SINN Féin Councillor Steven Corr says the PSNI were “stretched” on Saturday night as they tried to control hundreds of young people who had gathered for pre-arranged fights in West Belfast.
Councillor Corr said hundreds of young people descended on parts of the City Cemetery, the Whiterock children’s playpark and the Bullring in Ballymurphy.
It is understood the fights were organised via social media sites Facebook and Whatsapp and involved teenagers from the Shankill area.
Cllr Corr said due to the sporadic nature of the fighting it is hard to ensure enough police resources are in place to calm the situation.
“There is no excuse for this fighting,” he said. “The young people taking part in this need to realise that there are consequences for their actions. The numbers these young people are gathering in are intimidating to our elderly people, and again I am reiterating that parents needs to take responsibility here. I have stressed time and again that someone is going to get seriously hurt here or a young person is going to end up with a criminal record. We don’t want our young people to be taking part in such reckless behaviour. This has to stop.”
