Not a normal police force!

Plastic Bullets

Since the introduction of the plastic bullet in the 1970’s and until the modern day, hundreds of thousands of them have been fired by British forces on Irish soil.

It is widely believed that the PSNI maintains a stockpile of over 50,000 plastic bullets at any one time, and since their introduction into the Six Counties, 17 people have been killed, seven of which were children. The plastic bullet, despite the death and injury it has caused, is still in use by the PSNI, with the Stormont government refusing to act toward its removal.

In theory, plastic bullets should be fired at the lower part of a target’s body and from a distance of more than 20 metres. But we all know theory doesn’t translate into practice and that these deadly bullets are fired at any part of the body including the upper abdomen and the head, and within that range. This has been borne out by the facts over many decades with many succumbing to wounds to the upper body and head by plastic baton rounds fired well within their range guidance.

Indeed, a 1999 report into the use of these deadly weapons during the Drumcree standoff determined that of the 8,165 rounds fired during the crisis, 39% were potentially life-threatening and impacted the upper part of the target’s body.

The report, carried out by five of the North’s most senior doctors at the time and published in the Journal of Trauma Injury, Infection and Critical care, considered these injuries inflicted to the body from the abdomen up to the head as constituting a risk to life.

The health and medical community have clearly laid out the lethality of these types of weapons and yet, in the face of decades of campaigning, with families torn apart by the pain of the loss of their loved ones, and with countless others permanently maimed and injured, the use of these weapons continues.

The British Government, its puppet assembly in Stormont, the PSNI and so-called ‘Policing and Community Safety Partnerships’ know exactly where our community stands when it comes to the use of these lethal weapons. Some of them have had decades to take them off the shelves if they wanted to. Instead, they continue to buy them, to store them, to train with them and to shoot them on Irish streets.

So you should remember the next time you see a PSNI recruitment poster on your street, that the PSNI have and continue to deny justice for those families who lost loved ones due to the use of these deadly weapons.

Stop and Searches

Discrimination against the Republican, Nationalist and Catholic community is confirmed by the PSNI’s own statistics, as they lay out in very public fashion that the force, formerly called the RUC, are twice as likely to arrest and charge a ‘Catholic’ in the Six Counties than they are a ‘Protestant’.

This lays bare the very clear bias against one community, from a police force that is overwhelmingly Protestant and Unionist.

These statistics, recorded by the PSNI themselves from 2016 to 2020, show that they have arrested 57,000 ‘Catholics’ and only 31,000 ‘Protestants’. Of those that they then charged, 27,000 were ‘Catholic’ and only 15,000 were from the ‘Protestant’ community. This very clearly shows the bias and bigotry within the PSNI; if you are perceived to be from the ‘Catholic’ community then they are twice as likely to arrest you, and then you are more likely to be charged.

Indeed, over the past ten years, more than 374,000 people have been forcibly stopped and searched by the PSNI – the equivalent of one fifth of the population of the Six Counties, with children as young as 13 years of age being subject to such searches. Whilst the PSNI holds the third highest Stop & Search rate for British state forces, it had the lowest arrest rate, corresponding to other figures indicating that the powers it utilises are being overused. More than 35,000 of those that they searched were children.

Indeed, there has been a 74% increase in PSNI Stop & Searches since 2005, and the PSNI’s refusal to record the community background of those they subject to Stop & Search is no doubt motivated by the desire to mask the sectarian and politically motivated nature of the force. They do not want people to know the religious background of those they stop and search because it would clearly show that they deliberately target Catholics. This is clearly shown in their record of arrests of ‘Catholics’.

Over the past 100 years of this state, the length of its existence, we have seen the consistent use of various legislative powers against the mostly Irish nationalist population; from the Special Powers of the 1920’s, to the modern powers of the 2020’s, this failed little statelet is relentless in its quashing of opposition.

Two decades of the PSNI and nothing has changed; nor will it ever, regardless of the religious make-up of its heavily armed ranks. The figures clearly show that they are a tool of the state to keep tabs on the Republican and Nationalist community, and this is just one reason why you shouldn’t join the PSNI.

RUC Special Branch / C3 Intelligence

Just like the RUC was retained and rebranded, it’s much despised ‘Special Branch’ did not go away either. Well known for its part in British state collusion and its links to loyalist paramilitaries, RUC Special Branch received the same lick of paint as the RUC itself, and was rebranded and re-formed into what is now known as ‘C3 Intelligence Branch’.

C3’s responsibilities include intelligence gathering by undercover agents, the infiltration of political organisations for the aim of disruption and gathering intelligence, and the recruitment and running of informers. It is public knowledge that this recruitment includes the use of children as informers, as part of PSNI policy.

Well known amongst Republican political activists in the Six Counties and working hand in glove with C3 Intelligence Branch are the PSNI’s ‘Tactical Support Group’. The TSG are trained in ‘specialist tactics’, its duties include search, methods of entry, ‘counter terrorism’ and surveillance amongst others. TSG patrols support C3 Intelligence Branch, Britain’s National Crime Agency and other intelligence agencies including Mi5. They are well known for their use of Stop and Search legislation to harass political and community activists.

