Britons lament #PostBrexitRacism as police probe abuse
LONDON -- Britain's vote in favor of their nation pulling out of the European Union in a referendum that was charged by fears of immigrants "taking over" the United Kingdom, has apparently -- and predictably -- left racists feeling more comfortable voicing their hatred.
In response to a number of reported racist incidents, London Mayor Sadiq Khan asked the Metropolitan Police to "be extra vigilant for any rise in cases of hate crime."
"I'm calling on all Londoners to pull together and rally behind this great city," Khan said.
Speaking in Parliament, Prime Minister David Cameron said the goverment would also "take every step that we can" to address and deter the "despicable incidents" seen across the country in the wake of the vote.
The hashtag #PostBrexitRacism started picking up steam fast after the results of the EU referendum were announced Friday. Social media users reported verbal harassment on buses, city streets and in cafes.
Cries of "send them home!" by small groups of white Britons have been reported.
For the first time in its decades of existence in west London, a Polish cultural center was vandalized over the weekend. The words "go home" were scrawled on the building in Hammersmith -- an area where 70 percent of the votes were in favor of Britain remaining in the EU.
"This incident is being treated as a hate crime due to the racially aggravated nature of the criminal damage," London's Metropolitan Police said Monday, asking the public for help in identifying the lone male culprit who "made off on his bicycle."
Police were also investigating in Huntingdon, about 60 miles north of London, where some Polish residents woke up to find small cards reading "No More Polish Vermin" shoved through their mail slots or left on their cars or property.
"It's a very bad situation, but I'm advising people to report the cards to the police and otherwise ignore them," resident Daniel Guz told the BBC.
The cards were printed in both English and Polish, but Guz noted the poor Polish appeared to indicate the hate mongers had "just put the words into Google translation."
British actress Maria Mcateer, who has Trinidadian heritage, told the Evening Standard newspaper that she was almost reduced to tears over the weekend as she sat in a café with her mother and young daughter, and a table full of fellow-Brits began a racist chant after what she called a loud and "xenophobic" discussion on the EU topic.
"It's just evidence for me that the hate stirred up in the Brexit campaign has allowed people to feel justified in talking like this out loud, no matter who is around," Mcateer told the paper. "It's given racist folk some kind of feeling of empowerment. I feel it and yesterday I heard it loud and clear."
Social media is full of unconfirmed accounts of children being harangued on school buses, angry anti-immigrant shouting in grocery stores, and children of non-white British families asking their parents if it is even safe to speak in public anymore for fear they will be recognized.
The reaction to the apparent surge in hate on the ground has been a corresponding surge in support online, with community groups and thousands of social media users springing the to the defense of Britain's millions of EU immigrants.
The hastag itself, #PostBrexitRacism, rose to Internet fame, in fact, on the backs of tweets and Facebook posts condemning racism; an important reminder that while the angriest voices are often amplified in times of crisis, they are rarely in the majority.