‘Nothing normal about the PSNI’

A republican policing poster campaign has brought attention to the absence of support for the PSNI in nationalist areas.

The recent campaign by the 32 County Sovereignty Movement (32CSM) brought home the litany of police abuses against the nationalist and republican community, as well as the collusion strategies still being deployed by the force, which was rebranded from the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) in 2001.

The 32CSM denied the posts were intimidatory. They pointed out that the latest recruitment campaign by the PSNI received one of the lowest amounts of applications in years from those of a Catholic background and the lowest total amount of applications, “proving that people are waking up to the charade of the dysfunctional police force”, they said.

“This along with the multitude of recent embarrassments by the PSNI reflects negatively on the politicians sitting on the policing board, as well as their respective parties, and in an attempt to save face have sought to use our poster as a means to deflect from their own political failures.

“So long as Britain retains its claim of sovereignty over the Six counties, policing under whichever banner, be it the PSNI or the RUC, will always be political, never impartial and the 32 County Sovereignty Movement will not be found wanting in exposing it.”

Despite heavy promotion in recent years, and very high pay, PSNI chiefs have struggled with low recruitment levels in nationalist areas. Many young people reject a career in the hated British tradition of colonial policing in Ireland.

The force has also shown little interest in appealing to nationalists - there are daily scandals over its refusal to allow the truth to emerge about its murderous and collusive actions with loyalists in the past.

It has also continued a wink-and-nod relationship with loyalist paramilitary murder gangs, whose entrenched criminality is now estimated to be on a par with the Italian mafia.

It has also maintained a high level of harassment and coercion of nationalists, including the attempted recruitment of informers, some while in their teens.

Another republican group, Lasair Dhearg, hit out at British efforts to ‘normalise’ the force in a strategy they said had had ranged from “posters on bus stops to machine guns in schools”.

They pointed to PSNI propaganda events they have opposed, many involving the cynical abuse of schoolchildren, most recently in Lurgan, County Armagh.

“There is nothing normal about the PSNI,” they said.

“They may have been rebranded, but they remain a core part of the British military occupation in Ireland, actively helping to cover up RUC collusion, withholding the truth from victims and families, and preventing them from attaining justice.”

Urgent Appeal