News that families had to be evacuated from their houses in Waterford is shocking.More than 200 protestors gathered at Manor Street in the city, after a rally organised on Facebook turned ugly.The demonstrators targeted a group of 30 people from the local Roma community who were being blamed for a series of alleged crimes in the area.Those making a stand against racism in Waterford should be supported. Show Racism the Red Card agree with the statement by Pavee Point which says: ‘ The content on Facebook pages to date have shown huge misinformation and racism towards Roma and have included inflammatory, dehumanising and violent language. There is a clear link between online hate speech and hate crime and there is an urgent need to address the use of the internet to perpetuate anti-Roma hate speech and to organise violence’.Concerns about crime should be reported to Gardai. If people are not satisfied with Gardai responses, there are appropriate procedures which can be followed, not through this kind of organisation misusing facebook and other social media.Co-ordinator for Show Racism the Red Card Garrett Mullan said: ‘The incidents over the weekend are a huge concern and they could have happened anyway. They demonstrate that there is a huge task at hand in tackling racism and promoting integration’.Below is a link to the Education Pack of SRTRC UK, which has a focus on racism as experienced by those from Roma and Traveller background. The second link is to a factsheet produced by SRTRC Ireland on Roma and Travellers.http://theredcard.org/uploaded/out%20of%20site%20PRINT%20rev2.pdfhttp://theredcard.ie/travellers_racism.phphttp://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/three-roma-families-evacuated-from-home-as-200strong-mob-protests-outside-30694388.htmlhttp://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/angry-protesters-stage-another-rally-4513236
Mob forces Roma families to move out of area
News that families had to be evacuated from their houses in Waterford is shocking.More than 200 protestors gathered at Manor Street in the city, after a rally organised on Facebook turned ugly.The demonstrators targeted a group of 30 people from the local Roma community who were being blamed for a series of alleged crimes in the area.Those making a stand against racism in Waterford should be supported. Show Racism the Red Card agree with the statement by Pavee Point which says: ‘ The content on Facebook pages to date have shown huge misinformation and racism towards Roma and have included inflammatory, dehumanising and violent language. There is a clear link between online hate speech and hate crime and there is an urgent need to address the use of the internet to perpetuate anti-Roma hate speech and to organise violence’.Concerns about crime should be reported to Gardai. If people are not satisfied with Gardai responses, there are appropriate procedures which can be followed, not through this kind of organisation misusing facebook and other social media.Co-ordinator for Show Racism the Red Card Garrett Mullan said: ‘The incidents over the weekend are a huge concern and they could have happened anyway. They demonstrate that there is a huge task at hand in tackling racism and promoting integration’.Below is a link to the Education Pack of SRTRC UK, which has a focus on racism as experienced by those from Roma and Traveller background. The second link is to a factsheet produced by SRTRC Ireland on Roma and Travellers.http://theredcard.org/uploaded/out%20of%20site%20PRINT%20rev2.pdfhttp://theredcard.ie/travellers_racism.phphttp://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/three-roma-families-evacuated-from-home-as-200strong-mob-protests-outside-30694388.htmlhttp://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/angry-protesters-stage-another-rally-4513236