Attacks in Ballymurphy continue

As Mick noted previously, the policing costs during the 18 months of attacks on people and properties in Ballymurphy have been over £1million and the attacks are ongoing. Last night the home of the widow of murder victim Gerard Devlin was attacked with petrol bombs by 6 masked men and extensively damaged. It comes the day after an Andersonstown News editorial noting an expected Thursday evening picket at the “New Barnsley Police Station demanding that the PSNI does more to protect local people”.. and that “there are signs that at long last the proud Ballymurphy community may be about to act decisively against those who are making it their life’s work to bring the community to its knees.” Also worth noting was the UTV report today with footage inside the damaged house, which unfortunately they don’t have online, and in which Gerard Devlin’s aunt, Bernadette O’Rawe, referred to a large group of men marching through neighbouring streets, on the same night as the picket, threatening to force out families they accused of anti-social behaviour. She also asked the question of whose law ruled in the area – the police’s, the gangs’, or no law at all.

Pete Baker