From the Newsletter:
NI21 leader Basil McCrea yesterday issued a stark warning that the PSNI do not have the resources to deal with both riots and criminality.
Earlier this week Police Federation chairman Terry Spence warned that over 500 officers had been hurt since last summer because of trouble at parades and Union Flag protests.
It’s depends on whether you want a police force to be constantly politicized or whether they are for catching criminals.
When I was in school, the peelers were identified as the baddies because of internment, collusion and sectarian bias. But when I grew up I realised that I had been systematically subjected to sectarian bias and the police force, while it may contain the odd bad egg, are there to catch thieves, murderers, rapists and help keep the majority of civic society safe. That’s actually what we pay them for.
The irony that is the present day has both extremist parties in government accusing the police of collusion with the other. And yet only a small minority seem to call this for what it is.
Yes, there is a right to peaceful protest and in a civic society a single car of policemen could police 1000 peaceful protesters. But we do not live in a civic society. We live in a society where the major parties raise armies of disaffected youth, feed them propaganda about how they are being held back by the others and goad them into illegal and violent acts.
Don’t justify rioting as protest. It’s not protest and it’s not the actions of civic society. Keep the police depoliticized so they can protect civic society. And while you’re at it, question why we have let this shambles of a government go on so long and why there are five parties in there who have succumbed to the baubles and privileges of ministry and yet turn a blind eye to the shredding of the fabric of our society.
The last 14 months have been a black era in our history, easily as dark as when I was growing up. While civil- minded people debate the difference between protest and riots, community “leaders” are organizing weekly “Putsches” for the disaffected.
You have to think forward. What is the end game here and what society will look like in five years.