NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Intolerant acts surge as British
referendum result sinks in
By RAPHAEL SATTER
and PHILIPPA LAW
Associated Press
LONDON — An Eastern
European family in Rugby
inds dog excrement shoved
through its mailbox. A
Londoner nearly gets into
a ight over drunken slurs
shouted on a crowded
subway car. A Polish teenager
in Gloucestershire is taunted
with threats of deportation at
her high school.
In the wake of last
Thursday’s vote to leave the
European Union, Britain has
seen a surge in xenophobia
expressed in taunts, threats
and worse. For many,
foreign- and native-born, the
U.K. has suddenly become
much scarier place.
“Before Friday we lived
in a tolerant society,” said
Oana Gorcea, a 32-year-old
Romanian who has lived
in Britain since she was a
teenager. “I’ve been here 13
years, but I’ve never felt like
I had to hide where I came
from. But from Friday, things
completely changed.”
Gorcea, who works for
a multinational company in
Rugby, about 85 miles north-
west of London, said her
street was being patrolled by
“English commandos who
walk around and try to intim-
idate non-white non-English
people.” The talk of the
neighborhood was the dog
feces shoved through a local
immigrant family’s mailbox.
Gorcea’s story and others
like it have been echoing
across social media for days.
Eastern Europeans, Muslims
— even Americans and
Germans — have reported
acts of intimidation and
harassment. Victims describe
an emboldened angry fringe
emerging to crow over Thurs-
day’s vote; a T-shirt sported by
a man at an Armed Forces Day
parade in the working class
London borough of Havering
over the weekend seemed to
sum up the new attitude:
“YES! WE WON! NOW
SEND THEM BACK.”
British reporters across
the country have seen the
resurgence of racism up close
and personal. Adam Boulton,
a presenter for Britain’s Sky
News, posted a message to
Twitter saying he and his
family had witnessed three
separate incidents of when-
are-you-going-home?-style
abuse aimed at Europeans
over the weekend. Channel
Four’s Ciaran Jenkins said
that within a ive-minute
span in the northern England
town of Barnsley, three
Diamond Geezer via AP
A man wearing an anti-immigration T-shirt walks during Armed Forces Day Parade
on Saturday in Romford, England. Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron and the
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan warned Monday that abuse directed at immigrants
wouldn’t be tolerated, after a series of incidents were reported following the coun-
try’s decision to leave the European Union.
I’ve been here 13 years, but I’ve
never felt like I had to hide where
I came from. But from Friday,
things completely changed.”
— Oana Gorcea, Romanian living in Britain
people had shouted “Send
them home!” BBC reporter
Sima Kotecha said that she
was in “utter shock” after
having returned home to the
southern England town of
Basingstoke and been abused
with a racial slur she hadn’t
heard “since the 80s.”
Police are investigating
vandalism at a Polish cultural
center in west London and
incidents in Cambridgeshire
in which cards were given
to Polish residents calling
them “vermin” and ordering
them to leave the country.
The National Police Chiefs’
Council said there had been a
57 percent rise in hate crime
complaints in the past four
days compared to the same
period last month.
Britain’s sizeable Muslim
community has also found
itself caught up in the anti-im-
migrant backlash. Miqdaad
Versi, assistant secretary-gen-
eral of the Muslim Council of
Britain, said that “hundreds
of hate crimes” had been
reported across the country.
“The type of language
that has been used, like ‘go
back to your own country,’
‘we voted this way, now you
have to get out,’ that type
of language indicates there
is some sort of link” to the
referendum, he said.
Those who championed
the campaign to pull Britain
from the EU have condemned
the attacks.
“I’ve never, ever, ever
encouraged or condoned
behavior like that, and I never,
ever would,” said United
Kingdom
Independence
Party leader Nigel Farage,
before adding that “the real
prejudice is the prejudice
that’s been there for a decade
or more against anybody that
dares stand up against the
establishment, anybody that
dares to say that we shouldn’t
be part of the EU.”
Other politicians didn’t
buy it.
“The leaders of the Brexit
campaign have engendered
an atmosphere where some
people believe it is open season
now for racism and xeno-
phobia,” said lawmaker Harriet
Harman, a former leader of the
opposition Labour Party.
For the victims, the link
between the referendum and
the abuse is clear. Immi-
gration was a key issue in
the campaign, with Farage
posing in front of a massive,
truck-drawn poster carrying
a photograph of hundreds
of swarthy migrants under
the words “Breaking Point.”
Many “leave” voters cited
the inlux of foreigners as a
top concern.
“Just because of one
referendum ... it’s coming
out like woodworms,” said
Julie Sauter Daoud, a French-
German national who has
lived in Britain most of her life.
On Sunday she got a irsthand
encounter with xenophobia
when two men overtook her
car shouting, “Go home, you
(expletive) German.”
She said the attack, which
happened while she was
driving down a residential
street in the northern English
city of Shefield, left her so
shaken she was even scared to
speak French to her youngest
child at the supermarket.
“It’s terribly sickening,”
she said in a telephone inter-
view. “The irst time ever in
my life. Ever.” She paused
for a second. “Probably not
the last time now.”
The 44-year-old’s story
is one of hundreds illing
a Facebook group called
“Worrying Signs,” which
is gathering evidence of the
recent surge in intolerance.
