A fortnightly resource for anti-racist and social justice campaigns, highlighting key events in the UK and Europe.
News stories related to the Black Lives Matter movement have been compiled in a separate calendar, view here.
HEALTH, POLICY AND RESEARCH – COVID-19 RELATED
5 June: The Government Equalities Office announces a review into the government’s response to inequalities in Covid-19 infection and death rates. At the same time, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launches an inquiry into ‘long-standing, structural race inequality’. (Guardian, 5 June 2020)
5 June: A new report from Medact, Patients not Passports: Migrants’ access to healthcare during Covid-19, finds barriers to medical treatment for migrants include failure to implement the exemption from charges for Covid-19 testing and treatment, as well as fear caused by hostile environment policies. Read the report here. (Medact, 5 June 2020)
6 June: Research by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at Essex University shows that BAME and single-parent families are worst-hit financially by Covid-19. (Observer, 7 June 2020)
6 June: WHO envoy David Nabarro, professor of global health at Imperial College London, says the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on BAME people in unequal societies whose leaders fail to take the pandemic seriously or protect those having to continue to work, has fuelled the sense of racial injustice felt over the death of George Floyd. (Observer, 6 June 2020)
7 June: The chair of the all-party parliamentary group on air pollution, and a number of scientists, criticise the Public Health England review into regional and race disparities, saying that the failure to consider dirty air as a factor in the higher Covid-19 death toll among ethnic minorities was ‘wholly irresponsible’. (Guardian, 7 June 2020)
8 June: New data commissioned by the Fawcett Society shows that Black, Asian and minority ethnic women in the UK suffer greater financial and psychological consequences from the coronavirus pandemic than their white counterparts. BAME women, particularly those with disabilities or in retirement, report limited access to support from the government. (Guardian, 8 June 2020)
9 June: NHS England chief Sir Simon Stevens writes to NHS England and NHS Improvement staff saying Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement have brought into ‘stark and urgent’ focus layered impacts of years of disadvantage and inequality faced by BAME people, on which ‘systematic action’ is needed. Several local NHS Trust chiefs in acute, community and mental health services from the West Midlands, Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and London speak out about racism in the NHS. (NHS England; Health Service Journal, 9 June 2020)
12 June: People living in the poorest areas of England and Wales are twice as likely to die from Covid-19 as those in less deprived areas, according to figures from the Office of National Statistics. (Guardian, 12 June 2020)
13 June: British Medical Association (BMA) chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul demands an explanation from health secretary Matt Hancock for the omission of 69 pages and seven recommendations from Public Health England’s report on disparities in the impact of coronavirus, saying the published report ‘has not done justice to the BAME communities’. A leaked draft of a second report indicates that racism, stigma, occupational risk and social inequality may increase the risk of Covid-19 for BAME communities, and recommends action to reduce inequality. (BBC News; Guardian, 13 June 2020)
POLICING AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
For more information on policing and civil liberties issues follow @NETPOL @BigBrotherWatch @COVIDStateWatch and @libertyhq.
