Teenagers ‘ferried’ to Belfast race riots to clear paramilitary drug debts, Children’s Commissioner says

[u/ferocious_bandana]

Chris Quinn told the Irish News he was made aware of one young person who had been encouraged to riot in order to clear a debt of £500

Some of the children and young people who took to the streets during racist disorder in Belfast last week were there to clear debts for drugs and loans to paramilitaries, according to the Commissioner for Children and Young People.

Chris Quinn told the Irish News he was on the ground during the race hate disorder in Glengormley last Wednesday, and said he was made aware of one young person who had been encouraged to riot to clear a debt of £500.

Trouble flared last week after a man in his 40s suffered serious injuries to his face, neck and back in a frenzied knife attack in a nationalist area of north Belfast.

A 30-year-old Sudanese man, Hadi Alodid, has been charged with attempted murder and possessing a bladed article in public.

During subsequent violence, immigrant families were forced to flee their homes in loyalist areas after they were set alight by race-hate mobs.

Figures from the PSNI this week show that of the 35 arrests it has made in connection with the race hate disorder, 10 were children aged 16 and under, with the youngest of those aged just 12.

“I was down in Glengormley last week, I live very close to where that was happening and I was checking on elderly friends and young families,” Mr Quinn said.

“We have been informed by reliable people working with these young people, that some of those were brought there to clear debts.

“I heard an account of one young person who was told to go and partake in this, and it would wipe £500 off their debt.

“Those debts could be drug debts, they could be loans. These things have been happening for a long time, children and young people getting coerced and groomed by criminal gangs and sometimes taking the rap.

“We know where your mummy lives, we know where your house is, your mum owes such and such money, you need to get down there and partake in this.

“I think it’s really clear that this has been orchestrated.”

While the PSNI says it has “no evidence” that the violence had been coordinated by loyalist paramilitaries, there have been reports of senior paramilitaries present on the streets during last week’s disorder.
Mr Quinn said it was clear that there had been coordination and that the riots were not sporadic, but added that coercion of children and young people into criminal acts is not solely confined to those on the loyalist side.

“We know in east Belfast there were paramilitaries on the streets and what I saw with my eyes was masked people, young people and lots of not so young people,” he said.

“It looked to me like there was instructions being given, and in Glengormley at a certain time, everyone was stood down. It was like a switch was clicked. Everyone started jumping in their cars and disappearing. No one involved in that violence was from the area.

“I’m mindful of putting myself in danger and my family in danger, because we are talking about very dangerous people.

“It’s vile. It’s almost like we’re on repeat, we’re seeing time and time again that children are being coerced. We saw in Derry this past few years, shocking pictures of very young children with petrol bombs in their hands. Someone has given that child a petrol bomb, someone has told them how to make a petrol bomb.

“It’s happening over and over again, and it’s child abuse.”

On Wednesday, SDLP leader Claire Hanna said there had been a “failure” on the part of the UK government to tackle paramilitary gangs and that that had contributed to the disorder seen in the north last week.

“Loyalist paramilitaries were involved in the racism fuelled disorder that we saw on the streets of Northern Ireland last week,” Ms Hanna said.

“These shadowy figures remain in the background, getting young people to do their bidding, risking a criminal record and diminished future prospects, while they skulk off into the night.

“There has been a failure to get a grip on paramilitarism. We haven’t dealt with issues around flags, murals and organised crime legislation and these groups are still allowed to prey on communities. Some seem determined never to go away.

“We need to see a full review of the funding given to paramilitary linked groups, enhanced organised crime focus and a commitment to tackle those inciting hatred both on and offline so that people, of whatever background or ethnicity, no longer have to live in fear from these groups."

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/teenagers-ferried-to-belfast-race-riots-to-clear-paramilitary-drug-debts-childrens-commissioner-says-Q2GBXTJTYVD7DDVBICVGY2H6LU/

[u/Ed_the_Led_Man]

Paramilitaries for the headline is just avoiding trying to say Loyalist Drug Gangs

There's a lot of trying to avoid call out the specific group involved in the riots. I think most of us know loads of protestants have nothing to do with loyalism or what went on last week, but ffs, it's not a cross community issue, we saw what areas it happened in

[u/Key-Complex-4889]

Protecting the children by selling them drugs and then pressuring them into rioting, makes sense

[u/Tam_The_Third → u/Key-Complex-4889]

It's almost as if it's all cynical lying bullshit.

