How many decent people were really surprised
when they learned that the police had nearly reached breaking
point because of manpower levels and the extreme difficulty
in coping with rioting at the various sectarian interfaces
in Northern Ireland?
Surely the senior PSNI officers who sounded the warning should
have anticipated that the axing of so many jobs and the loss
of so many experienced officers must create a situation fraught
with danger?
Those people – and they were many – who warned
that the implementation of the Patten proposals would be terrible
for Northern Ireland and its people have been proved right.
Thousands of officers, many of them the most experienced and
competent in their departments, have accepted the redundancy
packages offered and left the force.
This has left the force grossly under-manned and unable to
fulfil all its responsibilities, and having to increasingly
call on the Army for back-up and assistance.
What makes the situation so fraught with danger is that it
is not just the interface trouble which underlines the loss
of 2,000 experienced police officers. It is also the fact
that ‘ordinary crime’ has rocketed, and there is
hardly a part of Northern Ireland where the cry has not gone
up from local councillors and organisations that more police
officers are needed on the ground.
In some areas the numbers of burglaries and thefts have rocketed
to record levels, and what makes it so ludicrous is that many
of the most experienced detectives have been dispensed with.
Police forces on mainland Britain have benefited as some
of these have recruited former RUC officers.
Several Unionist councillors have also spotlighted the fact
that some 80 Ulster police officers are on duty in Kosovo
and have asked if it would not be more appropriate if they
were brought back to Northern Ireland to serve in their own
country which needs them so much.
Northern Ireland is truly paying a terrible price for the
implementation of the Patten proposals and the alarming fact
is that there is no end in sight.
It goes without saying that more police officers are required.
Yet, as a recent case proved, the so-called ‘equality’
regulations mean that Protestants seeking entry to the Police
Service of Northern Ireland will be rejected if there is not
an equal number of Roman Catholic applicants. It’s a
situation that no other police force in Western Europe would
have to face – discrimination against members of a religious
faith, in this case the Protestant majority – when they
seek to join the police service.
|
