Andersontown News, 13. December 2001,  http://www.irelandclick.com/

John Gormley - RUC/PSNI - SECTARIAN, INEFFICIENT OR BOTH?

(South Belfast News)

I can’t make up my mind whether the RUC/PSNI is sectarian, inefficient, corrupt or all three.

Let’s face it, there’s plenty of evidence to support any permutation of criticisms.

Part of the problem in labelling the RUC/PSNI is that, like the alcoholic who can be very clever at hiding his drinking, the RUC/PSNI works hard to conceal its shortcomings.

Over the years the RUC has used a variety of mechanisms to hide its failings. It has told us that it knows who the guilty people are, but cannot find the proof. It has told us that it does not have enough powers to prosecute the guilty. It has told us that it could solve crime if only the troubles would go away. It has told us that lack of Catholic support is the problem.

Of course these claims simply do not stand up to scrutiny.

The Omagh bomb really destroyed the old "we know who did it but can’t get the proof" myth.

The RUC knew long before the bomb went off who was going to do it and precisely when and where they were going to do it and still didn’t or couldn’t stop them.

If they had stopped the car on the way into
Omagh they could have had all the proof they needed – and nobody would have died. The Ombudsman has chosen to see the whole sorry mess as evidence of inefficiency. Personally, I see it as evidence of a very sordid conspiracy.

Of course the RUC in many cases knows who the guilty people are.

It knew who the guilty people in the Pat
Finucane murder were, since most of those people were working for the RUC in the first place. There wasn’t any inability to prosecute, or lack of powers, just a complete unwillingness to own up to its own role in the murder.

If the troubles are to blame for crime spiralling out of control then how come Ballymena (one of the centres of hard core loyalism) is the drugs capital of the North?

After all, Ballymena was not exactly the Beirut of the North. I imagine that for most of the troubles the RUC patrolled pretty freely round the town. Presumably most people in the town supported the RUC. How then did drug dealers establish themselves in unionist Ballymena and how do they seem to continue to operate with such impunity?

Maybe the RUC is just inefficient after all.
If lack of Catholic support is the problem, why can the RUC not solve loyalist murders carried out in Rathcoole and other Protestant areas?

The sad truth about the RUC/PSNI is beginning to sink in to the SDLP.

Last week the party highlighted the complete lack of prosecutions for loyalist attacks and called on the RUC/PSNI to "take action" against the UDA.

What? Is the SDLP saying that the RUC could have taken action to stop the current campaign of pipe bomb attacks, but has refused to do so? Or is it saying that the SDLP has identified policing measures which the RUC has failed to identify? Back to the original question – is the RUC sectarian or merely inefficient?

Why has the SDLP asked us to support a police force which has to be cajoled and pressurised into taking action to protect the Catholic community?

If the PSNI is different from the RUC why has it not been taking action from the outset, on its own initiative? If it is not different, why has the SDLP given the PSNI its support?

I have decided to be charitable and to work on
the basis that the RUC/PSNI really does not know what it is doing and therefore really does need all the help it can get.

I have decided to make known to the RUC/PSNI several pieces of information relating to the current campaign of loyalist bombs, information which the RUC/PSNI has clearly been unable to unearth itself.

1. The bomb which killed UDA man William Campbell in Coleraine (near Derry)  two weeks ago was not thrown from the New Lodge Road (republican district in North Belfast). The RUC should concentrate its investigations in the Coleraine area.

2. The UDA is behind the pipe bombing campaign against Catholics. Admittedly, UDA men can be quite hard to spot, but here are some clues.
- They tend to live in areas with the words "UDA" and "UFF" displayed prominently.
- They quite often march through North Belfast wearing UDA uniforms and carrying UDA banners.
I know it’s not much to go on, but I hope that helps.

3. The UDA uses young people to carry out attacks. Therefore be on the lookout for fat, bald, tattooed loyalists (usually wearing lots of jewellery and sometimes posing as community workers) talking furtively to young people.

4. Pipe bombs are, in fact, made from bits of pipe and bits of explosive (hence the name). Be on the lookout for either component, particularly in the areas with "UDA" displayed on every lamppost.

5. Even UDA men have more sense then to make bombs at home. The derelict houses in the above-mentioned areas might be worth the occasional visit.

Over to you, Sherlock.

Comments in brackets are additional explanations - Uschi Grandel