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Louise Thomas
Editor
A video circulating on social media showing a girl shouting racial slurs in the street while holding hands with an adult has attracted widespread condemnation.
In the footage, a girl can be seen skipping down the street holding the arm of an older woman as she repeatedly chants “P***s out” ahead of an anti-immigration demonstration in Belfast.
The woman filming the clip can be heard challenging them as she accuses the older woman of teaching the girl racism.
"It is really embarrassing that you would bring your child and let them say something like that. It is really embarrassing you are teaching your child racism,” she says.
Since the disorder began last week, campaigners have accused parents at far-right riots of hypocrisy for endangering their sons and daughters by taking them to violent demonstrations – where they chant about protecting children.
Labour MP Kate Osborne told The Independent children should not be “exposed” to “far-right thuggery” and rioters doing Nazi salutes as she condemned parents taking children “to riot and commit violence” and put them at risk of being injured.
Ms Osborne said: “It is disturbing to see young kids on the streets chanting racist slogans, calling people names, and worrying that their parents think it’s okay to indoctrinate their kids this way.
“The reports of arrests of kids as young as 11 and the video that has emerged of a young girl at a protest shouting the P-word while skipping down the street in Belfast is an example of how this awful behaviour is playing out.”
We have been appalled to see evidence of parents bringing their children to watch horrifying scenes of far-right violence at numerous events over this past week.
Joe Mulhall
More than 400 people have been arrested after riots on the weekend, with thugs trying to set fire to hotels housing asylum seekers in Rotherham and Tamworth.
Children and teenagers have been seen among the mobs – with families and on their own.
On Monday, a 14-year-old boy pleaded guilty in Liverpool to violent disorder after he set off fireworks towards members of the public and a police carrier.
Last week, an 11-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of torching a police car and a 13-year-old boy on suspicion of violent disorder in Hartlepool.
After the footage from Belfast emerged, a spokesperson for the Police Service of Northern Ireland said: “Some of the scenes we have witnessed on the streets of Belfast over recent days have been disgusting and do not reflect the views and feelings of broader Northern Irish society.
“There is absolutely no excuse for such racist, violent and disruptive behaviour and we will do everything in our power, with the resources that we have, to prevent further disorder, and to bring those people responsible before the courts. It is essential that the wider public help us with this by telling us what they know about those involved in this disorder.”
Joe Mulhall, director of research at Hope Not Hate, said: “We have been appalled to see evidence of parents bringing their children to watch horrifying scenes of far-right violence at numerous events over this past week.
“There have also been examples of young people involved in rioting and racist chanting. Some of those involved will find themselves in serious legal trouble. Education starts at home and it is so important that parents teach tolerance and understanding, not racism and hate.”
Maria Kitsiou, head of domestic children at Osbornes Law, said parents taking children to a riot risks being referred to social services.
“A parental decision to take a child to a far-right riot will expose that child to violence and the risk of physical and emotional harm which will constitute parental neglect,” she said. “The parent will be placing the child’s safety at risk.”
The reports of arrests of kids as young as 11 and the video that has emerged of a young girl at a protest shouting the P-word while skipping down the street in Belfast is an example of how this awful behaviour is playing out.
Kate Osborne
The violent far-right protests in England and Northern Ireland broke out in the wake of the killing of three young girls in Southport.
Axel Rudakubana, 17, has been charged with the murders of three children at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport. The young defendant’s anonymity was lifted by a judge, who cited the importance of quashing misinformation spreading online. Rudakubana turns 18 on Wednesday.
