Saturday, July 14, 2012

Twenty police officers injured during Orange Order parade riots in Belfast

No officers suffered gunshot wounds during the unrest in the Ardoyne district on Thursday night, but petrol bombs and bricks were thrown at police lines by nationalists and loyalists at the parade.

Police fired six plastic bullets and used a water cannon on crowds, with two people being arrested.

Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr said the community needed to stop the parade's 'annual madness'.

'I am angry that we have these three days of annual madness where it seems that everybody thinks the peacekeepers are a legitimate target,' he said.

'We will be making a significant number of arrests, as we did last year, over the course of the next weeks and months to make sure that people are placed before the courts and answer for their decisions.'

In Londonderry, petrol bombs were thrown at the city's walls and cars were set on fire in Fahan Street.

North Belfast DUP MP Nigel Dodds criticised the Parades Commission for allowing the Protestant fraternal organisation's parade to take place in north Belfast.

'I blame entirely the Parades Commission who permitted this parade by a dissident republican crowd intent on trouble,' he said.

The commission's chairman Peter Osbourne said it was local politicians who must take 'ownership and responsibility' for the parading issue however, adding: 'Of the 4,000 parades across Northern Ireland, almost all of them go without restrictions.

'We have to balance the rights of everybody concerned in parades, not just the rights of paraders, but the rights of people who live in the areas and the rights of police officers.'

Some nationalists object to the parade which is held to mark William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

Source: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/905054-twenty-police-officers-injured-during-orange-order-parade-riots-in-belfast

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