20.1.05
Sinn Féin
PSNI promotion demonstrates ineffectiveness of SDLP
Published: 20 January, 2005
Commenting on the promotion, to the rank of superintendent, of a PSNI officer at the centre of marching controversy in Lurgan, the area's Sinn Féin MLA, Cllr John O'Dowd said,
"This will come as absolutely no shock to the vast majority of Nationalists across the Six Counties. For years, RUC officers who colluded with unionist paramilitaries, who conducted the shoot-to-kill policy, who brutalised peaceful Nationalist protestors in Lurgan and Portadown and who stood back and handed control of the Six Counties to the Orange Order during Drumcree in the mid-nineties, all had one thing in common - they were all rewarded with promotions and the attainment of higher rank. That the same thing is happening today within the ranks of the PSNI will not surprise many nationalists in the Lurgan or Portadown area.
"However, many will be surprised at the sham sense of disbelief voiced by the SDLP that such things could continue to occur. The SDLP know that the Policing Board and the District Policing Partnerships of which the SDLP's Dolores Kelly is local vice-chairperson are having no effect whatsoever in bringing about any real change to an inherently sectarian and unionist dominated force.
"The SDLP's ineffectiveness in bringing about any real change to the nationalist experience of having to endure biased and partisan policing is widely recognised by most people. At the last number of elections, the clear majority of Nationalists endorsed Sinn Féin's position and analysis on policing and rejected that of the SDLP." ENDS
PSNI promotion demonstrates ineffectiveness of SDLP
Published: 20 January, 2005
Commenting on the promotion, to the rank of superintendent, of a PSNI officer at the centre of marching controversy in Lurgan, the area's Sinn Féin MLA, Cllr John O'Dowd said,
"This will come as absolutely no shock to the vast majority of Nationalists across the Six Counties. For years, RUC officers who colluded with unionist paramilitaries, who conducted the shoot-to-kill policy, who brutalised peaceful Nationalist protestors in Lurgan and Portadown and who stood back and handed control of the Six Counties to the Orange Order during Drumcree in the mid-nineties, all had one thing in common - they were all rewarded with promotions and the attainment of higher rank. That the same thing is happening today within the ranks of the PSNI will not surprise many nationalists in the Lurgan or Portadown area.
"However, many will be surprised at the sham sense of disbelief voiced by the SDLP that such things could continue to occur. The SDLP know that the Policing Board and the District Policing Partnerships of which the SDLP's Dolores Kelly is local vice-chairperson are having no effect whatsoever in bringing about any real change to an inherently sectarian and unionist dominated force.
"The SDLP's ineffectiveness in bringing about any real change to the nationalist experience of having to endure biased and partisan policing is widely recognised by most people. At the last number of elections, the clear majority of Nationalists endorsed Sinn Féin's position and analysis on policing and rejected that of the SDLP." ENDS
