I’m reading at present The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth. It’s fiction, showing what would happen if a US dictator won an election and the police began targeting a minority community.
Catholics/nationalists aren’t a minority in the North any more. Which is ironic, since the construction of the state down to the last twist in a side road was to prevent that happening. But that doesn’t mean things are rosy, don’t mention the war, all friends now.
According to today’s Irish News, the PSNI have been stopping and searching disproportionately which group? You got it – nationalists and republicans. The PSNI cop doesn’t have to give any reason for stopping and searching you – It could be s/he doesn’t like the way you laugh, or the colour of your hair, or just the look on your face.
The fact that considerable sums of money have had to be paid to those unreasonably stopped and searched provides some measure of justice – or it would except that the compensation money is coming out of your pocket and mine ultimately.
Young black people in the UK and the US are also more likely to be involved in stop-and-search by the police, and it has got to the point where the police are seen as the enemy of these black minorities.
Does the PSNI have a death wish? When we managed to ditch the RUC, the PSNI started off with a clean slate. Interactions with the public were friendly, even-handed, all that you’d wish from a functioning police service.
Alas , that didn’t last long. The PSNI, for whatever reason, are being thick-fisted, as in the cack-handed approach at the betting shop on the Ormeau Road, or plain prejudiced,as in this latest report of how they treat nationalists/republicans.
No police service can operate properly if it targets one section of the community. The PSNI are a police service – they are, literally, the public’s servants. If the servant begins to get bolshie with his/her boss, there’s only one way that can all end. There are no nice glass milk-bottles,but I’m sure those bullied by the police will find a substitute soon enough.
Is there a chief constable with the wit and cojones to call in his police officers and insist they smarten up before it’s too late? I doubt it. Stand by for history to repeat itself.
A serious concern …every society needs to have a fair and balanced police service. Unanswered questions about the role of the police in several killings in N.I. require answers. Sadly may be the case that the more things change the more they remain the same.
I agree, Hannah – and it would indeed be tragic if. the PSNI were to continue their downward path in public popularity – not to mention recruitment. But it’s in their hands – they can recover public trust and see to it that the service is properly balanced in its work and in its make-up.
Very good jude free Palestine
The jury is still out on the PSNI
I have always thought the “troubles” could kick off again, God forbid. All it would take is for the authorities to start beating up and jailing innocent Nationalists. Why they would decide to do this I really don’t know. The population in the north are not the same as back in the Sixties, we don’t really have rabid anti Catholic preachers standing for election, the Catholics make up at least half maybe more than half of the numbers, there is no longer a crooked bigoted Unionist junta and gerrymandering has gone. I think. Religious beliefs are not as obvious, Britain is probably going to be a majority Muslim country some day. The Orange Order’s influence has waned considerably. The PSNI by now should be fifty-fifty in terms of religious make up. Hopefully they will learn from the mistakes of the past and ensure Patton is fully implemented.