England divided and scared after Brexit.
AB Wire
Rising number of racially-motivated incidents and hate attacks in England post-Brexit makes it clear that a similar scenario could unfold in the United States if Donald Trump were to become President.
Anti-immigrant leaflets saying “Leave the EU – no more Polish vermin” were put on cars near a school, local police said, the day after the country voted to leave the European Union, reported CNN.
On Sunday, the Polish Social and Cultural Association in Hammersmith, west London, was allegedly vandalized with a racist slogan.
Conservative politician and lawyer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who quit the “Leave” campaign shortly before the vote, told Sky News that organizations working with race crime victims had seen a rise in reports of abuse since the Brexit vote.
“I’ve spent most of the weekend talking to organizations, individuals and activists who work in the area of race hate crime, who monitor hate crime and they have shown some really disturbing early results from people being stopped in the street and saying look, we voted Leave, it’s time for you to leave,” she said.
“They’re saying this to individuals and families who have been here for three, four, five generations. The atmosphere on the street is not good.”
Warsi had previously accused the “Leave” campaign of peddling “lies, xenophobia and the politics of hate” following her decision to quit before the vote.
In a statement, Cambridgeshire Detective Superintendent Martin Brunning said police were working with the Polish community and warned that anyone caught distributing racist leaflets could face up to seven years in prison.
There has been a sharp increase in hate crime reporting recently to True Vision, the UK-police funded website designed to provide the public with information about hate crimes, the National Police Chiefs’ Council reported Monday.
Eighty-five such incidents were recorded between Thursday and Sunday, compared with 54 reports the corresponding four days last month, according to the NPCC. The agency says this development shouldn’t be regarded as a national increase in hate crimes. But it is surely an increase in reporting through this one mechanism, the NPCC said.
“Any reports of hate crime in the county will be fully investigated and it is vitally important that anyone who has received these leaflets or suffered similar abuse reports it,” he said.
Many on social media expressed disgust at the attacks with others offering support to migrants living in the UK.
David Matthews @Britabroad90 tweeted: “Just read a tweet about small polish girls crying at UK school at fear of being deported. This really upsets me.”
And another social media user called Imi @MyNameIsImi posted: “Dear Polish, Romanians, Latvians, Pakistanis and Iranians living in this country… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Others are worried about a possible trend emerging, not just in the UK but across Europe where some right-wing parties are calling for their own referenda on EU membership following the Brexit decision.
The Huffington Post reported eyewitnesses have taken to social media to describe incidents they have encountered, and an account called Post Ref Racism was started on both Twitter and Facebook to offer people a “space to document the increase in racism,” according to the page’s description.
And a video uploaded to YouTube one day after the referendum purportedly shows a man exiting his car in the Hackney area of London and yelling “f*****g foreigner, go back to your country” at another driver.
Prime Minister David Cameron responded to the incidents on Monday. His government “will not tolerate intolerance” and condemns “some of the incidents we have seen across the country over the weekend of intimidating migrants and telling them that they need to go home,” he said.
A Labour member of parliament, Jess Phillips, tweeted that she would submit a question to Parliament to find out how many racial incidents had occurred over the weekend compared with prior to the referendum.