ireland, irish, ulster, belfast, northern ireland, british, loyalist, nationalist, republican, unionist

(Editorial, Irelandclick.com)

Just what on earth is going on inside the PSNI? After a torrid few months in which it appears that no-one inside the organisation has an idea what's going on you'd think that Chief Constable Hugh Orde might jump at the chance to prove to the nationalist people that his officers are capable of doing a professional and balanced job. But yesterday (Wednesday) we were presented with more evidence that there's a long way to go before the PSNI can be said to be acceptable to the majority of nationalists. The PSNI – like the schools, like commuters, like local residents – had plenty of notice that loyalists protesting against the decision to reroute the Orange parade on the Springfield Road were going to block traffic at rush hour.

And yet rather than act to ensure that citizens were allowed to go about their lawful business, the PSNI stood aside yesterday morning and let a ragtag crowd of agitators bring the West and North of the city to a standstill. Contrast that with the decisive action the PSNI took when nationalists sat down and blocked the road at Ardoyne shops in a futile attempt to block an Orange parade on July 12th. PSNI officers in Robocop uniforms moved in with bolt cutters and batons and removed the protestors, then cleared the road to allow the Orange Order and its drunken followers to walk the road. Clearly, it is more important to the PSNI that loyalists are allowed to walk where they are not wanted than for men and women to get to work, for children to get to school, for emergency services to be given access and for people to get on with their lives.

It was to be hoped that in the afternoon it might be a different picture, but again the loyalists were allowed to do what they wanted, although this time the PSNI were a little more imaginative in the way they rerouted traffic to facilitate the protest. Loyalists have promised to keep this up for a number of days, and there's no reason to suppose that the PSNI will do anything other than step aside and hand the streets over to them. But every time the PSNI is asked to act like a modern, competent police force it fails – and every time it fails the prospects of finding a way through the policing impasse recede even further.

This article appeared first on the Irelandclick.com web site on September 8, 2005.