The PSNI have lost any moral authority to intervene to clear roads of protestors in advance of contentious loyalist parades through sectarian interfaces. Discuss.
We’re running at a rate of way less than 1 protestor charged per illegal road blockade to date- indeed, were the PSNI operating at the 2010 Ardoyne rate, there’d be thousands in the dock by now.
Given the paucity of charges to date brought against those engaged in illegal road blockades, the PSNI will correctly be slammed within nationalist circles if they subsequently arrest and charge more than a couple of those seeking to protest and thwart the intentions of the Loyal Orders by illegally blocking roads- never mind even attempt to remove them from the roads.
Whilst the political leadership of unionism has abdicated its responsibility to lead by shamefully indulging and acquiescing in the parading and subsequent flag furore folly of the past eight months, Matt Baggott has failed woefully when presented with the golden opportunity to enhance the reputation of the police as a non-partisan service in northern Irish society for the first time since the inception of the state.
We’re heading for a real messy summer.
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