As Baggot Walks In, Nationalist Policing Board Members Should Walk Out! - Leeson

national | rights, freedoms and repression | press release Thursday August 13, 2009 14:40 by Éamann Mac Mánais - éirigí press at eirigi dot org

Responding to news that Matt Baggott will become the new Chief Constable of the
discredited PSNI, éirigí chairperson Brian Leeson has re-iterated his party's
call for nationalist members of the policing board to resign. Leeson said,

"During the last twelve months, in particular, of Hugh Orde's tenure, British
policing in the Six Counties actually got worse, and not better as some
nationalist politicians like to pretend. Plastic bullets were fired, 28 day
detention was introduced, tasers were used, fortified barracks were maintained
and British Army special forces were deployed. Hugh Orde's legacy is that of a
media darling who used spin and soundbites to mask the true nature of his
paramilitary force.

“When the nationalist parties went onto the Six County Policing Board, they did
so with the expressed aim of holding the PSNI to account and ending human
rights abuses by that force.

“This project has failed utterly – the PSNI remains a violent British
paramilitary force, dedicated to maintaining the occupation of the Six
Counties.

Leeson continued “Given the indiscriminate firing of plastic bullets by the PSNI
in Ardoyne last month, how can working-class nationalists be expected to lend
their support to the PSNI?

“When the PSNI opened fire with plastic bullets, their carefully constructed
façade of a civic police service came tumbling down around them.

"As Baggott walks into a £184,000-a-year job, éirigí believes that the time has
come for the SDLP and Sinn Féin to properly represent the interests of their
communities and withdraw from the Six County Policing Board."

Críoch