Member's statement: Hate Displays
Member's statement by Miss Deirdre Hargey on .
- MLA
- Miss Deirdre Hargey
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 11 March 2024
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Hate Displays
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4269425
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I will make a statement on displays of hate that we have seen in our communities in the past few weeks. I reiterate that hate crime should have no place in our communities or society. Recent displays in which hate has been on show are concerning. We have seen it in recent sectarian and racist displays in Newtownabbey on a social housing site that is there to provide 111 new homes for those who are in need and, indeed, in racist displays in south Belfast. All those acts must be challenged, first by us — representatives who have been elected by our local communities to represent them and their interests — but they must also be robustly challenged by the agencies that are there to uphold the law. People should be able to live free from harassment, intimidation and hate expression. There must be more robust action from the PSNI on that matter. The fact that the vast majority of cases end in no prosecution or with only a warning feeds into the fear of those impacted on by such displays. Therefore, a proactive and visible approach is needed to challenge that behaviour and, importantly, to hold to account those who are responsible for it. We also need to see more robust hate crime legislation, with enhanced protections against, and, importantly, statutory definitions of, hate, be it of a racist or sectarian nature or based on disability or sexual orientation. We must all work together to enhance the legislation and challenge the scourge of hate wherever it raises its head.
260 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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