The Institute of Race Relations’ research over the nine weeks since the London bombings shows that racially motivated attacks are a daily occurrence and many appear, through the use of offensive language, to be a consequence of the bombings. Though much of the harassment has been ‘low-level’, the effects of such sustained and targeted attacks should not be underestimated.
- 7 September 2005: A 39-year-old man driving along the A43 in Northampton is racially abused and then sprayed with water through his open car window by White men in another car. (BBC News 8.9.05)
- 5 September 2005: Daily Mirror reports that Asian soldier, Americk Hayer, 17, is left with his eyeball hanging out after allegedly being attacked by another soldier while on army exercises in Cumbria. He also alleges that the same soldier has racially abused him in the past. (Daily Mirror 5.9.05)
- 5 September 2005: A 23-year-old man from Formby is arrested on suspicion of murdering Black student Anthony Walker in Liverpool; he is bailed the next day. (BBC News 6.9.05)
- 5 September 2005: Northern Ireland Newsletter reports that that the Assistant Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has commented that there is a ‘clear link’ between Loyalist paramilitaries and racist attacks in the area. (Northern Ireland Newsletter 5.9.05)
- 3 September 2005: A mother and her two children are left terrified after a 20-strong mob surround their Caerphilly home, throw rocks and shout racist abuse. One brick smashes a window and narrowly misses 2-year-old Tyler Ford. His mother, Angharad Ford, 21, confronts the mob and has clumps of her hair pulled out. Police arrive and disperse the crowd but they return later to shout more abuse. (South Wales Echo 8.9.05)
- 3 September 2005: Huddersfield Daily Examiner reports that a Muslim teacher at Honley Infants School has been subjected to a racist letter writing campaign. The letter claiming to be from a group of parents at the school says that the Muslim woman should not be employed by the Christian school. Kirklees council has stated that it does not respond to anonymous complaints. (Huddersfield Daily Examiner 3.9.05)
- 3 September 2005: A 17-year-old Asian cycling home in Canterbury is racially abused by a gang of men and women. Down the road, he is attacked by a man on a moped who hits him with a crash helmet and then punches him until he loses consciousness. As the victim is being treated by ambulance staff at the scene, his father arrives and he, too, is attacked. Police arrest five people, two men and three women, who have all been bailed until 5 October. (Kent Online 6.9.05)
- 30 August 2005: IC Croydon reports that Asian shopkeepers in Stoneleigh Broadway are suffering nightly attacks by gangs who racially abuse staff and customers and steal from them. (IC Croydon 30.8.05)
- 26 August 2005: Two boulders are thrown through the window of a house in Chard, Somerset. Police are treating the attack as racially motivated as the house is occupied by Portuguese people. (This is the West Country 31.8.05)
- 20 August 2005: Two children, aged 7 and 13, are racially abused as they walk to nearby shops on the Nunsthorpe estate in Grimsby. The following day, the two children are again racially abused by a larger gang of youth; the incidents leave them too sacred to leave their home. (Grimsby Telegraph 23.8.05)
- 19 August 2005: Racist graffiti including NF and BNP slogans is sprayed over a church in Rickmansworth; damage is also caused to windows and the church interior. (Watford Observer 30.8.05)
- 18 August 2005: A window is smashed at the Bodrun kebab shop in Newbury. On 7 September a 17-year-old girl is charged with criminal damage and racially aggravated harassment; she is bailed. (Click Newbury 7.9.05)
- 17 August 2005: Three youths, aged, 15, 17 and 16, are charged with wounding with intent to cause GBH to a 15-year-old Bangladeshi student who suffered serious head injuries in an attack in Sunderland. The youths are all bailed. The 17-year-old also faces additional charges of racially aggravated assault, causing ABH and racially aggravated criminal damage. (Sunderland Echo 18.8.05)
- 12 August 2005: Tolga Uyan, A Turkish take away owner, suffers bruising to his arm, a blood shot eye, scratches to his arm and a ripped shirt after a woman allegedly attacks him at his Easington take away. He also alleges that he was racially abused. The woman who works as a prison guard at Holme House prison is arrested with her son on suspicion of assault and criminal damage. (Sunderland Echo 19.8.05)
- 5 August 2005: A group of Black friends on a night out in Hereford are racially abused in two separate incidents. In the first, they are abused by a number of youths travelling in four cars and in the second, by a group of three men in their late 40s. The Hereford Times also reports that racist graffiti has recently been daubed in the town and shops have also been reportedly putting up signs banning Eastern Europeans. (Hereford Times 22.8.05)
- 2 August 2005: A 30-year-old Black man suffers serious facial fractures after being racially attacked by a gang of five local men in Grimsby. Police are treating the attack as racially motivated. (Grimsby Telegraph 3.8.05)
- 24 July 2005: A 26-year-old man of Pakistani origin is kicked unconscious by two men who kick his head like a football as he lies on the floor. First, the man was racially abused as he shopped in a late night supermarket, and then he was followed out by the two men who attacked him further down the street in Hove. (Brighton Argus 25.8.05)
- 23 July 2005: Racists throw a brick with a racist message attached through the window of a home in the Highfields area of Leicester. Another brick is thrown at the same house the following day and at another house in the area. (Leicester Mercury 2.9.05)
- 12 July 2005: A 15-year-old girl, walking her dog, is approached by two White women who tell her to ‘get out of their country’ and then push her to the ground punching and kicking her. The young girl has been attacked before by the same two women, who had called her a ‘P**i’. (This is Oxfordshire 14.7.05)