OPPRESSION ‘BACKFIRING’ ON PSNI

Posted by Jim on August 25, 2018

OPPRESSION ‘BACKFIRING’ ON PSNI

With incidents of harassment by the PSNI rising significantly, a report
for the Stormont administration has admitted that the abuse of stop and
search powers is actually bolstering support for republican groups in
Derry.

A report commissioned by the Stormont Executive warned that oppressive
measures were backfiring on the authorities.

“It is clear that the detention of senior republican figures coupled
with the use and alleged abuse of stop and search powers are huge,
burning issues in Derry, generating sympathy for traditional republican
views and hostility towards the police,” the report warned.

It also said that those being caught up in the PSNI stop-and-search
operations include unaligned people and those openly working in support
of normalisation in the city.

Paddy Gallagher of Saoradh in Derry said there had been a big jump in
Crown Force oppression.

“Over the course of recent days and weeks we have seen a huge increase
in the number of stop and searches by British Crown Forces across the
occupied six counties, specifically in Derry,” he said.

“However, what now seems to be a worrying trend is the aggressive nature
of stop and searches and the blatant process of trumped up charges.”

One local activist was reported by Saoradh to have been sexually
assaulted in the course of one such detention. After the victim recorded
the incident on their phone, it was seized by the PSNI.

“While we strive to highlight and expose British led injustices in
Ireland others would rather bury their head in the sand,” said Mr
Gallagher.

“Pro-establishment parties, counter revolutionaries, former republicans
and most notably the Catholic Church still choose to ignore the fact
armed British militia men continue to abuse Irish citizens on a daily
basis.

“We, as republicans, have become accustomed to the daily onslaught of
abuse, intimidation and harassment meted out by British Crown Forces.
These tactics have failed in the past and will continue to fail today.”

Republican Sinn Fein also reported a rash of stop-and-search detentions
in north Armagh this week, including an illegal attempt to search the
home of one activist.

They said a dispute over bail conditions had also been used as a pretext
for the summary imprisonment of republicans Stephen Conlon and
Christopher Hamill. Both men were arrested and bailed earlier this year
over their alleged participation in a colour party at a republican
Easter commemoration.

“Two Republican Sinn Fein members are being held in Maghaberry jail on
charges which amount to at the most public order offences and do not
carry a jail sentence,” they said.

They also pointed to a case in Banbidge, County Down, where one of their
activists suffered what he described as a “very heavy stop and search”
by three PSNI as he was walking with his two daughters and two
grandchildren.

“They put me up against a wall told me they were going to search me
under the security and justice act,” he said. “They then searched me on
the main street of a Protestant town in front of the children.

“They would not let me record it and threatened to seize my phone if I
did. They also demanded to know were my car was parked which I refused
to answer.

“If they think I will be intimidated by this act of harassment then they
are very much mistaken.”