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Flag 'calling for police and Protestants to be killed' condemned by MP

Mike McBrideBBC News NI
PA Media Colum Eastwood. He has short dark hair and beard, wearing a dark raincoat, white shirt and red tie.PA Media
Eastwood described the flag in Creggan as 'sectarian hatred' and said 'the people behind it don't represent Creggan or the people of Derry'

The erection of a flag "calling for police officers and Protestants to be killed" near a bonfire in Londonderry has been condemned by Foyle MP Colum Eastwood.

The flag, which has appeared on a lamppost on Bligh's Lane in the Creggan area of Derry, is being treated as a sectarian-motivated hate crime by police.

Eastwood described the flag as "sectarian hatred" and said "the people behind it don't represent Creggan or the people of Derry".

Police said the "potential removal of the flag will be considered in line with our Service Instruction, which states that each complaint relating to a public display is assessed on a case-by-case basis".

Eastwood has appealed for the people responsible to take the flag down.

"There can't be one standard for sectarianism in one community and another somewhere else," Eastwood said.

"This kind of hatred needs to be challenged and called out for what it is.

"The vast majority of people in Derry simply want to get on with their lives, live in peace with their neighbours and see our city move forward."

The condemnation for the flag comes after a petrol bomb was thrown at officers on Wednesday night near a planned bonfire site in the Bogside area of the city.

PSNI Ch Supt Gillian Kearney said police believed the removal of bonfire material from under Lecky Road flyover in the city's Bogside early on Wednesday morning "prompted the initial incidents last night".

On Friday evening, police said the flyover was once again impassable due to a blockage, with officers in the area and diversions in place.

'Absolute thuggery of death threats'

Democratic Unionist Party Assembly member Trevor Clarke has also condemned the flag, describing it as a "disgusting sight".

"Solidarity with our brave PSNI officers who were faced with this disgusting sight in the Creggan Estate," Clarke said on social media on Friday.

"They will not be intimidated from doing their job of protecting everyone in the community.

"I know the vast, vast majority of Catholics, Protestants and neither reject this absolute thuggery of death threats.

"You have no support. You represent no one. You are pathetic."