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to exacerbate wider social-political conflicts, as Thomas suggests, then
it must be underpinned by much more than recreational rioting (which
is usually undertaken by bored youths seeking thrills) and therefore can
be considered a hate crime. Hate crimes greatly affect communities by
threatening social cohesion. On a wider societal level hate crime has the
potential to: exacerbate conflict between ethnic groups; polarise communities; deepen divisions; and reinforce antagonistic attitudes and behaviour towards the ‘Other’ (Boeckmann and Turpin-Petrosino 2002: 222;
Craig 2002: 87; House of Commons 2005: 9; Perry 2001: 17).
Jim (east Belfast community worker) provides a first-hand account of
the serious impact that the sectarian riots in inner-east Belfast during the
summer of 2011 had for both communities:
There was about 200 people, and armed with baseball bats, bricks
and bottles, and they attacked the homes here on the right-hand side
here [Jim points to nearby houses between the Albert Bridge road
and Castlereagh Street2]…and that’s where it [the riots] all started.
It escalated, and it moved from here onto the lower Newtownards
Road, and all hell broke loose down at Saint Matthew’s chapel and
Bryson Street [Catholic/nationalist area in Short Strand]. It was like
the fucking pogroms of 1972, or 1971, that’s how bad it was.
Jim illustrates the damaging impact sectarian hate crime has for escalating wider conflicts and greatly damaging community relations. From his
experience working within the Short Strand area, Jim argues that interface violence is a pernicious expression of sectarian hatred. He suggests
that most people living on both sides of the interface want the violence
to stop; but there is a small minority of perpetrators who commit sectarian hate crime. Thus Jim defines interface violence as hate crime, not
anti-social behaviour.
This data is from ‘a walking interview’ the author did with Jim whilst being shown
around the Short Strand interface in inner- east Belfast, June 2012.
2