Arranged fights, police and social media
The challenge today for the community and the various agencies is when young people organise gatherings and fights on closed groups such as WhatsApp at very short notice. They do this for a reason—to avoid detection by the police and other agencies. This “cat and mouse” game with the police is ongoing.
Police monitor social media platforms. According to community worker Shane Whelehan (2019) the police often call community workers to let them know that youth have arranged a fight on social media. Community' workers then go to the area and try to prevent or break up the fight. Sometimes, the police tactic is to put out an alert on mainstream and social media that a fight is going to happen as a way to warn parents (Fitzmaurice and Clinton 2019). On this occasion, the author arrived at the “arranged fight” scene at Ormeau Park in South Belfast to find the police patrolling in armoured cars. Young people were nowhere to be seen. They had simply re-arranged the fight at a different location.
Ironically, an arranged fight can sometimes originate in a cross-community project, which is designed to foster reconciliation and friendship between young people in a divided city'. Whelehan recounts how a small incident can quickly grow. He took a group of young people from his area (Ardoyne) in North Belfast to a Protestant area in East Belfast (Tullycarnet) on a trip. There was some aggression shown at the in-person meeting. Some of the young men then befriended young girls in the group on social media. The digital communication escalated from joking and name calling to arranging for a fight at the next meeting of the youth. Another community worker found out about it and the police also became aware of the threat. Adults defused the situation and parents dealt with the youth involved. (Whelehan 2019)
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Sergeant Nick Williams is based at Tennent St covering North and West Belfast. He was on the ground, with colleagues, in armoured jeeps every night too. (Armoured jeeps are used in areas where the police could be attacked with bombs, guns or rockets by dissident Republican groups, opposed to the peace process.) Sergeant Williams analyses the role of social media in conflict dynamics today in Northern Ireland. He notes that young people live with a society divided by the Peace Walls and they hear memories of The Troubles. The police work with the public, teachers and youth workers to try to prevent outbreaks of violence (Williams 2019).
According to informal interviews with community workers and local residents in 2019, petrol bombs were thrown at the police in one incident and in another, police found a cache of petrol bombs, after devices had been thrown across the peace line. There have been five incidents where someone was seriously injured as a result of an arranged fight. None of this information has been put in the public domain. Other outreach workers have revealed how they have disarmed young people carrying weapons or have retrieved them after witnessing young people dumping them down drains, or in hedges, when police or youth workers arrive on the scene.
The PSNI refuses to “confirm or deny” that it actively monitors closed social media group sites where fights are arranged, or that it tips off youth workers. However, it has been confirmed to the author by a number of youth workers on the ground that the police are able to identify “ringleaders” and regularly monitor closed groups such as WhatsApp and Snapchat. They also rely on tip-offs from teachers in schools who may overhear or be told of conversations about arranged events. Residents at interface areas also report large gatherings of young people to community leaders, youth workers and the police. The police also have CCTV cameras positioned at interface “hotspots” and while these are not monitored 24/7, they can help to verify reports of incidents and movements of large groups.
The police have told the author they believe “arranged fights” on social media will not end anytime soon. Reilly’s research came to the same conclusion, noting that unless there are new efforts to address this polarisation, young people are likely to use social media to organise recreational rioting in interface areas (2011).
Unfortunately, interface areas in Belfast have been blighted for decades by a toxic legacy of inter-communal violence. Hard work on the ground over many years has been successful in keeping it down to a low level and preventing it from escalating to something more serious where lives could be lost. However, at times of political tension in the community, emotions can run high and may be open to exploitation by paramilitaries with their own agenda, both criminal and political. It remains to be seen in which direction this will go.4
