Racist incidents feared to be linked to Brexit result
People have been reporting incidents of racism believed to be fuelled by the result of the EU referendum, including alleged racist graffiti and cards reading “no more Polish vermin” posted through letterboxes.
Suspected racist graffiti was found on the front entrance of the Polish Social and Cultural Association (POSK) in Hammersmith, west London, early on Sunday morning.
The Metropolitan police confirmed they had been called to the cultural centre on Sunday morning and were pursuing inquiries related to “allegedly racially motivated criminal damage”.
Neither POSK nor the police would confirm the content of the message, which has since been washed off.
The Polish ambassador to Britain urged politicians to condemn what had happened. Witold Sobków’s intervention came after a number of incidents involving graffiti targeting Polish nationals in the UK. Sobków, who said the issue would be discussed in talks on Monday, tweeted:
Greg Hands, Conservative MP for Chelsea & Fulham, condemned the act on Twitter as “an unspeakable crime” and “indescribably awful”, adding:
The incident comes as Cambridgeshire police are investigating reports of racist laminated cards being distributed in Huntingdon on Friday in the hours after the leave result was announced.
According to reports from the Cambridge News, a number of cards saying “Leave the EU/No more Polish vermin” in both English and Polish were found outside St Peter’s school by teaching assistants and students, including an 11-year-old Polish child, who reported they made him feel “really sad”.
Cards bearing the same message were posted around a number of properties, police confirmed.
Baroness Warsi, the former chairwoman of the Conservative party, has warned that since the referendum result was announced immigrants are being stopped in the street and told to leave the country.
“I’ve spent most of the weekend talking to organisations, 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,” Warsi told Sky News.
“And they are saying this to individuals and families who have been here for three, four, five generations. The atmosphere on the street is not good.”
Warsi originally backed the Leave campaign, but switched to support Remain, calling the Leave campaign “divisive and xenophobic”.
Racist incidents feared to be linked to Brexit result | Politics | The Guardian
People have been reporting incidents of racism believed to be fuelled by the result of the EU referendum, including alleged racist graffiti and cards reading “no more Polish vermin” posted through letterboxes.
Suspected racist graffiti was found on the front entrance of the Polish Social and Cultural Association (POSK) in Hammersmith, west London, early on Sunday morning.
The Metropolitan police confirmed they had been called to the cultural centre on Sunday morning and were pursuing inquiries related to “allegedly racially motivated criminal damage”.
Neither POSK nor the police would confirm the content of the message, which has since been washed off.
The Polish ambassador to Britain urged politicians to condemn what had happened. Witold Sobków’s intervention came after a number of incidents involving graffiti targeting Polish nationals in the UK. Sobków, who said the issue would be discussed in talks on Monday, tweeted:
Greg Hands, Conservative MP for Chelsea & Fulham, condemned the act on Twitter as “an unspeakable crime” and “indescribably awful”, adding:
The incident comes as Cambridgeshire police are investigating reports of racist laminated cards being distributed in Huntingdon on Friday in the hours after the leave result was announced.
According to reports from the Cambridge News, a number of cards saying “Leave the EU/No more Polish vermin” in both English and Polish were found outside St Peter’s school by teaching assistants and students, including an 11-year-old Polish child, who reported they made him feel “really sad”.
Cards bearing the same message were posted around a number of properties, police confirmed.
Baroness Warsi, the former chairwoman of the Conservative party, has warned that since the referendum result was announced immigrants are being stopped in the street and told to leave the country.
“I’ve spent most of the weekend talking to organisations, 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,” Warsi told Sky News.
“And they are saying this to individuals and families who have been here for three, four, five generations. The atmosphere on the street is not good.”
Warsi originally backed the Leave campaign, but switched to support Remain, calling the Leave campaign “divisive and xenophobic”.
Racist incidents feared to be linked to Brexit result | Politics | The Guardian
