Three men have been arrested after “disgraceful scenes” in west Belfast, with police committing to tracking down further individuals involved.<\/p>\n
Incidents of disorder and reckless riding of scrambler bikes in the wider Stewartstown Road and Falls Road area have been condemned by the PSNI and politicians.<\/p>\n
A police officer was injured and several PSNI vehicles were damaged in the incidents.<\/p>\n
The PSNI said it had launched an operation relating to dangerous driving from Saturday morning with a “large number of young people seen travelling at speed and dangerously on scrambler-type bikes and e-bikes”.<\/p>\n
It said riders had their faces partially covered, were not wearing helmets and driving “without care for their safety or those around them”.<\/p>\n
It said evidence gathering is taking place to identify those responsible.<\/p>\n
Bins and loading cages were placed across part of the Stewartstown Road at its junction with Bell Steel Road, with fires being set from some of those bins.<\/p>\n
The road was closed for a time and the public was advised to avoid the area.<\/p>\n
The PSNI said large crowds of up to 100 people gathered, many aged in their early teens, throwing masonry at police with 11 police vehicles damaged – 10 Land Rovers and one car – on Saturday evening and one officer was assaulted.<\/p>\n
One male was arrested on suspicion of disorderly behaviour and a man aged 27 was arrested for disorderly behaviour and common law riot.<\/p>\n
A serious assault involving iron bars resulted in a man being taken to hospital, with a man in his 20s arrested on suspicion of assault and disorderly behaviour.<\/p>\n
Police used stingers on a number of vehicles and a scrambler was seized.<\/p>\n
Its 17-year-old rider was interviewed for dangerous driving, no licence, no insurance and no number plate – with a report to be submitted to the Public Prosecution Service.<\/p>\n
Chief Inspector Kelly Gibson, West Belfast Area Commander, said: “We know the level of local concern on last night’s incident and on previous nights of dangerous and risk-taking behaviour.<\/p>\n
“These were disgraceful scenes and we are doing all we can to keep the Colin community safe.<\/p>\n
“We are reviewing evidence gained from last night\u2019s disgraceful behaviour and will be making more arrests.”<\/p>\n
Chief Inspector Gibson added: “Targeted patrols will continue in the Stewartstown Road and other areas to detect offenders on bikers who are driving illegally and dangerously.”<\/p>\n
The senior police officer warned those involved they were “causing destruction” within their own community.<\/p>\n
“People have a right to live in peace and to feel safe in their communities and this must stop.<\/p>\n
“Parents and guardians, speak to your young people and warn them of the dangers of getting involved in behaviour which could result in them injuring themselves, others, or ultimately, with a criminal record which could have an impact on their future employment and even travel.”<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, a 31-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman were charged with a number of offences in relation to a report of three non-legal scramblers being ridden dangerously in the Stewartstown Road area.<\/p>\n
A 17-year-old male was cautioned for a number of motoring offences following that incident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three men have been arrested after “disgraceful scenes” in west Belfast, with police committing to tracking down further…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-558423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}