Policing – Page 6 – Slugger O'Toole

DPP: it could be “many many months” before a decision is made on whether or not Gerry Adams will be prosecuted…

Pete Baker on May 10, 2014, 7:06 pm

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As Newton Emerson notes in today’s Irish News – on some of the coverage of the arrest and questioning of Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, in relation to the abduction, murder, and secret burial of Jean McConville in 1972. Mystery surrounds BBC claims that the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) would not be bringing charges against Gerry Adams. The BBC began reporting this on early Monday evening, barely 24 hours after Adams had been released pending a file to the Public Prosecution …

Contrasting views of the Adams arrest for Irish Americans

Brian Walker on May 9, 2014, 11:21 am

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Jason Walsh grew up in the Upper Falls and witnessed as a child the horrors of the “Death on the Rock” events in Milltown cemetery. Here he presents a more authentic and reasoned assessment of recent days in the Christian Science Monitor than what the American audience is used to. Gerry Adams says he was never a member of the IRA, let alone a member of its ruling army council. Few believe him, and he knows that few believe him, but …

Government shambles revealed over details of OTR links to murder

Brian Walker on May 7, 2014, 7:11 pm

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After republican outrage over Gerry Adams’ interrogation, it’s high time to revive unionist fury over the OTR comfort letters with the revelation that 95 out of 228 beneficiaries were linked by the police to murder. From the tortuous accounts by the Chief Constable Matt Baggott and ACC Drew Harris before the NI Select Committee of MPs today, the DUP can hardly be blamed for failing to realise in full what was going on. Neither did the Chief Constable for most …

“Adams did not count on policemen thinking like policemen and not politicians”

Mick Fealty on May 6, 2014, 9:02 am

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There’s been a lot of talk, as there always is, around how any of this controversy will or will not affect the political fortunes of the main protagonist, ie Sinn Fein. As with the PSNI investigation into the murder of Jean McConville itself, we simply don’t know. If the demeanour of the activists I know is anything to go by it won’t be want of spirit or fight. That’s looking determinedly at the story of what was done to Mrs …

The peace process sceptics need addressing as the governments prepare to intervene

Brian Walker on May 6, 2014, 7:13 am

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People who had to catch their breath over Gerry Adams’ arrest are now be having second wind. The former Labour secretary of state Shaun Woodward has called for a referendum over the heads of the local parties on what sort of mechanism they want to deal with the legacy of the Troubles. This may be commended as an initiative for jolting what remains the sovereign government and its Dublin partner into exercising their responsibilities in a low intensity existential crisis. But …

After the Adams arrest there is a way through, you know

Brian Walker on May 5, 2014, 11:07 am

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The IRA is gone, it’s finished.” I want to make it clear that I support the PSNI.” My reading of Gerry Adams’ statement on his release with his anger only just held in check, is that he wants to limit the damage while capitalising on the circumstances. Snap reactions are notoriously unreliable. But the events of the last four days have allowed the rest of us to speculate on what might have happened if he had been charged. Most people’s thoughts I …

Con Politics…

Pete Baker on May 3, 2014, 5:07 pm

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Just saying… [Put… the bunny… back… in the box. – Ed] Pete Baker

Gerry Adams: A leader whose basket of unwashed laundry is given to bursting open in public…

Mick Fealty on May 2, 2014, 2:50 pm

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Okay, whilst we wait to hear whether the Sinn Fein leader is to be released, charged or held for another night and day of questioning, here’s three items worth highlighting on the political aspects of this: Malachi O’Doherty… Where Adams can suffer is in the Irish Republic. He shifted his political base there and took a seat in the Dublin parliament, the Dáil. For years his party has relentlessly increased its support, yet its northern and southern expressions are growing …

Have McGuinness’s ‘Dark Side’ remarks increased the risk to lives of young PSNI officers?

Mick Fealty on May 2, 2014, 12:08 pm

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Alex Kane makes an important point with regard to the deputy First Minister’s “dark side…” comments about the PSNI yesterday… listen to ‘‘McGuinness making very, very serious accusation against police’ – Alex Kane’ on Audioboo What he doesn’t say is that this perception is being framed by a comprehensive communications strategy from Sinn Fein who’ve hardly spared the kitchen sink in trying to rescue their leader from the clutches of a police force they themselves are charged with overseeing. Both …

“Something, Something, Something, Dark Side…” – redux

Pete Baker on May 1, 2014, 7:02 pm

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More sound and fury from Sinn Féin over the continuing, agreed, questioning of party president Gerry Adams, TD, about the abduction, murder and secret burial of Jean McConville in 1972. This time the Northern Ireland deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, is recycling a 2011 phrase from his party chairman, Declan Kearney. And, apparently, he has super-sekrit sources… Mr McGuinness, Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister, told a press conference at Stormont that the arrest of his party leader and “friend” was politically …

Instead of slugging it over the police, the politicians should take responsibility for the past

Brian Walker on May 1, 2014, 6:34 pm

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Does the conspiracy theory work, that Gerry Adams got himself arrested in order to clear his name? Does it square with Martin McGuinness’ charge that the timing is politically motivated? Or are Sinn Fein stunting synthetic rage about the timing in order to make his release an even bigger triumph? Ed Moloney speaking Radio 4 believes there was a logic to the timing of the arrest after the evidence of the Boston tapes, quite apart from elections. However he questions …

If Gerry Adams was ever immune, that immunity has now been lifted. What next?