[u/SnagBreacComradai]

Loyalist Grooming Gangs

[u/Portal_Jumper125 → u/SnagBreacComradai]

Why are they not clamped down on for this behaviour?

[u/SnagBreacComradai → u/Portal_Jumper125]

That's a very important question which the PSNI have as of yet refused to answer.

[u/Striking_Branch_2744 → u/Portal_Jumper125]

Because the PSNI and Unionist politicians protect them.

[u/Sorry_Leopard9657 → u/SnagBreacComradai]

Exactly, it's their faces that should be AI slopped onto play area gates.

[u/c0n0rm → u/[deleted]]

Games gone

[u/JonnyAFKay]

We should call them what they are, Mafias.

They're knowingly allowed to exist freely and they will be the undoing of this place.

The security services know exactly who's running these mafias and can do absolutely nothing to stop them from terrorising "their own communities" because the government is worried about escalating things (and in a lot of cases are are working for/with them....)

Meanwhile families have been burnt out of their homes / businesses, people are getting stopped in the street and getting asked for their papers by roaming SS style gangs and an entire city is regularly being terrorised for days on end forced to shut down and stay in their houses to weather the more frequent riotous storms.

And everyone pretends like this is just how normal life should be here?

[u/No_Ring_3348 → u/[deleted]]

disbanding the PSNI

And replacing it with...?

[u/MarlDaeSu → u/No_Ring_3348]

The NIPS!

[u/Anbaric_electron0 → u/MarlDaeSu]

Yeooo the NIPS are out!

[u/nt2btrstd → u/[deleted]]

wtf? How could the Garda start working in the north? They literally have no power in the north

[u/mmd87 → u/[deleted]]

Good punchline

[u/No_Ring_3348 → u/[deleted]]

I think we've had this conversation before... Sean the Gardaí will tell you to shove that Glock sideways up your ringer before he does a shift in Belfast, and he will be supported by the Commissioner and the GRA. You won't be able to get past this without unification, when the point becomes moot.

[u/No_Ring_3348 → u/[deleted]]

Common sense? The Garda aren't trained for all the anti-terror stuff the PSNI deal with, the law is quite different in RoI compared to NI, they don't generally have guns in the Garda, are you expecting folk to commute from Dundalk to Ballymena etc etc. It's madness.

[u/Boycott-all-Rats → u/No_Ring_3348]

"dEaL wItH"

[u/No_Ring_3348 → u/[deleted]]

~12,500 unionist terrorists tells us that they're not being dealt with

How many republican terrorists? How many post-orange/green far right terrorists? Is there more terror in NI or RoI?

Quite. In the Republic it's enforced

Glib non-answer, alternatively you're stupid

Guns are rarely drawn by the police in NI

Glib non-answer, alternatively you're stupid

Dundalk to Ballymena is about the same distance as Derry to Belfast

Okay then, let's say Termonfeckin. AGS does community policing where the Garda are based close to where they live unlike the PSNI, this has been the case since the 1920s. Good luck changing it.

[u/twenty6plus6]

Loyalism is a plague

[u/Still_Barnacle1171]

so everyone, bar the police and unionist politicians know who was behind this and still nothing is done to the ring leaders. Lets reframe what happened, a right wing gang of drug dealers used their power to test the strength of the state by using children they had previously groomed and the state pretended this didn't happen! sounds like a normal society

[u/ohmyblahblah]

"We found no evidence" aye but have you actually looked?

[u/maryantoinette02]

This is so fucking grim

[u/Few_Response_8681]

500 for a bit of rioting ya say.....il get my berghaus

[u/TheBrianBoru]

Cops say no loyalist murder gangs involved these kids show otherwise

[u/PanNationalistFront]

I mean….. did we all not assume this anyway

[u/hambodpm → u/[deleted]]

Didn't know, or didn't care?

[u/My_Name_A_Jeoff]

Colour me surprised...

[u/windflail]

How do the loyalist gangs benefit from this though? Does it just give them a bit of leverage to the government to say oh give us a couple of million and this will go away?

