Amanda Ferguson

And unfortunately, you know, no matter what way you want to talk about this, about legitimate concerns, this and that,

What we're hearing from quite a number of people is really just barefaced racism.

And I think some of our politicians this morning put it very well.

Like Claire Hanna of the SCLP described what had unfolded as a race-based pogrom.

I heard from the Justice Minister talking in a similar fashion, just about the fact that there is no way that you could consider what's happened over the last two days to be any good for anyone.

Yes, there's an enhanced police presence across the entire north.

You know, the police have made very clear that

And that is going to be a feature in the coming days.

We know that also there are 200 mutual aid officers that are going to be arriving tomorrow.

The amount of Land Rovers, the amount of armoured police cars and also just sort of softened police cars

that you're seeing at the minute is unreal and that obviously has its toll on the people who are working within the police and we hear regularly from the Chief Constable talking about the fact that the PSNI doesn't have enough officers that it doesn't have enough resourcing to do what needs to be done in such a complex post-legacy kind of society but that's maybe their discussions for other days and certainly if anybody has anything they want to talk about in a democracy or if they want to protest

They're free to do so.

What you're not free to do so is to bomb, petrol bomb people out of their homes and destroy property, you know, and put people in fear of their lives.

And that's happening amongst non-white communities, essentially, mostly.

But it's also happening to be disruptive to everyone's everyday life in terms of not being able to

to go to school, not being able, you know, and this is an exam time for kids in the North as well.

You know, it's just, it's extremely depressing.

And, you know, I'm talking more candidly probably than I usually do, but it's because I'm exhausted.

And also I'm from North Belfast, so I've been horrified what has happened since Monday.

Yeah, well, I think people are horrified by the violence that happened on Monday night in North Belfast and also the subsequent violence that we saw last night breaking out over pockets of Belfast and further afield.