These two agencies, C3 and the TSG, provide the basis of a re-branded RUC Special Branch. They use the same tactics and methods as the Special Branch, and for the same purpose. And it is not only the political, tactical and methodical approach to ‘policing’ that has remained the same, their religious balance stands in stark contrast to the PSNI’s broader statistics and that of the Six Counties as a whole. A 2016 ‘Labour Force Survey’ indicated that, of the working age population in the Six Counties, 44% were Catholic and 40% were Protestant.

But according to recent statistics published by the PSNI, their broader religious make-up comprises 67% perceived as ‘Protestant’ and 32% perceived as ‘Catholic’.

Compare this with the C3 Intelligence Branch, a huge 79% of which are Protestant personnel, of which 92% are former RUC officers.

In 2013 the PSNI stated that ‘…the average length of total Police service for Regular Police who are currently attached to C3 Intelligence is 19 ½ years. There are prerequisites to transfer into C3 Intelligence Branch based on qualifications and other factors. Therefore the 50/50 recruitment since…2001 will not have had a major effect on Community Background in C3 Intelligence Branch’.

Indeed, many years of a 50/50 recruitment policy has done little to impact the makeup of the new Special Branch. It remains almost 80% protestant, a dim representation of a population that is almost 50% Catholic; not that it would matter anyway.

Little wonder then that, employing the same modus operandi, the same political direction and indeed the same workforce, we have the same outcomes.

C3 Intelligence Branch is, for all intents and purposes, RUC Special Branch.

Different Name – Same Aim

RIC > RUC > PSNI

The British Army are, of course, the last line of defence for the occupation to be used only when all other options have failed. The first line of defence is the colonial police force, currently known as the PSNI. Despite the name change, the core function of the PSNI is identical to that of the RUC and the RIC before it – to protect the British state and British interests in Ireland.

It performs this function through ensuring that British law is upheld and by acting as the ‘eyes and ears’ of the British government in communities across the Six Counties.

The RUC was NEVER disbanded as some would have you believe, but legally and logistically absorbed into the PSNI. This includes the RUC Special Branch, who’s role and functions were merely rebranded into ‘C3 Intelligence Branch’ working closely with its foot-soldiers in the heavily armed TSG units (Tactical Support Group). Both are responsible for the continued use and implementation of various forms of anti-community legislation aimed at repressing and harassing genuine political and community activism.

The PSNI, with nearly 10,000 members and staff, remains a strong, heavily-armed paramilitary militia unworthy of the support of the people of Ireland.

National Security Intelligence

Over 700 Mi5 agents in Ireland

The final element of the trinity of British ‘security’ agencies in Ireland, Mi5, is currently stationed in a new state-of-the-art £20 million (€29m) headquarters in Palace Barracks, Belfast. This building now coordinates the work of well over 700 MI5 agents working across Ireland.

In 2007, MI5 took over control of ‘national security intelligence’ from the PSNI. MI5 remains under the direct control of the British Home Secretary.

The British Security Apparatus

It hasn’t gone away you know!

Over the course of the last two decades there has been much publicity about the British Army’s programme of ‘normalisation’ in Ireland. What has received far less publicity is the fact that the British Army retains a ‘permanent garrison’ of thousands of combat troops and support staff in the occupied Six Counties.

These troops, who are based in multiple permanent British Army bases, are primarily tasked with maintaining ‘internal security’. This means that they can, and will, be rapidly mobilised onto Irish streets and into Irish fields should the need arise. In the meantime, they will be busy training and preparing for tours
of duty across the globe to further the interests of the British state.

Political control of these soldiers will, as ever, rest firmly in Number 10 Downing Street.

Democracy denied

The Unionist veto remains

The British Army, the RUC/PSNI and MI5 are only part of a much wider occupation of the Six Counties that extends into the political, economic, social and cultural spheres of Ireland’s affairs.

While Ireland has been the target of British imperialism for centuries it was the act of partition in 1921 that set the backdrop for today’s occupation of the Six Counties. It was then that the British, with the support of their allies in Ireland, attempted to convince the world that the partitioning of Ireland was both democratic and necessary. This is as untrue as it ever was.

Those who support the British occupation today represent less than one-fifth of the people of Ireland and yet this minority are afforded a veto on a British withdrawal from Ireland. This same veto, has also held back the fight for equality when it comes to women’s rights, bodily autonomy and the LGBTQ+ community.

This ‘unionist veto’ is an inherently anti-democratic denial of the right of the Irish people to self-determination. Those political institutions founded upon such injustice can only serve to legitimise and prolong partition and the British occupation.

The onus is on all of those who support democracy and justice to challenge this monumental act of gerrymandering at every opportunity.

The alternative

What is it?

Lasair Dhearg believes that we do not need to wait to build the Socialist Republic, but that we can build and expand alternative mechanisms of power within our communities.

The growth of radical campaigns like ‘End Imperialism! End the Occupation!’ or ‘Stormont Can’t Deliver’, alongside community control of different sectors, including housing and other programmes and initiatives, could provide the basis of a new ‘civil administration’ and the eventual transfer of state power to local bodies absent of state control or the interference of political parties.

In short, economic democracy and community control of its own interests, building toward national and economic sovereignty – a 32 County Socialist Republic.