world it spawned from. Before fires spread along the streets of Belfast, rumours and rage spread across social media after a horrific knife attack in north Belfast on Monday evening (8 June). The Home Office said the alleged perpetrator, a Sudanese man, had been granted leave to remain in the United Kingdom. Far-right activists such as Tommy Robinson urged supporters to protest against this “invader attack”, providing a list of locations across the UK. Tech billionaire Elon Musk amplified the post, urging citizens to protest “repeatedly and loudly” to change government policies on immigration. Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe pledged his party would support mass deportations and reintroduction of the death penalty to prevent further atrocities committed by “barbarians”. WhatsApp messages from anonymous accounts called for men aged 18 and over in Northern Ireland to “be prepared to fight or be arrested”.
Police Service of Northern Ireland chief constable Jon Boutcher urged the public not to be “duped” into violent disorder by people online inciting such behaviour. But the news that the suspect had been charged with attempted murder did little to quell tensions. The PSNI reported sporadic street protests across the region, with several vehicles set on fire in east and north Belfast. Later on Tuesday evening there were several reported incidents of racist violence in towns including Ballyclare and Portadown, with arson attacks on homes and businesses.
Thursday night saw a comparatively quiet night on the city’s streets, but it was not without incident. Many residents are living in fear of a return to disorder – particularly those who are ethnic minorities and residents who live in multi-occupancy homes, including university students. Pastor McKee does not expect the families he helped to return to the place they’ve called home for many years.