Day of widespread violence

Published on 27/09/2009 23:24

ONE of the largest Orange parades of the marching season resulted in widespread disorder and violence.

The series of Country Grand Orange Lodge processions in the west of Scotland on 4 July last year cost Strathclyde Police 596,398 alone.

About 20,000 people took part in the marches in Glasgow and Ayrshire, with police making 55 arrests and issuing 271 antisocial behaviour fixed-penalty notices.

The Strathclyde Police Authority (SPA) report also records individual flashpoints in a day of violence. At 9:27am, for instance, officers attended to a 21-year-old man who had been stabbed. Less than an hour later, a 20-year-old man who was part of a crowd watching a parade was stabbed. Shortly afterwards, a running battle involving 40 men broke out in Glasgow city centre.

In Glasgow alone, there were 85 breaches of the peace, 51 common assaults, ten serious assaults, 13 weapons possession offences, five racially motivated assaults, 36 street drinking offences, 18 police officer assaults, obstructions, or incidents of resisting arrest, and 46 vandalism offences.