'Scenes at Nailors Row underscores how badly young people have been failed by Stormont' - Cllr Shaun Harkin
Appeal to young people in all communities not to participate in sectarian provocations or violence
"The scenes at Nailors Row underscores how badly young people have been failed by Stormont", according to Derry City and Strabane District councillor Shaun Harkin (People Before Profit).
Cllr Harkin added: "Establishment party representatives rushed to condemn those involved but won't highlight Stormont's hypocritical role in constantly stirring-up sectarian strife that has led to tit-for-tat provocations and attacks over many weeks. The DUP refused to condemn the violence in Ballymena and elsewhere as racist or challenge the PSNI on its failure to intervene even though lives, including of children, were at risk in burning houses.
"But the heavy-handed approach of the PSNI in recent weeks in Derry and their willingness to use rubber bullets on young people has not been missed. More than anything else, hypocrisy shines through.
"We appeal to young people in all communities not to participate in sectarian provocations or violence. It's a dead-end. Nor should young people allow themselves to be goaded by the police. More than 25% of children in Derry are living in poverty. Thousands of children are trapped on the housing waiting list and living in temporary accommodation. Funding for youth services has been slashed.
"We're three decades into the 'peace process' but sectarianism and child poverty are unaddressed. Young people are not the problem. The parents of young people are not the problem. The problem is a failed political institution that won't address inequality and keeps giving oxygen to sectarianism and racism. Our young people deserve better. We urge young people from all communities to be the generation that tackles the roots of poverty and sectarian division."