There were some wince-inducing pictures in the papers this week as Israeli police and soldiers forcibly evicted right-wing demonstrators from settlements on the Gaza Strip.
Fair enough, some of the men and women in uniform were in tears at having to get rough with other Jews, but when push came to shove they did their job. Arms were twisted up backs, fingers pulled back, thumbs pushed up noses – any pressure point that presented itself was pressurised as the settlers were dragged kicking and screaming on to buses for evacuation.
It struck me this week how many similar images we've witnessed here over the years, and then it struck me that nearly every incident of that kind involved Trevors roughing up Catholics. Racking my brains, I can't conjure up any scenes which involve the RUC/PSNI getting stuck into Prods with batons, dragging them off the streets or pressure-pointing them into the back of Land Rovers.
Certainly in the early years of the Troubles nationalists were much more likely to be involved in the kind of street demonstrations that were likely to bring a vigorous RUC response. But latterly, it has overwhelmingly been unionists who have been posing the public order questions, whether they're blockading ports, churches, cemeteries or primary schools.
And while nationalists have a huge gallery of iconic images of heads being cracked open and demonstrators being assaulted, loyalists, despite their increasing propensity to take the place over and bully and threaten, have not drawn a similar response. Lucky them.
Even as recently as last month, the PSNI in full Robocop regalia used batons, boltcutters and their painful pressure-point knowledge to clear peaceful demonstrators from the streets of Ardoyne. Stangely they didn't make similar efforts to remove rather fewer demonstrators from the street leading up to Holy Cross.
The PSNI holds its performance at Drumcree up as an exemplar of its determination to be even-handed. But you'll recall that the PSNI stood there like Aunt Sallies as vast hordes of Orangemen and their supporters pressed forward and the amount of abuse, physical and verbal, that they took was prodigious. The Trevors didn't wade in, they stood back and took it, and occasionally they defended themselves when a large pole or a sword was inches from their heads.
So try it yourself: how many pictures in your head do you have of Norman or Sammy getting their melt kicked in by Trevor – not that you'd want to see it, mind you, but the question is a valid one.
Which brings us to the present mess that the PSNI finds itself in, or, to be more accurate, the present mess that victims find themselves in because of the PSNI's failure to do its job.
It seems clear that the Trevors are failing to do their job not because they are being hamstrung by the NIO, a lack of resources, political correctness, fear of the Ombudsman or whatever you're having yourself, but quite simply because they don't like moving against Protestants.
I've experienced it myself from both ends – I've heard Catholic skulls cracking and seen the venom in the eyes of officers when they're deployed against nationalists; I've seen their incredible inertia and passivity when confronted with loyalist rioters, as recently as two weeks ago when the Crumlin Road erupted after six men were arrested for questioning about the loyalist feud (don't worry, they were all let go). And I've seen the smiles and heard the cheery on-your-ways when the Trevors stopped me in the car and saw the Proddy name and the 'Suffolk' address on my licence.
When you think about it, it's just not possible for the PSNI to be that bad at its job. It's simply beyond belief, for instance, that there's nobody at HQ with the wit or experience to deal with this Ahoghill business, but there's now a rapidly spreading perception that there are very few with the will to do anything about it, especially given Ian Paisley Jnr's revelation yesterday that the Trevors know full well who the guilty men are.
Meanwhile, the SDLP is in a bit of a tizzy over all this. In a scan of the party's website yesterday, statements on the loyalist feud, Ahoghill and the Blacks Road rape are notable for their total failure to take the PSNI to task for their abject performance.
Party leader Mark Durkan, for instance, wants Ian Paisley and the British government to "end the silence" on Ahoghill, although in the same statement he doesn't urge the PSNI to end its silence on whether the Ahoghill attacks are sectarian, and he offers no comment on the Trevors' performance so far.
Supporting the PSNI, of course, should not preclude the SDLP from joining the rest of us in urging them to get their fingers out,. Far from it. It's the duty of the SDLP to be as robust in criticising the PSNI as it is in defending it.