Brian Walker on May 1, 2014, 2:58 pm

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The Adams arrest raises acute questions about a comprehensive approach to dealing with the past I discussed just before the news broke. Depending on the outcome, the prospects could go either way. The cry of selective or one sided justice from one side produces an inevitable echo. Justice all round is unlikely to become better served, neither are truth or political relations. If the PSNI draw a blank, we’re where we were. If they don’t, we enter the unknown. A heavy burden is placed on the operational independence of the police, …

“By moving so quickly to criticise a police investigation and question the motives of the officers involved…”

Mick Fealty on May 1, 2014, 12:06 pm

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Fianna Fail have responded to Mary Lou McDonald’s Morning Ireland interview on the Adams arrest with this statement from the Security spokesman Niall Collins: Gerry Adams has been arrested in connection with the murder of Jean McConville. That is an ongoing police inquiry and I do not believe that politicians from any quarter should interfere with or undermine the work of the investigation team. In that context I believe the comments of his colleague Mary Lou McDonald are particularly inappropriate …

Everything you need to know about the #Adams arrest [in 13 tweets]…

Mick Fealty on May 1, 2014, 10:30 am

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So whilst we’re waiting for some definite news on the Adams arrest, here’s some of the tweets from last night: – First from the unexpected new voice of liberal Ulster evangelicalism… Kyle Paisley on arrest of Gerry Adams-we should "judge nothing before the time," (1Cor. 4:5) continue reading here.. http://t.co/hsZ2i4xjOI — Eamonn Mallie (@EamonnMallie) May 1, 2014 – Sinn Fein had clearly been preparing the ground for this event since 23rd March… Statement from Gerry Adams about PSNI meeting this …

Mr Justice Treacy: “It is evident that ACC Kerr was labouring under a material misapprehension as to the proper scope of police powers…”

Pete Baker on April 28, 2014, 10:09 pm

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The Chief Constable, Matt Baggott, has reportedly said that the police will appeal the High Court decision allowing “an application for a judicial review of the PSNI’s policing of the flag protests in Belfast between 8 December 2012 and 14 February 2013.” From the reported ruling Mr Justice Treacy was less than impressed by Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr’s interpretation of the legal position. As the summary of the judgment notes [added emphasis] The Court heard evidence from [Assistant] Chief Constable Will …

Where does ‘Guns and Government’ leave victims of the Peace Process’s ‘self regulation’?

Mick Fealty on April 9, 2014, 9:49 am

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Seems to me there’s a lot of unpick from last night’s Spotlight, but I think this from Catherine McCartney on Facebook is worth sharing more broadly… Ingram’s comment on ‘self regulation’ encapsulates the government’s covert policy re paramilitary criminality. I have said this over and over, this policy led to Robert’s murder, (who wasn’t a member of any group, ‘self regulation’?) and that of dozens of men. Spotlight confirmed what I and others already knew but our voices didn’t fit …

“there was a ‘culture’ in the Northern Ireland Office not to prosecute Republicans…”

Mick Fealty on April 3, 2014, 7:31 am

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In appearing on the first day, Norman Baxter has set a fairly direct tone for the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee inquiry into the administrative scheme for OTRs (see also), by suggesting that it was the Northern Ireland Office which was indulging in politics over Republican suspects rather than the PSNI: He then claimed pressure had also been exerted from Downing Street in regard to the 2007 arrests of Gerry McGeough and Vincent McAnespie in relation to the attempted murder …

And meanwhile in Larne, the UDA enforces its imaginary paramilitary writ…

Mick Fealty on March 31, 2014, 8:40 pm

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You would imagine these guys are on a one way ticket to prison, but the overweening and assumptive actions of paramilitaries of all descriptions in Northern Ireland has to be the abiding failure of the culture of the Peace Process™. Over the weekend, the UDA [would that be the good or the bad ones? – Ed] ran amok in Larne: A police vehicle was damaged as officers attempted to deal with up to 100 people who had gathered in Sallagh …

“Unlike Gerry Adams & Mary Lou McDonald…”

Pete Baker on March 30, 2014, 8:56 pm

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In a follow-up to a previous post on his Broken Elbow blog, as noted here, Ed Moloney has “an answer to Gerry Adams, Mary Lou McDonald and other critics of the Boston archive“. Aside from myself and Anthony McIntyre there is only one other person who has read all of the interviews lodged in the Belfast Project oral history archive at Boston College and that is Judge William Young of the Federal District Court in Boston, Massachusetts. Judge Young got to read …

“when a major political leader tells such an obvious falsehood about a defining part of his life…”

Pete Baker on March 25, 2014, 9:42 pm

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Also for the record, Ed Moloney has responded to Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams’ attack on the Boston College oral history project. From Ed Moloney’s blog I don’t intend to spill a lot of ink responding to Gerry Adams’ recent statement taking yet another swipe at the motives of those who were interviewed and who did the interviewing for the Boston College oral history archive. That is because I have already answered a very similar charge from Mary Lou McDonald. …