Don't underestimate right wing groups' ability to spread fear, says Orde
Police must not underestimate the fear resurgent right-wing groups can cause in our neighbourhoods, a former senior police chief warned last night.
Sarah Probert
Sir Hugh Orde, the former Northern Ireland police chief, said white working class protest groups fuel a "disproportionate" climate of intimidation.
His comments at the annual Police Superintendents' Association conference in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, came as Manchester City Council called on police to ban a proposed march by right-wing protesters in the city next month.
Ninety people were arrested when a similar rally by the English Defence League in Birmingham sparked violence a few weeks ago.
Sir Hugh said right-wing groups may be small and disorganised but can create widespread fear in some communities. He told that rising unemployment and the recession could fuel further volatile protests.
Sir Hugh, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said victims of intimidation may already lack trust in police.
He said: "These are small groups of people determined to terrorise our own people. What they do is have a disproportionate impact on how we do policing and disproportionate impact on creating fear in our communities.
"If you look at these new emergent groups they are probably small and not well-organised but determined to create fear. We as a service need to recognise the disproportionate impact they have on certain communities that may historically not have confidence in police.
"We need to make sure we have the right communication channels to make sure we are talking with communities and they understand our commitment to dealing with this before it gets out of hand."
Sir Hugh said he saw the damage small groups of dissidents can wreak while working in Northern Ireland.
He said: "In my last role the Real IRA and Continuity IRA and other groups were small in number but dangerous groups. They had the potential to deliver a huge amount of fear within the communities they lived and operated in."
At a protest in Birmingham earlier this month, gangs of men and youths hurled missiles at each other and pelted riot police with masonry.
Last week protesters from a group called Stop Islamisation of Europe were involved in a demonstration outside a mosque in Harrow, north east London, to mark the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Supporters of the English Defence League are believed to include far-right activists and those linked to football hooliganism.
Communities Secretary John Denham raised fears of a return to 1930s fascism when he compared the groups to Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson also addressed the conference, calling on chief constables to take responsibility for cutting unnecessary red tape.
Mr Johnson announced plans to slash police paperwork by cutting the size of the stop and search form.
But he said that forces and governing police authorities must also take responsibility for cutting paperwork.
Mr Johnson said: "Central government may have been slashed but we were never the only manufacturer of red tape. Local requirements are often equally, if not more, burdensome and this needs to be addressed too.
"For example, while the stop and account form has been abolished I have heard of instances where neighbourhood police officers are still filling in forms even though it is no longer required."