POLICING CORONAVIRUS
June: The home affairs select committee (HASC) inquiry into policing, Macpherson: 21 years on, is accepting evidence on policing and race including on concerns raised about the policing of the Covid-19 lockdown and reported disproportionality in fines and investigations of individuals from BAME communities, until 30 June 2020. Read the call for evidence here. (HASC, June 2020)
3 June: The Metropolitan police face claims of bias after figures show that officers enforcing the coronavirus lockdown were more than twice as likely to issue fines to black people as to white people, who were also under-represented in the number of arrests made for alleged breaches of Covid-19 lockdown rules, making up 38 percent of arrests, while black people were over-represented, with 31 percent of arrests. (Guardian, 3 June 2020)
3 June: Statistics emerge suggesting that on the first day of France’s lockdown, the Seine-Saint-Denis department north-east of Paris, home to France’s poorest and most immigrant-rich districts, accounted for 10 per cent of all fines handed out for breaching the lockdown, despite comprising just over two percent of the country’s population. (France 24, 3 June 2020)
3 June: Guardian-commissioned research reveals that lockdown breach fines and arrests are more likely for BAME Londoners. People from a black ethnic minority are 2.17 times more likely to receive a fine and Asians around 16 percent, with white people 23 percent less likely to be fined by Metropolitan police. Black people made up 31 per cent of all arrests under coronavirus restrictions. (Guardian, 3 June 2020)
5 June: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is asked to review evidence on the death of Belly Mujinga in recognition of wider public interest as anti-racist protests sweep the country. The British Transport Police said there was no evidence to support the claim that the 49-year-old rail worker had been spat at or coughed on by a man who said he had Covid-19 before her death of the virus in April. (Guardian, 5 June 2020)
POLICING – GENERAL
6 June: Gross misconduct hearings for eight Basingstoke police officers accused of making ‘racist and homophobic’ remarks are delayed due to Covid-19. The charges followed a 17-month investigation into claims by an employee in the force’s serious and organised crime unit. (Andover Advertiser, 6 June 2020)
6 June: Campaigners call it ‘unacceptable’ that the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which promised to carry out a review of the death of Darren Cumberbatch in July 2017 following his arrest by Nuneaton police, has yet to do so or even view the transcript of the inquest, held last year, in which the coroner described the restraint used (including tasers and batons) as excessive. (Guardian, 6 June 2020)
6 June: Belgium’s prosecutor’s office demands a prison sentence for an officer who pepper- sprayed and beat up a Sudanese refugee in central Brussels. His defence asks that he be allowed to go free even if found guilty as ‘he is not a robot and lost control for a while.’ (Brussels Times, 6 June 2020)
8 June: The IOPC begins an investigation into the death of Simeon Francis, a black man arrested at 1am on 20 May in Exeter and taken to Torquay police station, where he was later ‘found unresponsive in his cell’. A post mortem did not identify a cause of death; an inquest has been opened and adjourned. (Independent, 8 June 2020)
10 June: Forensic Architecture publishes its investigation of the death of Mark Duggan, including a 3-D reconstruction, which casts doubt on the conclusion that a gun found in a field had been thrown by Duggan. The investigation can be viewed here. (Guardian, 10 June 2020)
11 June: The European Court of Human Rights rules that French judges violated freedom of speech rights by convicting 11 members of the ‘boycott Israel’ demonstration organised by ‘Collectif Palestine 68’, and orders the French authorities to pay the applicants damages. (Al Jazeera, 11 June 2020)
12 June: Black bank manager Dale Semper launches a legal action against the police for malicious prosecution and race discrimination, claiming he was wrongfully targeted by officers in a two-year investigation into money laundering, terrorism and trafficking, which was then dropped without explanation or apology. (Channel 4 News, 12 June 2020)
13 June: Greek NGO Racist Crime Watch files a criminal complaint against two police officers who shot and injured two people in Evros last week. (Are You Syrious, 13 June 2020)
15 June: 27-year-old insurance underwriter Tariq Stanley says he will sue the police over injuries including a broken wrist and damage to his arm and shoulder sustained when he was detained by police outside his home in Woolwich, London during lockdown in April. He says he was trying to cooperate with the police, even offering them the keys to his flat so they could search it. (Guardian, 15 June 2020)
