Czech Police investigating riot in Bílina, video from Brno of Roma "hunting" Ukrainians and shouting anti-Ukrainian slogans at night, and footage from the Krupka protest
Police are investigating the riot that took place in Bílina in the Teplice area on Tuesday night. They are also assessing video footage and everything posted to social media by the public as well as the speeches given during the assembly in Krupka on Tuesday.
A video filmed in Brno capturing a group of Romani men in front of a residential hotel housing foreign nationals which has been posted to social media will also be reviewed by police. The video shows them chanting anti-Ukrainian slogans.
Police have opened criminal proceedings over the riot in Krupka
Several hundred Romani people assembled in Krupka Tuesday demanding greater security and shouted anti-Ukrainian slogans during their march. Police have objected to the criticism that there were too few of them on the scene there.
Romani people organized the demonstration on the Maršov housing estate in Krupka, where police intervened on Sunday after a conflict erupted among more than one person. Those protesting on Tuesday said they want to know what preceded that incident.
According to those attending the protest, the events that sparked the conflict on Sunday involved children. The Romani representatives who negotiated with police at the station came out and announced to the crowd that no crime report of the allegations had been filed yet.
As news server Romea.cz reported Tuesday, that then changed. “Officers opened a criminal proceedings on suspicion that felony child endangerment had been committed,” Ústecký Regional Police spokesperson Kamil Marek confirmed on Wednesday.
After the incident on Sunday, a 33-year-old man from Moldova was charged with disorderly conduct and the Aliens Police will open a deportation proceeding with him. Police had already previously refuted the allegations on social media that Sunday’s incident had involved Ukrainians, and some involved had been drunk at the time, according to police.
The demonstration and march through the housing estate on Tuesday was recorded by many people on their smartphones. Many videos have been posted to social media.
After negotiating with the prosecutor, officers have started criminal proceedings on the suspicion that felony displays of sympathy for a movement aiming to suppress human rights and freedoms have been committed. Should the perpetrators be found guilty, they face prison sentences of up to three years.
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The demonstration in Krupka was surveilled by officers from riot units who checked the vehicles driving in to the housing estate, as well as by an anti-conflict tem and plainclothes police. “During the assembly in Krupka there were enough forces and equipment to secure public order,” Marek told the Czech News Agency (ČTK).
“An increased presence of the forces of order on the scene could have led to an escalation of tensions. That does not mean we did not surveil the action. We thoroughly documented the course of the demonstration and we will assess the footage, chiefly in relation to some of the speeches. We appreciate, however, the relatively peaceful course of the demonstration,” police tweeted on Wednesday.
“Because of the ongoing investigation and the information acquired at this time, from a tactical standpoint we cannot comment further at this time so as not to endanger or thwart the criminal proceedings underway. Officers are reviewing all motions received,” the spokesperson told ČTK.
Czech Interior Minister Vít Rakušan has also defended police procedure during the demonstration in Krupka. “I think it is appropriate to carefully follow the job the police do, but at the same time, officers should be trusted. I am certain that in the vast majority of cases they know what they are doing and why. Therefore, I consider the police procedure to have been correct,” Rakušan replied to a query from the Novinky.cz news server as to how he views the decision by the police not to send any riot units to the demonstration at least to be present due to the alleged possible “escalation of tensions”.
“The assembly may have attracted a lot of attention, but it transpired without any serious incidents. Police are analyzing what happened during the demonstration, analyzing it, and they will naturally draw their conclusions from it. The laws apply to everybody,” the minister said.
In Brno, a small group of Romani people “hunted” Ukrainians
Police will be investigating the video filmed in Brno that captures a group of Romani people in front of a residential hotel occupied by foreign nationals which has been published to social media. The group was chanting anti-Ukrainian slogans.
Brno Police spokesperson David Chaloupka informed ČTK of that development on Wednesday. The video has been published by news server Seznam Zprávy.
There is a different video about the situation circulating on social media that just shows the mob proceeding through the streets. More than 30 Romani men in the Seznam Zprávy video are standing outside a building on Bratislavská Street in the center of Brno shouting xenophobic slogans against Ukrainians for several minutes.
The men then set out to stroll through the streets. “Police have not received any reports about the situation captured in the footage and have yet to receive any information about it so far. Officers will investigate the incident, assess the footage, and ascertain whether the behavior captured has a racial subtext and whether it should be considered a misdemeanor or a felony,” Chaloupka told ČTK.
In the other video the group is shown slowly strolling through the streets, some of them weaving in and out between the parked cars. The author of the video, which was shot from a window, also has a brief communication with one of the passers-by at a distance when the individual asks the cameraman if he has any marijuana.
Bílina: Children’s conflict sparks a march
There was also a riot during the late night hours of Tuesday and early morning hours of Wednesday in Bílina in the Teplice area, where several demonstrators from Krupka relocated themselves to continue their activity. Police are investigating the incident on suspicion of disorderly conduct, Marek told ČTK.
News server Romea.cz has learned that reportedly an argument happened there between Romani and Ukrainian children over a scooter. Adults then inserted themselves into the dispute and a street brawl ensued, followed by an assembly of several hundred Romani people who again shouted anti-Ukrainian slogans and marched through the town.
