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"Fri, May 01 2026, 20:20:32 GMT-4" [ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4] ]

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Date Posted: 12:53:27 05/11/02 Sat
Author: psni applicant (ex Sabbatical Coleraine).
Subject: Re: UU Students UGM unanimously reject PSNI - Belfast telegraph
In reply to: browsing UU 's message, "UU Students UGM unanimously reject PSNI - Belfast telegraph" on 13:19:54 03/02/02 Sat

Saturday 11th may

http://www.belfastnewsletter.com/fullfeatures.asp?DJID=5334

BIG ISSUE: derry dispute over PSNI


Ian Starrett
Sinn Fein is being pretty blunt about it. The party has threatened to disrupt all Derry City Council meetings attended by PSNI members.
Sinn Fein refuses to co-operate with them in any way.
The party is behaving as if the RUC never really went away and its representatives, even in interviews with the media, continue to refer to the new police force as the RUC.
The SDLP, on the other hand, has displayed support for the PSNI, showing willingness to “give them a try’’.
This has already led to bitter exchanges at several council committee meetings.
Those present said that they were amongst the most angry they’d ever seen.
Sinn Fein members also nailed a banner reading "SDLP Constituency Office" to the wall of Strand Road police base.
A Sinn Fein motion before the monthly council meeting,
condemning the SDLP for inviting police to such meetings, was defeated.
Sinn Fein councillor Cathal Crumley said: "The motion was about policing and about their crazy attempt to impose the RUC/PSNI into the working life of the council."
The SDLP accused Sinn Fein of using the motion just to "have a go" at it.
SDLP councillor Pat Ramsey said that an increase in crime levels in Londonderry needed to be tackled.
"This city has seen, in recent times, a serious deterioration and a breakdown in society," he said.
The ex-mayor added that they needed to consult with the police.
DUP councillor Gregory Campbell criticised the Sinn Fein threats of disruption and said: "It’s a bit rich to hear them talk about human rights’ abusers.
"There is nobody who has abused human rights more than the IRA because they have killed 3,000 people in Northern Ireland."
SDLP councillor Shaun Gallagher accused Sinn Fein of "behaving like fascists" after a council committee meeting which he was chairing was disrupted.
The meeting had been called to discuss the awarding of licences to street stall-holders.
Sinn Fein strongly objected to the presence of officers from the PSNI at the meeting, which was adjourned for a month amid bitter arguments.
Mr Gallagher said: "They challenged the way that I chaired the meeting.
"They said that there was a conspiracy, that we were holding it in the council offices instead of in the Guildhall.
"They said that there was a conspiracy because the police were there.
"They said that the council offices were sending out agendas that they are not aware of.
"The music from the X-files was the only thing missing from that meeting because, according to Sinn Fein, there’s obviously a big conspiracy against them," he said.
Sinn Fein councillor Paul Fleming said: “We are elected representatives; the RUC are not.
"We will not accept the unelected, discredited and unacceptable RUC."
There, again, are those references to the RUC.
That the escalating row could now affect the economic future of Londonderry is worrying many who fear that a council split over policing – coupled with a city crime rate that threatens to spiral out of control – could easily deter
investment.
Certainly, the city’s public image is not being helped by revolting incidents like the cruel attack on 31-year-old Paula Kelly, a mother of six who had a noose slipped around her neck by two masked men before she was dragged through her house to a backyard where they repeatedly beat her with a hammer and removed some of her clothing.
It happened in the nationalist Gobnascale area of the Waterside, where many of the citizens will
quietly (away from Sinn Fein ears) tell you that they want the police to be able to freely patrol their area to prevent further brutal attacks like this one on an innocent and defenceless woman.
The ultra-sensitive issue of policing in Londonderry has now been further spotlighted by Sinn Fein MLA Mary Nelis who has said that republicans would bring the city to a standstill if arrests of nationalists continued.
The warning came during a republican protest which disrupted traffic at the Foyle carriageway shortly after police swoops as part of the Castlereagh security breach probe.
Thousands cringed at the chilling warning that blocked roads could bring the policing controversy on to the streets and disrupt the daily life of the city.
Such raised tensions are not what’s needed on the banks of the Foyle as the summer marching season approaches.
Last year was a special one for community relations in Londonderry, with both sections of the community coming together to support events like the Maiden City Festival and a Bryan Adams outdoor rock concert.
In the past couple of years, no organisation has done more for the stability of the region than the City Centre Initiative, the forward-
thinking business group which helped bring peaceful marches back to the streets.
Their representatives chaired talks between the Apprentice Boys and the Bogside Residents Group,
brokering agreement between previously opposing groups.
Such dialogue will continue.
But Sinn Fein is threatening to rock the boat here as well.
Sinn Fein councillor Gerry O’Hara has warned that his party would have "serious concerns" to raise when funding for the City Centre Initiative, which comes from the city council, is up for discussion again.
Mr O’Hara and fellow Sinn Fein councillor Barney O’Hagan have withdrawn from the City Centre Initiative because, they said, the organisation "seemed to have a one-direction agenda, CCTV, and they seemed to be doing that in connection with the RUC".
Mr O’Hara said: "We had difficulties with their insistence on having an RUC representative on their board and, as a party with 10 members on Derry City Council, we felt the board should better reflect the politics of the city."
Mitchel McLaughlin, Sinn Fein chairman, doesn’t want to see police officers attending council committee meetings even though police opinion is essential on certain
matters.
He said: "It seems that the SDLP is intent on imposing its decision to accept the current policing arrangements on the workings of Derry City Council, with its insistence on
inviting the PSNI to sit in on sub-committee meetings.
"This, despite the legal opinion of the City Solicitor advising that there is no requirement for PSNI
attendance at any council meeting.
"Their arrogance is reminiscent of the manner in which unionists imposed their will on the old Derry Corporation."
He said that, if SDLP councillors had attended the police raids in the city as part of the Castlereagh
security breach investigations, they "would have witnessed first hand how nothing has changed".
SDLP councillor Gerry Diver, defending his party’s decision to join the police board, said that it was much too early to judge the body’s influence.
He said that SDLP participation on the board "is about trying to actually change the agenda of policing for the future and to shoulder the responsibility of nationalists about bringing about that change".
"That is not something which happens overnight," he said.
The SDLP has been commended publicly on its stance, as well as privately, for there is still fear in great numbers of nationalists in Londonderry to speak out publicly against the republican movement.
However, the SDLP councillors expect to come under increasing pressure in coming weeks to back off in their support for the police – and all this at a time when the forces of law and order in the city need all the help that they can get.
Violent assaults, a thriving black market, almost daily robberies, drug and illegal booze dealing, hordes of children out of control and running wild at night – all these are now an accepted part of "street culture" in Londonderry.
That is why the vast majority of people in Londonderry – whether Sinn Fein likes it or not – will quietly tell you that they are willing to give the PSNI "a try".
The big danger is that anarchy may destroy a crime-ridden city before the likes of those first graduated PSNI recruits get the chance to make any impression on the troubled streets of Northern
Ireland.

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