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Should the PSNI be more heavy handed with rioters

  • 26-10-2010 7:21pm
    #1
    Bottle_of_Smoke
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,770 ✭✭✭


    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11632444
    Petrol bombs have been thrown at police during a second night of violence in the Newtownabbey area.

    A bus was hijacked and set on fire near the Cloughfern roundabout.

    Damage caused during rioting on Monday night will cost £200,000 to repair. Six cars and a bus were burnt out.

    Police have said that loyalist paramilitaries have been involved in the trouble and appealed for anyone with any influence in the area to intervene to stop it.The riots on Monday evening followed a number of earlier police raids in the mainly loyalist area.

    The PSNI said the searches were part of Operation Stafford, an ongoing serious crime branch investigation into a series of murders and other crimes by the UVF in north Belfast.

    At the end of last year, the PSNI took on the investigation from the Historical Enquiries Team.

    Police rejected claims that officers had been heavy-handed during the raids.

    Was just listening to this morning's Stephen Nolan show podcast. A lot of the public and people on the hijacked bus were on complaining the PSNI didn't do enough to stop the rioters. There were no arrests made.

    It is possible they weren't heavy handed enough because they were mostly restrained when dealing with republican rioters during the Summer. Should they have clamped down last night they would have been treating loyalist rioters differently.

    So should they react as any other UK constabulary or the Gardai would have reacted?

    I can see why they don't want to stir up republicans as it could be seen to validate millitant groups and give them more support.

    However how fair is that on the local businesses and public? how sustainable is it going forward? It is clearly leading to rioters having no fear of rioting once they cover their faces.

    Just to be clear I mean this in relation to rioting only. Don't want to discuss interrogation methods or treatment of suspects at police stations


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