TUV leader Jim Allister, Ballymena Councillor Matthew Armstrong and press officer Samuel Morrison this morning held a robust meeting with temporary Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singelton.
Commenting after the meeting Jim Allister said:
“While this meeting was arranged some time ago, coming when it did it presented TUV with an opportunity to raise the South Armagh Policing Review which was leaked this morning.
“I told the PSNI that today’s shameful report will confirm to many the direction of travel of the police. TUV finds it outrageous that they should propose hiding away memorials to those who paid with their lives in order to defend law and order.
“The shameful suggestion that memorials be hidden in a back room added to the proposal that Irish language signage should be erected at the station, Crossmaglen PSNI station should be closed, weaponry should be taken off officers, security measures should be removed and the PSNI should move to routine patrols in marked cars are just some of a host of moves proposed in a report which one could be forgiven for thinking could have been written by Sinn Fein.
“However, perhaps the most significant aspect of this report is its proposals relating to the cross border elements. It suggests “joint rather than parallel policing” with the Garda with “a cross-border accountability mechanism”. This cuts to the heart of sovereignty. No foreign police force should have a say in how policing operates in Northern Ireland.
“As I told the PSNI during our meeting this morning there has been no report seeking to address the issues which are leading to a crisis of confidence within the Protestant, Unionist and Loyalist community – something which will not be lost on many when they read this idiotic and insulting document.
“If this report and its recommendations are approved there will be a duty on all Unionists on the Policing Board to immediately resign. They should make this clear today. Nothing less than implacable opposition will do.
“During our meeting with the PSNI I also took the opportunity to tell them that they had taken the PUL community for granted for much too long. While they felt able to issue Covid fines to teenagers who were all from the same classroom bubble for attending an 18th birthday party without any regard for the 4 E approach in my constituency they stood back and facilitated thousands of Republicans to thumb their nose at those same restrictions at the Bobby Storey funeral.
“This, added to contradictory statements about why a helicopter was not deployed to gather evidence of the INLA show of strength in Londonderry and their re-routing of a parade in Rasharkin away from the agreed route which had been notified to the Parades Commission, illustrates that two-tiered policing is no myth. I put it to the PSNI that they seemed happy so long as Mary Lou McDonald was content. While they disputed this it is hard to see how their words and actions could permit one to draw any other conclusion.
“When Mr Singelton was asked if the PSNI would oppose any moves to reintroduce discrimination against Protestant applicants to the PSNI he refused to be drawn and said the force had no view on a return to 50/50 recruitment – again showing how little the PSNI cares for the concerns of the Unionist community.
“TUV also used the opportunity presented by the meeting to remind the PSNI of the importance of freedom of speech and religion and their role in protecting the same in the light of recent events around street preaching in several towns in the Province.
“It was a robust meeting but as I told the officers present I have no confidence that the PSNI will take the concerns of the community which TUV represents seriously. It is time that Unionists forced the PSNI to change course. Today’s report on policing in South Armagh should be the last straw. Unionists should make it clear that if the recommendations are not binned then their involvement on the Policing Board is over.”