Mr. Drew Harris:

I first spoke about the threat of the rise of the right wing in 2019 at a Policing Authority meeting. We are not alone in this. This is happening across Europe. The events of last Thursday have been replicated in many European capital cities. This starts from a place of prejudice and that prejudice then becomes discrimination and hatred. I am sure that sounds blunt but that is what we see when we are dealing with these individuals. They are fully convinced of the conspiracy theories and the various arguments that they have and they are not open to a rational argument or discussion in respect of what is going on. That is the character of some of those we see involved. Last Friday morning, I used the expression that they have been radicalised in terms of their activity online and then their subsequent behaviours. They seem to be able to gather and garner support, a lot of it is through the Internet and through connections into other groups in Europe.