News / Crime
One street, four ‘vile’ racist attacks
Four houses in one street in Knowle West have had bricks thrown through their windows and two have had obscene racist graffiti scrawled across the front in the last six weeks, police have revealed.
An appeal has been launched after residents of Bideford Crescent, who are believed to be Polish- and Nigerian-born, were targeted – with the latest attack to have taken place on Wednesday this week.
Messages of “f*ck off” are believed to have been sprayed onto the walls of one Polish family’s home during the attacks. Some of the graffiti is so offensive police have censored it from pictures released with their appeal. One home has been targeted twice.
is needed now More than ever
The appeal comes a month after Bristol24/7 revealed a rise in hate crimes across Bristol since the vote to leave the EU.
Inspector Nigel Colston, Bristol neighbourhood beat manager, said: “This is an absolutely disgusting and vile series of attacks on people’s homes and it is completely unacceptable.
“The residents of the properties targeted, some of which were inside when the incidents took place, have been left feeling scared and intimidated.
“I’m quite sure that most reasonably-minded people in the Filwood community would be shocked and appalled at the level of hatred shown to these families and I would appeal to them to contact us should they have any information at all about this, or any other racially motivated hate incident in the area.
“I know that this is a good, strong community with a real heart and I really hope to see people come together to try to help the victims in these cases.”
Anyone who witnessed any of the four incidents, or who has any other information, is asked to contact police on 101 quoting reference number 5216165546.
Anyone with information about any hate incident should report it either by calling 999 in an emergency or 101 in a non-emergency, or in person at a police station. They can also report incidents to Bristol hate crime charity Sari.
Read more: Revealed: Bristol’s Brexit hate crimes
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