15 June: A court investigates six Catalonian police officers for offences against moral integrity and assault, as an audio recording from the 21-year-old who was being arrested by these police officers and shared by SOS Racismo evidences them shouting ‘Fucking ni…., son of a bitch’ and ‘You’re a monkey’. The interior minister and the director of Catalonian police say the officers will be transferred to ‘less specialised units of law enforcement’. (Público; Público, 10 June 2020)
16 June: The League of Human Rights in Belgium accuses the police of excessive use of force during lockdown. The accusation is based on testimonies collected and an analysis by the Police Violence Observatory, PoliceWatch. (Brussels Times, 16 June 2020)
ANTI-FASCISM AND FAR RIGHT
4 June: Rome city council repossesses the building that the far-right CasaPound squatted four years ago and turned into its headquarters. Prosecutors announce an investigation into criminal conspiracy aimed at instigating racial hatred as well as illegal occupation of state-owned property. (Ansa, 4 June 2020)
6 June: Focus magazine reports that German neo-Nazis from the youth wing of the National Democratic Party of Germany and Third Way are receiving paramilitary training, which is legal in Russia, at a military facility on the outskirts of St Petersburg run by vigilante group Partizan, which has close ties with Russian Orthodox Christian extremists. (Deutsche Welle, 6 June 2020)
6 June: Italian far-right extremists join with football fans in Rome to protest the coronavirus regulations. As fights break out, police use water cannon and tear gas to dispel the protesters. (BBC News, 6 June 2020)
8 June: A 21-year-old is detained in Hildesheim, Germany on suspicion of planning a large-scale attack Muslims imitating the Christchurch New Zealand massacre. Weapons and right-wing extremist materials are found at his home. (The Local, 8 June 2020)
9 June: Alice Cutler and her partner, along with two other neo-Nazis, are jailed for a total of fourteen and a half years after being found guilty of membership of the proscribed organisation National Action. (Sky News; The Sun, 9 June 2020)
10 June: The discussion page Ireland Reddit, which has over 280,000 members, says that it has reached ‘breaking point’ for abusive and racist material and is shutting down between midnight and 8am every day to try to ‘stem the flow’ of the racist content, which may be coming from American ‘sock puppet’ accounts. (Independent, 10 June 2020)
10 June: The family of a teenager who was stabbed in Cork in an attack that had nothing to do with race, condemn a GoFundMe fundraising campaign set up without their knowledge and shut down due to its racist content. (Irish Examiner, 10 June 2020)
11 June: Far-right Norwegian extremist Philip Manshaus, 22, who killed his 17-year-old Chinese step-sister, Johanne Zhangjia Ilhe-Hansen, before trying to gun down Muslim worshippers at the al-Noor Islamic centre in Oslo, is jailed for 21 years – the longest term allowed under Norwegian law. (Al Jazeera, 11 June 2020)
13 June: A military whistleblower tells Der Spiegel that there is a culture of tolerance towards right-wing extremism within Germany’s elite fighting military command, Kommando Spezialkräfte (KSK). The revelations come shortly after amendments to the Military Act which make it easier to dismiss soldiers for extremism. (Deutsche Welle, 13 June 2020)
14 June: In Leeds city centre, far-right activists and football hooligans clash with the police after charging a number of Black Lives Matter activists. Mounted police are deployed. (The Sun, 14 June 2020)
16 June: The trial of two German neo-Nazis accused of murdering the Christian Democrat MP Walter Lübcke in June 2019 opens in Frankfurt. (Deutsche Welle, 16 June 2020)
DISCRIMINATION
14 June: A report by the Tutu Foundation into the Westway Trust, which manages land under London’s A40 flyover and works with residents, finds the Trust ‘institutionally racist’ against the Caribbean community of North Kensington. The Trust has not published the final version of the report, which was privately circulated to the trust 11 months ago. (Observer, 14 June 2020)
ELECTORAL POLITICS
8 June: The Conservative party readmits Aberdeen councillor Ryan Houghton, who was suspended last year after a newspaper uncovered a history of antisemitic and Islamophobic internet comments. (The National, 8 June 2020)
9 June: Conservative councillor Robin Vickery resigns from Suffolk and Ipswich councils and from the party after more than 600 complaints against him for sharing a post on his homepage which called for the deportation of black and Asian people. (BBC News, 9 June 2020)
