A local community in Liverpool came together to speak out against racism and xenophobia after a group of teenagers assaulted a seven-year-old boy from Lithuania.
In September, Danielius Levonas together with a Polish friend and his mother were on their way to a playground in the Knotty Ash area in Liverpool, when a group of around 10 teenagers attacked them.
“Danielius was pushing his bike. [One of the teenagers] pushed him and jumped on his leg. They then insulted and attacked his friend’s mother by throwing bottles and stones at her,” Arnas Levonas, the boy's father, told LRT.lt.
The woman filmed the attackers on her phone. After the incident, Levonas contacted the police but had not received a response for several days. Then, he decided to share the video on his Facebook profile.
The footage showing teenagers hurling xenophobic slurs and throwing objects went viral in Liverpool. A local newspaper, Liverpool Echo, published the story, which prompted a reaction from the police.
The officers questioned the Lithuanian boy and classified the attack as hate crime. The case will now go to court.
“After the attack, Danielius kept asking why this had happened. We had to explain to him that not all children are like that,” Levonas said.
Community support
The local community was outraged by the incident. After sharing the video on social media, the family received hundreds of support messages, Levonas said.
Ian Byrne, Member of Parliament for Liverpool West Derby, also contacted and met Lithuanians. After finding out that Danielius plays football and is a huge fan of Liverpool FC, Byrne presented him with a personalised T-shirt of his favourite team.
Soon after, John Congrove, a community member, began raising funds for a campaign against xenophobia.
At his initiative, an anti-racist drawing decorated a wall at the scene of the attack. A professional graffiti artist created the mural together with the local schoolchildren.
"It's a wonderful example of the community coming together,” said MP Byrne at the scene. “The mural is there as a reminder to educate ourselves about the value of what immigration has brought to this city and to this country.”
Levonas, who has been living in the UK for nine years, was glad that the attack against his son has not gone unnoticed, although he said it was the first racist incident his family has experienced.
Hate crimes have been one the rise in the UK after the country voted to leave the European Union in 2016. According to the UK’s Home Office, in 2019–2020, the police registered 105,090 hate crimes - a 9 percent increase from a year before.
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