By late Monday the site was
jammed with stories and
photographs of sinister grafiti
and even broken windows.
Polish-British national Natalia
Nicholls wrote on the site that
her 14-year-old sister was
taunted by boys at her high
school in the Cotswolds region
of England who boasted that
“now we can get rid of the
Polish and the blacks.” Corinne
Abrahams, 24, said she was
returning from a music festival
when she nearly got into a ight
with an inebriated man yelling
anti-foreigner epithets on the
London subway.
East Oregonian
BRIEFLY
UK credit rating slashed,
Cameron insists economy is robust
LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister David Cameron
insisted Monday that Britain’s shock vote to leave the
European Union won’t send the economy into a tailspin,
even as the country was stripped of its top credit rating
and stock markets and the pound continued a downward
spiral.
Calling the vote a “seminal event” that “will lead to
a less predictable, stable and effective policy framework
in the U.K,” Standard & Poor’s knocked the U.K.’s
sovereign rating by two notches, from AAA to AA. Hours
later, Fitch Ratings followed suit, downgrading the country
to AA, from AA+.
Both agencies said they were keeping a negative
outlook on their ratings, which means they could
downgrade the country further. Standard and Poor’s cited
risks to the economy and public inances, the pound’s
role as an international reserve currency and “risks to
the constitutional and economic integrity of the U.K.” as
Scotland’s strong vote to remain in the EU could raise the
prospect of another referendum on Scottish independence.
Speaking earlier in the day as the House of Commons
met for the irst time since last week’s referendum,
Cameron insisted the British economy was robust and
could withstand the shockwaves.
“It is clear that markets are volatile, there are some
companies considering their investments and we know
this is going to be far from plain sailing,” Cameron told
lawmakers. “However, we should take conidence from
the fact that Britain is ready to confront what the future
holds for us from a position of strength.”
Volkswagen reaches $14.7B settlement
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Volkswagen would
repair or buy back polluting diesel vehicles and pay each
owner as much as $10,000 under a $14.7 billion deal the
car maker has reached to settle lawsuits stemming from
its emissions cheating scandal, a person briefed on the
settlement talks said Monday.
The igure would be the largest auto scandal settlement
in U.S. history and a huge step in Volkswagen’s efforts
to address the legal fallout from its admission that its
vehicles were designed to fool emissions tests.
The deal sets aside $10 billion to repair or buy back
roughly 475,000 polluting Volkswagen vehicles with
2-liter diesel engines, and to compensate each owner with
an additional payment of between $5,100 and $10,000,
the person said. The person asked not to be identiied
because the deal will not be iled in court until Tuesday,
and a judge has ordered attorneys not to talk about it
before then.
How VW would repair the vehicles to bring them into
compliance with clean air laws has not yet been inalized,
the person said.
Owners who choose to have VW buy back their
cars would get the clean trade-in value from before the
scandal became public on Sept. 18, 2015. The average
value of a VW diesel has dropped 19 percent since just
before the scandal began. In August of 2015, the average
was $13,196, and this May it was $10,674, according to
Kelley Blue Book.
Judge: Mississippi law creates
inequality for gay marriage
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi clerks cannot
cite their own religious beliefs to recuse themselves from
issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, under a
ruling a federal judge handed down Monday.
The effect of the ruling by U.S. District Judge Carlton
Reeves is that the state can’t enforce part of a religious
objections bill that was supposed to become law Friday.
Reeves is extending his previous order that overturned
Mississippi’s ban on same-sex marriage. He says circuit
clerks are required to provide equal treatment for all
couples, gay or straight. He also said that all 82 circuit
clerks must be given formal notice of that requirement.
Mississippi’s religious objections measure, House
Bill 1523 , was iled in response to last summer’s U.S.
Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage
nationwide. That ruling is called the Obergefell case, after
the man who iled it.
AP Photo/Steven Styles
Paramedics rush a stabbing victim away on a gur-
ney Sunday after members of right-wing extremists
groups holding a rally outside the California state Cap-
itol building in Sacramento clashed with counter-pro-
testers, authorities said.
California police panned for
slow response to Capitol clash
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
(AP) — Authorities were
anticipating violence as
a white nationalist group
planned a demonstration at
the California Capitol, and
they brought in more than
100 oficers to patrol the
grounds.
But after 10 people were
hurt Sunday, they faced crit-
icism Monday about whether
they were properly prepared
or too slow to get involved
when the demonstration
quickly turned violent in a
clash with a larger group of
counter-protesters.
“It was basically a free-
for-all,” said Cres Vellucci,
an observer with the National
Lawyers Guild. “I was just
appalled that nothing seemed
to be done.”
He said his group was
there to watch for police
overreaction, but in this case
the opposite happened. The
California Highway Patrol
and Sacramento city police
failed to separate about 30
members of the Traditionalist
Worker Party from about
300 counter-protesters who
rushed to confront them, he
said.
Law enforcement was
slow to protect people who
were attacked and slow to get
them medical help, Vellucci
said.
“We’re not going to escort
people from city streets or
wherever they’re coming
from,” said CHP spokesman
Oficer George Granada.
“Everything turned out fairly
well. There was violence,
but it could have been a lot
worse.”
No oficers or bystanders
were hurt and less than
$1,000 in damage was done
to the Capitol when a window
in a security pavilion was
broken, Granada said.
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