10 June: Alternative for Germany (AfD) exploits an outbreak of Covid-19 infections at the Iduna housing complex, outside Göttingen, leading to a media frenzy and the further stigmatisation of the residents in Lower Saxony, particularly families from Kosovo. Amidst claims that the outbreak was linked to a local hookah bar, AfD denounces ‘the clearly provocative and ignorant behaviour of Arabic clans’. (Deutsche Welle, 10 June 2020)
16 June: A Paris criminal court fines Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement Nationale (National Rally) Party €18,750 for misuse of assets during the 2012 parliamentary elections. (The Local, 16 June 2020)
EMPLOYMENT
3 June: Black agency healthcare assistant Millie Raphael, sent to Eastbourne General Hospital at the height of the pandemic, tells ITV News that her shifts were cancelled after she challenged the adequacy of the PPE provided, a claim that the hospital trust denies, claiming they terminated her shifts because of her behaviour. (ITV News, 3 June 2020)
8 June: An internal investigation finds that a large unit within the NHS’s blood and organ transplant division is ‘systematically racist’ and ‘psychologically unsafe’, with recruitment based on race and class and BAME staff tolerating a toxic atmosphere, discrimination and abuse. (Guardian, 8 June 2020)
12 June: French delivery company Frichti in Paris lays off hundreds of undocumented deliverymen. In response they take to streets to demand for their jobs back and to be regularised. (InfoMigrants, 12 June 2020)
14 June: Research by the National Centre for Social Research and the universities of Bristol and Manchester finds that persistent racism means that people in most ethnic minority groups are still significantly more likely to be in manual work or unemployed than their white counterparts. (Guardian, 14 June 2020)
16 June: Nursing unions in Belgium take the government to court for negligence, a ‘lack of foresight’ and endangering their lives during the coronavirus pandemic by failing to provide safe working conditions, PPE, testing or support, following protests by health care workers in Brussels and Wallonia at the weekend. (Brussels Times, 16 June 2020)
17 June: The United Voices of the World union, representing low-paid and migrant workers, accuses Premier Fruits, one of the UK’s biggest fruit and vegetable wholesalers, of victimisation for trade union activity and breaches of workers’ rights and of health and safety legislation. (Left Foot Forward, 17 June 2020)
EDUCATION
8 June: UK universities are warned that a sharp fall in the number of international students coming next year will lose them up to £460 million in income from students from east Asia. (Guardian, 8 June 2020)
11 June: The mayor of Greater Manchester backs a new investigation into the death of 12-year-old Shukri Abdi, who drowned in the River Irwell in June 2019. Shukri Abdi’s parents maintain that their daughter was subjected to extensive bullying at school. The mayor wants an investigation into all public bodies involved. (Guardian, 11 June 2019)
12 June: A researcher finally wins a long court battle to access France’s ex-president François Mitterand’s archives on the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Kigali accuses Paris of having played a role. (Al Jazeera, 12 June 2020)
15 June: The Versailles administrative appeal court rules unlawful the use of separate classes for Romani children in a Paris municipality, upholding an earlier court judgment from 2017 in a case in which the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and several French NGOs intervened. (ERRC, 15 June 2020)
15 June: A report by the National Foundation for Education Research finds mounting evidence of wide disparities in the provision of schoolwork during lockdown and fears that millions of working-class children are doing little or nothing at all. Pupils in the most disadvantaged schools are the least likely to be engaged with remote learning. (Guardian, 15 June 2020)
16 June: More than ten universities in Belgium confirm they will not impose a ban on headscarves in class despite the constitutional court ruling that a ban is allowed in higher education. (Brussels Times, 16 June 2020)
WELFARE
4 June: Analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) finds that more than a million more people, including 200,000 children will, be pushed into poverty by Christmas because of soaring unemployment. (Guardian, 4 June 2020)
6 June: Coronavirus legislation reducing social work responsibilities towards vulnerable children has resulted in ‘alarming’ numbers of unaccompanied children disappearing from care or being made homeless since the lockdown after support for them has been reduced, children’s, migrant and anti-trafficking charities say. (Guardian, 6 June 2020)
