Citizens Advice Sunderland

Oh this is awful. Senseless violence which will achieve nothing and will hurt vulnerable people using the service.

Up until recently I was doing an outreach here and can vouch that they are excellent folks and well deserving of support in bouncing back from this.

From Civil Society news:

Rioters cause ‘heartbreaking’ damage to charity office in Sunderland

And the Sunderland Echo:

Citizens Advice Sunderland finds temporary home after office destroyed by fire during disorder

From the Law Society Gazette:

The Law Society has written to the prime minister, lord chancellor and home secretary to express concern that law firms and advice agencies could be targeted by rioters this week.

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/society-sounds-alarm-as-solicitors-named-as-potential-targets-for-violent-protest/5120563.article

It’s difficult to know what to say, especially where some UK newspapers are seeking to make excuses for the rioters, making spurious complaints about ‘two-tier justice’ and giving column inches to loudmouths and extremists who spread lies and hate.

Civilised values are under attack - and now it includes those who offer help to the disadvantaged.

These thugs were waiting their chance to do this, any excuse would have sufficed. Terrible shades of the not-so-distant past.

We must all stand together against them.

From The Guardian: Lawyers urge Starmer to ensure safety of advice centres over far-right threat

Feels like we only narrowly avoided a similar fate here. A car was sent on fire directly opposite our main office on Sunday afternoon and you can’t help but feel like the mob could easily have decided to set fire to some nearby premises such as ours. Can’t imagine how colleagues at Sunderland CAB are feeling.

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I see that the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner and ILPA have removed their immigration advice directories .. we’ve removed ours too from advicelocal ...

This is insane. How on earth did we end up in a situation where legal professionals are too frightened to be able to advertise their services?

Important for good-minded people to stand together and refuse to allow thuggish behaviour and violence become the currency of discourse.

More on Shawn’s news above.

Immigration lawyers ‘at risk’ amid far-right threats to target advice centres

From Advice Services Alliance:

Email newsletter: Advice Services and Safety amidst Racist and Islamophobic Violence

... includes guidance from the Law Centres Network