PSNI invite Lasair Dhearg to participate in what they term ‘community policing’.
Pádraic MacCoitir, a public representative for Lasair Dhearg, has received a written invitation from the PSNI to engage in what they term ‘community policing’.
Pádraic said, “This letter was written to me by ‘Chief Inspector’ Gary Reid of Woodbourne PSNI station. In it, he states that in our capacity as ‘community activists’ he would like to invite us to engage in what he calls ‘community policing and public safety’. He states that such engagement ‘would be useful’ and ‘for the benefit of the community’.”
“This is the same ‘Chief Inspector’, who’s aggressive and heavily armed PSNI footsoldiers accosted me very recently, forcing me to turn out my pockets, whilst standing outside the very building from which he addressed me with this letter. His mercenaries, with their notebooks, batons and glock 9mm pistols on their persons, subjected me and others to a stop and search, utilising the usual draconian legislation granted to them by Stormont and Westminster. As they did so, neighbours and others in the community visibly and verbally voiced their anger at those forcing us to stop on the roadside.”
“So when this supposed ‘Chief Inspector’ talks about ‘community engagement’, he does it knowing full well that those that are subjected to or are witness to those forced searches, are all too aware of the real level of engagement that the PSNI has within our community.”
Pól Torbóid, Lasair Dhearg spokesperson, said, “The PSNI’s odd approach to what they call ‘normal’ is to use this legislation more than 374,000 times since 2010, then to gloss over the reality of their actions with innumerous public relations exercises, friendly face events and recent rebrandings.”
“The PSNI is going to huge efforts to normalise the force, attempting to utilise other organisations as leverage within the community. Such actions are presented as a means to end anti-social behaviour and drug use, but in reality, it is indicative of a force so far detached from the communities it purports to represent, that it seeks the selfish use of those in good community standing to normalise what is an abnormal force.”
“Those in the community that do engage with the PSNI are often coerced with the threat of withdrawn funding for community schemes, or they are political parties with their own selfish interests. If Gary Reid and his fellow mercenaries were in any way interested in genuine community engagement then they would give our community justice for the Sean Graham bookies atrocity, they would give us justice for collusion and state-sponsored unionist death squads – instead, they themselves have colluded, prevented and stood in the way of that justice at every conceivable turn.”
“There is nothing normal about the PSNI”