16 June: Following Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford’s letter to MPs explaining the necessity of providing food vouchers to the poorest families to stop children going hungry over the summer, Boris Johnson reverses his refusal in the face of a backbench Tory rebellion and announces a £120 million ‘Covid summer food fund’ for 1.3 million children in England. (Guardian, 15 June; Guardian, 16 June 2020)
HOUSING
4 June: The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma writes to the Local Government Association saying Gypsy and Traveller communities in England have been left without water and sanitation facilities during the lockdown and directed to use uncleaned public toilets, with some local authorities attempting to evict camps. Friends, Families and Travellers estimate that around 25,000 people are affected. (Guardian, 4 June 2020)
5 June: The government extends the ban on evictions for a further two months until the end of August after housing campaigners warn that thousands of tenants struggling to pay rent during lockdown face the prospect of losing their homes without an extension. (Guardian, 5 June 2020)
11 June: The High Court orders the Home Office to pay for a clean and safe hotel for an asylum seeker and her two children after putting them in unsafe conditions for ten months and then, in response to concerns raised by the children’s school, social services, lawyers and charities, moving them to even worse accommodation, with the alternative of moving them 200 miles from the children’s school. (Guardian, 11 June 2020)
14 June: As Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer mark the third anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire with video messages at a virtual commemoration service, cathedral bells toll for the dead and windows of tower blocks glow green in solidarity with the bereaved, campaigners call for the next phase of the Grenfell Inquiry to include institutional racism in its terms of reference. (Guardian, 12 June; Guardian; Guardian, 14 June)
15 June: More than 1,000 prisoners were released into homelessness at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in England and Wales, figures show, prompting the government to increase funding for accommodation for prison leavers. Figures obtained by the Labour Party show 840 men, 89 women and 85 young adults aged 18 to 24 were released into rough sleeping or other forms of homelessness between 23 March, when the lockdown was imposed, and 30 April. A further 1,209 men, women and young adults were released into unknown circumstances for accommodation in the same period. (Guardian, 15 June 2020)
16 June: Squares in central Athens are turned into makeshift camps by people evicted from state camps in light of government ruling which sees all those without refugee status forced to leave the facilities. (Ekathimerini, 16 June 2020)
ASYLUM, MIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP
ASYLUM AND MIGRANT RIGHTS
3 June: The UK Human Rights blog reports that in May the High Court ruled unlawful the ‘No recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) condition in a case involving a 9-year-old child born in the UK and his mother. (UK Human Rights blog, 3 June 2020)
10 June: Doctors complain of ‘a kick in the teeth’ as those applying for new visas say they are being told to pay the health surcharge, currently £400 per person, despite the prime minister’s 21 May pledge that it would be removed ‘as soon as possible’ for health and care staff. The Royal Colleges of Nursing and Physicians and the BMA are writing to Johnson asking when the fee will be scrapped. (Times £, 10 June; Guardian, 15 June 2020)
11 June: A young refugee from Gaza passes 90 days of hunger strike against the Home Office’s refusal to amend his age on official records, which he maintains was wrongly assessed when he was given leave to remain in the UK in 2019. The mental health charity Mind say the amendment will not impact on his immigration status or give him any legal or financial advantage, but will potentially save his life. (Guardian, 11 June 2020)
12 June: After migrant charities decry the prime minister’s refusal to suspend the NRPF policy, which is pushing thousands into destitution, the Local Government Association, representing councils in England and Wales, joins the call, saying ‘A suspension of the NRPF condition would allow people to claim welfare benefits, which could stave off homelessness’. (Guardian, 7 June; Guardian, 12 June 2020)
