Czech Police investigate conflict between unidentified adult male and three Romani minors, Romani community claims "Ukrainians" are committing armed assaults against them

Romani community member Miroslav Tancoš posted to Facebook Sunday evening as follows: “A group of Ukrainians is walking around Česká Lípa with knives and chasing our Romani guys. They even walked into the building locals call ‘Parliament’ and chased our youth there. The Roma are on patrol there now and the situation overall is serious.”

Tancoš deleted the post later, but it had already begun to live a life of its own and has been shared by other Romani men and women, quite frequently with racist, vulgar abuse against citizens of Ukraine. Police have confirmed to news server Romea.cz that an incident did actually occur in Česká Lípa.

“We confirm that between 9 and 12 February we registered an increased number of calls to the emergency number 158 by inhabitants of a residence in the Dubice department of Česká Lípa known among locals as ‘Parliament’,” police spokesperson Ivana Baláková told news server Romea.cz. “Those phone calls were preceded by an argument between two male minors and an unidentified adult male on Hrnčířská Street in the center of Česká Lípa during the evening of 9 February. An older friend of the boys ran to their aid and the man, who they say spoke Czech, demonstratively showed them a knife and then fled without causing anybody harm. The youths then called the 158 number,” she said, adding that the operations center immediately sent two vehicular patrols with a service dog to the scene.

“We did not find the man in the locality despite deploying the service dog. One of the youths literally said when describing the man that he could have been a Ukrainian,” Baláková said.

According to her, the boys involved in the incident have ties to the above-mentioned residence in Dubice, and police received seven emergency calls from there through Sunday about the alleged movements of a man with a knife near the building, with two of the calls alleging the man was Ukrainian. “We responded to all of the calls by immediately driving to the locality, but we never discovered any illegal behavior at the scene,” Baláková told Romea.cz.

Some Romani people have been calling for the creation of Romani militias through social media, alleging that police are not investigating the incidents. These social media users clearly believe citizens of Ukraine have been the alleged assailants.

“The allegations that inhabitants of that building are being threatened by Ukrainians are just speculations unverified by any provable facts. Given that negative emotions are spreading among those living in the building in question, we are paying increased attention to the situation in the Dubice locality by beefing up our patrol services and meeting for consultations with the crime prevention assistants to the local police, who have good personal knowledge of the building residents and their problems,” Baláková said.