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09
Oct
Need for synagogue police presences ‘deeply sad’, says deputy mayor
The need for a police presence outside places of worship is “deeply sad”, the Deputy Mayor of York and North Yorkshire has said.
Jo Coles, Labour deputy mayor who oversees policing and fire in the region, said officers had engaged with places of worship, such as synagogues, following last week’s terror attack in Manchester.
However, she said she found it a sad reflection of “where we are at as a society”.
The move comes as North Yorkshire Police increased its presence outside a synagogue in Harrogate following the attack on October 2.
Melvin Cravitz, 66, and 53-year-old Adrian Daulby were killed at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in the Crumpsall area of Manchester on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, was shot dead by police outside the synagogue after he drove his car into a crowd of people before stabbing others during the incident.
Police at the synagogue in Harrogate.
Ms Coles told a North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel meeting on Wednesday that she paid a visit to the synagogue on St Mary’s Walk in Harrogate on Saturday (October 4).
She said:
I think it’s really important that the police are already engaging with our places of worship across the region, but there is something deeply, deeply sad about our places of worship being places where we need to have police officers outside.
That has been the case for both synagogues and mosques in our patch for some time and I find that deeply sad that that is where we are at as a society. These are people that are just trying to practise their religion.
Following the attack in Manchester, police officers were seen outside the Harrogate synagogue.
A police van was parked outside the Harrogate Hebrew Congregation on St Mary’s Walk, as members of the Jewish community came and went from the place of worship.
In a statement, North Yorkshire Police said the incident “will have understandably caused significant shock and distress in all our communities”.
A spokesperson for the force added that it had deployed officers to provide reassurance and ongoing support.
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