15 June: The HASC calls for the free visa extension for NHS staff to be extended to include all staff working in the sector, including hospital porters, cleaners and administrative staff. It notes that these workers are ‘more likely to be in lower-paid job roles, meaning that the necessity of paying visa renewal fees is a much greater financial burden.’ (Guardian, 15 June 2020)
15 June: Lawyers and charities say thousands of people in the UK identified as having been trafficked are at risk of destitution and re-exploitation as the Home Office continues its practice of terminating their financial and welfare support after 45 days, despite lockdown. (Independent, 15 June 2020)
BORDERS AND INTERNAL CONTROLS
4 June: The memorandum of understanding signed by Malta and Libya on 28 May is published, showing that Malta is to finance two coordination centres in the two capitals and to seek more funding from the EU to secure Libya’s southern borders against ‘illegal immigration’. (Independent/ Are You Syrious, 4 June 2020)
6 June: After 40 days, the 425 people held on board Malta’s Captain Morgan pleasure cruise ships are allowed to disembark. (Times of Malta, 6 June 2020)
6 June: Yasser Bendahou-Idrissi, a 27-year-old Moroccan man last seen on the 31 May near the Mrežnice river, has gone missing in Croatia. (Are You Syrious, 6 June 2020)
11 June: The Andalusian government warns of the arrival of ‘many immigrants with Covid’ by boat, despite the fact that 96 percent of the new arrivals tested negative. (El Diario, 11 June 2020)
12 June: The Home Office reinstates the practice, abandoned years ago of fingerprinting people intercepted trying to cross the Channel. Border enforcement officers are reluctant as they are not equipped with digital fingerprint scanners. (InfoMigrants, 12 June 2020)
12 June: The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) announces an investigation into whether the Home Office breached equality laws in introducing ‘hostile environment’ measures, looking particularly at how the Home Office ‘understood, monitored and reviewed the impact of placing increasingly onerous documentation requirements’ on people, following demands from 16 anti-racist groups and a 100,000-signature petition after the publication of the Windrush: Lessons Learned review in March. (Guardian, Independent, 12 June 2020)
15 June: EU officials are accused of an ‘outrageous cover-up’ after withholding evidence of the Croatian government’s failure to supervise police accused of systematically robbing, abusing, beating and humiliating migrants at its borders. Supervision was a condition of an EU grant. (Guardian, 15 June 2020)
RECEPTION AND DETENTION
3 June: Berlin approves plans to build 38 new permanent accommodation blocks for refugees, some new and some replacing temporary accommodation erected in 2015. Eight blocks housing 2,000 people will be erected within the next year. (InfoMigrants, 3 June 2020)
14 June: Irish government coalition partners draft a document committing them to ending the Direct Provision system in the lifetime of the new government and replacing it with a new international protection accommodation policy centred on a not-for-profit approach. (Irish Times, 14 June 2020)
DEPORTATION
10 June: More than two years after the High Court ruled the Home Office’s policy of detaining and deporting EU rough sleepers unlawful, evidence published by Corporate Watch suggests that the government, working with charity and council ‘partners’, is developing new and subtler strategies to remove homeless migrants from the UK. (Corporate Watch, 10 June 2020)
CRIMINALISING SOLIDARITY
10 June: Three French police officers are to be prosecuted for trumping up charges against a British aid worker who was supporting migrants in Calais. Tom Ciotkowski, a council worker from Stratford-upon-Avon, was arrested while filming riot police preventing humanitarian volunteers from distributing food to refugees in July 2018. (Guardian, 10 June 2020)
13 June: Una-Sana canton in Bosnia passes a law banning the distribution of food and other goods to ‘illegal camps’, dramatically limiting the humanitarian work of NGOs. (Are You Syrious, 13 June 2020)
MEDIA AND CULTURE
9 June: Following a Freedom of Information request, it is revealed that the Home Office Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT) commissioned an external agency to create an Instagram page named ‘Stoosh’ targeting BAME women using influencers. (Middle East Eye, 9 June 2020)
11 June: German car manufacturer VW apologies and admits to a ‘lack of cultural sensitivity’ after publishing a racist advert on Instagram. (Al Jazeera, 11 June 2020)
12 June: In the run-up to the presidential elections, the Polish state TVP channel is accused of using dog-whistle antisemitism against Warsaw’s Civic Platform candidate Rafal Trzaskowski (who is not Jewish), broadcasting a report which claimed he is in cahoots with a ‘powerful foreign lobby’ and ‘rich groups who want to rule the world’ including George Soros. (JC.com, 12 June 2020)
