PEOPLE who made Nazi salutes during last weekend’s anti-immigration protest in Glasgow should expect police at their door, a senior officer has warned in an interview with STV News.
Chief Superintendent Stevie Dolan made the remarks to STV after violent scenes in the city, where demonstrators were seen making what appeared to be Nazi salutes and footage shared online appeared to show a non-white delivery driver being attacked by a group shouting “get them out”.
In the STV interview, Dolan said: “If you are going to involve yourself in behaviour such as Nazi salutes or violence or disorder or intimidating others because of the colour of their skin, wait behind your door because we’re coming to arrest you.”
He also told STV: “Making a Nazi salute in Scotland is not by default illegal. It depends on the context ... In that context (Saturday’s protest), it is absolutely illegal, and that’s why we have taken action, and we are continuing to take action to deal with people who engaged in that behaviour.”
Dolan said in his interview with STV that a major investigation team was now working to identify those involved in the disorder and added: “We have committed a senior detective and detective officers who, let’s face it, normally investigate murders. We have committed those resources to investigate the violence and disorder in Glasgow.”
He also rejected suggestions that Police Scotland had allowed extremists to act unchecked, telling STV: “What we saw on the day, unfortunately, was people who arrived and who were willing to engage in violence and disorder. From a Police Scotland perspective, that is absolutely unacceptable, and we condemn it in the strongest terms.”
Police Scotland has said around 1700 people took part in demonstrations in the city on Saturday, with groups engaging in violence, disorder and hate-motivated offending, and 15 people have since been arrested.
