Man arrested after alleged hate crime

A 26 year-old-man has been arrested in connection with an alleged hate crime incident.

Avon and Somerset Police said the man was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of committing a religiously-aggravated public order offences at a protest organised by a group called the Bristol Patriots on Saturday.

The march was met by a large counter-demonstration and investigations began after four people reported the incident, with two more coming forward after videos were circulated online.

"Offences are subject to thorough investigations, and this can mean arrests follow in the days after a protest," said Ch Supt Paul Wigginton.

"Let me be clear, hate of any kind will not be tolerated. It is something which we take very seriously at Avon and Somerset Police," he added.

Six other arrests were made at the protest, police said. Four of those arrested have been released on bail, one person was de-arrested and will be spoken to at a later date, and the sixth was released without charge and Wiggington has not ruled out the prospect of more arrests to come.

"Officers faced extremely challenging circumstances and had to make decisions in a dynamic and fast-moving situation to make sure the public was kept safe and that peaceful protest could take place," he said.

"To ensure this, officers may sometimes be unable to break from their set cordons to deal with other matters.

This doesn't mean offences won't be investigated and that people committing offences will get away with it.

"Just because the protest is over, doesn't mean our policing of it has concluded."

Around 40 people attended the Bristol Patriots march, with about 200 people making up a counter-demonstration.

A statement made earlier this week by Bristol Patriots said: "We are aware of some of the content currently circulating online; we want to be clear that this does not represent what Bristol Patriots is about.

"While everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, many of the views displayed on Saturday do not align with our movement."

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