Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Photos from rally against racism in Leith Saturday 10th September 2005.

Paul O'Hanlon | 10.09.2005 20:55 | Anti-militarism | Anti-racism | Repression | World

This is a short piece with 12 photos of the rally against racism which took place on Saturday 10th September 2005 in Leith, Edinburgh.














Anti Racism Rally in Edinburgh Saturday 10th September 2005

There was a rally at 1.00pm outside the New Kirkgate Shopping Centre at the foot of Leith Walk in Edinburgh on Saturday 10th September. Around 30 people from SACC (Scotland against Criminalizing Communities), the SSP (Scottish Socialist Party), Edinburgh Stop the War and the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign braved the elements on a chilly Saturday afternoon to say no to racism and racist attacks.

There have been a number of racist attacks in Scotland since the terrible events of July 7th in London and two of them are described below. 12 photos of the day are attached.



From the BBC website of Tuesday 2nd August 2005:

Racist gang attack two Asian men

Police have said that two Asians were racially attacked by a gang who made comments about the London bombings.
The incident came after Lothian and Borders Police called for calm amid fears that racial incidents might increase following events in London.
The gang hurled racist abuse and vandalised the car of the men who had parked near Leith Walk in Edinburgh.
Officers have appealed for witnesses to the attack, which happened at 1700 BST on Friday.
One of the men kicked the car, denting it, while another man threw a hammer through the vehicle's window, smashing the glass and hitting the passenger on the shoulder.
The two victims, who are aged 18 and 20, managed to escape by driving away as the gang of 10 surrounded the vehicle.

Criminal offence

A force spokeswoman said: "This incident was racially motivated and the behaviour of the group to two men who were simply parking their car is totally abhorrent.
"Lothian and Borders police will not tolerate racist behaviour. It is a criminal offence and will always be treated very seriously.
"Fortunately the two victims, though badly shaken by the incident, were not seriously injured, although the passenger suffered some bruising to his upper body."
The police force issued descriptions of the two ringleaders of the attack.
The man who kicked the car was 5ft 11in, of medium build, and aged between 23 to 25, with a shaven head and a pale complexion.
The man who threw the hammer was 5ft 11in, of very skinny build, aged 23 to 25 and had black hair and a pale complexion.



From the BBC website of Thursday 4th August 2005:

Racist attacks in Scotland have risen by almost a quarter since the London bombings, according to police figures.
There were 438 incidents reported from 7 July to the end of the month. That was up by 79 on last year, with 64 of those directly linked to the bombings.
Senior officers said they were glad the increase was "relatively low" and that the figures showed people had adopted a mature attitude to the atrocities.
In London, religious hate crimes have risen six-fold since the bombings.
There were 269 religious hate crimes in the capital in the three weeks after 7 July, compared with 40 in the same period of 2004.
In Scotland, an average of 18 racist incidents were reported to police in July this year, compared to 15 a day last year.
Chief Constable Peter Wilson, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS), said there had been a "calm" response in Scotland.
"Any racist crime is unacceptable but I am glad to see the number being recorded is relatively low and has not risen sharply as a result of the London bombings," he said.
"The last thing we would have needed in Scotland would have been for our visible minority ethnic communities to have suffered as a result of misguided prejudices."
He said some communities, especially Muslim ones, were still feeling vulnerable.

"But it is also clear that there has not been a large upsurge of racist incidents since 7 July," he said.
"My plea to all of our communities is that the level of support and understanding continues.
"Scotland's eight police forces continue to work together to ensure that contingency plans are in place for any eventuality. That includes extra police presence wherever locally appropriate."
Mr Wilson said ethnic minority communities were becoming more confident in reporting crimes, which would previously have gone unrecorded.
"However, there is no doubt that there will have been other low level incidents that have not yet been reported to police," he said.
"We encourage everyone to report this type of illegal and dangerous behaviour, from whatever quarter, for full police investigation as we are determined that there will be a very robust enforcement response to it."
Ali Jarvis, interim director of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) in Scotland said: "Let's not turn smoke into fire.
"While there has been some increase in the number of racial and religious incidents in Scotland since the London bombings and we do not seek to minimise the effect that these have had on individuals, in the circumstances the increase has not been as bad as we feared it might."
"The majority of people in Scotland seem to understand that while the perpetrators may have been Muslim they are not representative of the overwhelming majority of Muslims.
"For every example of racial abuse or attack, there is also an example of a non-Muslim reaching out to a Muslim with a message or gesture of friendship and support."
Police are investigating one incident where two Asians were racially attacked in Edinburgh by a gang who made comments about the London bombings.
The men were subjected to racist abuse and their car was vandalised near Leith Walk on Friday afternoon.
Private meeting
Meanwhile, representatives of the Muslim community will meet Communities Minister Malcolm Chisholm on Thursday.
They will talk about their concerns following the London bombings in what is expected to be a mostly private meeting at Glasgow Central Mosque.
The Scottish Executive said the visit was part of continuing liaison between the government and multi faith groups.
Mr Chisholm has stressed the importance of building bridges between communities.



For further information:
Scotland against Criminalizing Communities (SACC): www.sacc.org.uk


Edinburgh Stop the War: www.edinburghstw.org.uk


Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign: www.scottishpsc.org.uk







Word count 1,024 words

Paul O'Hanlon
- e-mail: o_hanlon@hotmail.com

Comments

Display the following 4 comments

  1. Rainbow People — twilight
  2. Where — Dolly The Sheeple
  3. Let's be clear — stop criticising everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  4. This is What Edinburgh Needs — Duncanos

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech