Romany residents react angrily to nationalist “patrol”

Romany residents reacted angrily to a so-called patrol by a nationalist group in Litvínov, north Bohemia on Saturday. Around 70 people armed with sticks, golf clubs and other improvised weapons spat and swore at members of the little-known nationalist organisation the Workers Party, who were attempting to carry out what they called a monitoring patrol of the housing estate where the Romanies live. The local police were on the scene and the two sides did not come to blows. The Litvínov authorities have expressed opposition to such “patrols”; the town’s deputy mayor said the police had been given a video recording of Saturday’s incident, and called on them to take action against the dozen Workers Party members involved. The police barred the Workers Party from entering the housing estate in question for the rest of the weekend on public order grounds.