Free Republic

A judge has warned that anybody present at a riot will be remanded in custody, even if they were only a “curious observer”. District Judge Francis Rafferty said that someone’s presence at a riot made them involved in the riot as he refused two bail applications. The judge spoke as four men appeared in Belfast magistrates’ court charged in relation to disorder in the city. Cameron Armstrong, 18, from Belfast, was charged with rioting in the Connswater area of east Belfast, which saw “violent disorder, petrol bombs, fireworks and different projectiles thrown at police and extensive damage caused to property”,...

Hundreds of chanting, jeering municipal union members, armed with piercing black whistles, drowned out Mayor Nutter Thursday as he attempted to give his annual budget address on the floor of City Council. Rather than forcibly evict the protesters—who are upset over a four-year stalemate in their contract negotiations with the city—Council President Darrell L. Clarke recessed the meeting as Nutter read his speech. Nutter later delivered his speech downstairs to a more friendly audience—about 30 applauding members of his own staff and 20 reporters. It was the most chaotic Council meeting in more than 30 years, comparable only to the...