13 June: In Berlin, Roma and Sinti protest Deutsche Bahn’s proposal to remove a Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism, due to a train line expansion. (Ruptly TV, 13 June 2020)
RACIAL VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT
4 June: A Sheffield mother who woke up to find racist graffiti scrawled on her property says she is fearful for the lives of her mixed-race children, after she walked down the driveway with her six-year-old son to find the words ‘kill ni****s’ written on her garden gate. South Yorkshire police begin an investigation. (The Star, 5 June)
4 June: A key worker in Basildon speaks out, saying she is fearful about leaving her home, after she and a neighbour had racist letters posted through their front doors on 30 May, which police are treating as a hate crime. (Southend Standard, 4 June 2020)
4 June: After dashcam footage shows a Birmingham taxi driver being racially abused by a passenger in May, police arrest a white man on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence. (Express and Star, 4 June 2020)
4 June: A passenger travelling on a bus in Liverpool finds a racist message written on a lollipop stick, ‘send them back to Africa’. (Liverpool Echo, 5 June 2020)
5 June: Two teenagers are arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated common assault and public order offences after a Snapchat video goes viral that shows a white youth at Holmfirth cricket club near Huddersfield, west Yorkshire, repeatedly ordering a black teenager to ‘kiss my shoe’ and slapping him, as other white youths sit round laughing. (Independent 100, 5 June 2020)
8 June: Police appeal for witnesses after a man was racially abused by a cyclist while helping a wheelchair user in Stoborough, near Wareham, on 26 May. (Somerset Live, 8 June 2020)
8 June: A 55-year-old former University of Brighton lecturer, spared prison in April for racist abuse and spitting at police, is jailed for six months after racially abusing a police officer called to an address in Brighton in May and trying to punch another. (The Argus, 8 June 2020)
9 June: A 52-year-old woman is jailed for six months the day after racially abusing and spitting at another woman in a Croydon street and on arrest, telling police officers she has Covid-19 and coughing in their faces. (Metro, 12 June 2020)
9 June: A 51-year-old woman is arrested for suspected racially aggravated assault after a video is circulated of her spitting at a man walking his dog walker twice and taunting him, then kicking his dog in the head, in Hob Moor, North Yorkshire. (The Mirror, 12 June 2020)
10 June: Two teenagers are arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated assault after an Indian couple were assaulted in South Oxhey on 31 May. A man who intervened, believed to be in his 60s, and an emergency officer were also attacked, according to police. (Watford Observer, 10 June 2020)
10 June: The Commissioner for Countering extremism launches a review into whether existing legislation is adequate to deal with ‘hateful extremism’, with Sir Mark Rowley, appointed to lead the review, citing gaps in the legislation to deal with antisemitic coronavirus conspiracy theories. (Guardian, 10 June 2020)
10 June: A Northumbria University student posts a six-minute video of herself and her personal trainer boyfriend in which he issues a string of racist remarks while she laughs. The university reports the incident to Northumbria police and undertakes an internal investigation. (Newcastle Tab, 10 June 2020)
13 June: A swastika is found daubed outside the home of a black family in Penygroes, Gwynedd. The victims express disappointment when the police leave the graffiti rather than arranging for it to be removed straight away. (Daily Post, 13 June 2020)
15 June: Preston police appeal for witnesses after a 53-year-old mother and her 18-year-old daughter were racially abused and assaulted by a gang of 20 to 25 youths on 29 May whilst walking near the Brockholes nature reserve. (Lancs Live, 15 June 2020)
14 June: A report by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal shows racist hate crime in Dundee has risen to levels not seen for ten years. (Dundee Evening Telegraph, 14 June 2020)
16 June: Two Spanish nationals are arrested the day after a racist attack by several dozen residents on a flat occupied by young migrants in Barcelona’s Premià de Mar, to try to get them out. (Público, 15 June; El Diario, 16 June 2020)
The calendar was compiled with the help of Aisha Rana-Deshmukh, Laura Wormington, Jessica Pandian, Graeme Atkinson and Joseph Maggs.