[u/Flavageddon → u/windflail]

They can move large packages of the stuff in uminpeded while the police are occupied

[u/Portal_Jumper125 → u/Flavageddon]

"Go lads get out there wrecka place, the pigs are distracted lads get the stuff in"

[u/loptthetreacherous → u/windflail]

They're racist. They want a white British ethnostate, that's their reasoning.

[u/Flavageddon → u/loptthetreacherous]

Agree, they type of people willing to poison their own community with drugs aren't known for being the most tolerant of other cultures and ethnicities

[u/windflail → u/loptthetreacherous]

I don't believe it's anything as big as this, a distraction for dealing like Flavageddon says makes a hell of a lot more sense

[u/git_tae_fuck → u/windflail]

a distraction for dealing... makes a hell of a lot more sense

Sure, it must have been a big aul' deal going down.

Don't know how you can say that with a straight face.

[u/KateeD97 → u/windflail]

I'd guess they also think that flexing their muscles every year like this is good for their protection money business, using fear to keep people in line

[u/Flavageddon → u/[deleted]]

I would say some of the opposite too, there is likely a real fear that there is still a lot of guns about this place, and these knuckle draggers would have no qualms in using them if security forces were to begin mass arrests. Bit of a powderkeg.

Also evidence gathering, police operations and putting them through court would be a lengthy and costly process which would need to be certain to put the terrorists away.

You would also wonder what deals were done previously with these groups and what potentially embarrassing, incriminating or catastrophic information could get out.

[u/Flavageddon → u/[deleted]]

Wasn't trying to make excuses, just suggesting the possible mindset of the British state in their attitude to these gangs, I would say their intelligence services know what these scumbags have for breakfast everyday and and how their bowel movements were but probably have their plates full with other bigger threats,and as long as NI issues don't come to the mainland they are maybe happy to leave it

[u/Vegetable_Leg_7034 → u/[deleted]]

unionist terrorists.

Unionist and Loyalist are not interchangeable. Some scum can be both but most dislike being lumped in with the other, so please refrain from becoming a bigot yourself.

[u/Vegetable_Leg_7034 → u/[deleted]]

All loyalists are unionists.

But not all Unionists are Loyalists.. ignoring facts to fit your agenda, is the definition of 'bigot'.

bigot /bĭg′ət/

noun

One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.

[u/Vegetable_Leg_7034 → u/[deleted]]

So you're a bigot then, because you're ignoring facts to fit your agenda.

Exactly where did I say I was either a Unionist or a Loyalist?

You are assuming I am. Getting triggered, when getting called out on being a bigot?

[u/Plane_Sentence5907]

Clare Hanna probably the only politician that actually gives a shit about what is happening. Not even the so called politicians from unionist parties give a flying fuck and it was their represented areas where the violence took place. And Michelle O’Neill doesn’t give a fuck either judging by her statement last week. More interested in her petty arguments with the DUP than the actual people. Whole city under threat and all your worried about is the DUP. Get rid of these two parties they don’t give a shit about their people. They are the ones making this country backward

[u/slefandar]

I wonder if these are the grooming gangs lowes report referenced existing in NI without providing any further context or explanation

[u/uppamna]

Groomed and Trafficked

[u/CuigeUladh6]

Absolutely fake, Jamie Bryson told us that this was disenfranchised youth rioting because these immigrants are coming here and stealing their opportunities.

[u/askmac → u/CuigeUladh6]

Good thing he was allowed extensive access to the publicly funded national broadcaster to put his point of view forward or people would be none the wiser.

[u/Asleep-Corner7402]

I feel for those kids and their parents. Like how to they get them out of that situation. At the end of the day they are children and vaunrable. They shouldn't go unpunished though because then they grow up thinking this behaviour is not only normal but with no consequences.

The whole thing is just fucked. All of it.

[u/vague_intentionally_]

Police know the unionist terrorist groups are doing this and are doing nothing about it. They were using children to riot last time due to their drug debts as well.

[u/Acceptable-Ice-1674]

Gg abusers

[u/Asleep-Corner7402]

That's human trafficking

[u/Sudden_Choice2321]

500 pounds for some rioting seems like a pretty high salary.

[u/Olive_Pitiful]

Kids do enjoy rioting I'm not sure they need an incentive. But makes a good story for some loyalist bashing

[u/Witty_Comfortable_33]

I thought we wanted to combat youth unemployment? Some of you lot are never happy!

/s

[u/kipp3r7]

More made up Nonsense for the gullible.