PSNI failures.

political analyst

https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/crime/bobby-storey-funeral-police-accused-double-standards-unionists-row-over-simon-byrne-interview-deepens-3062426

DUP MP Carla Lockhart said the speed at which police action was taken towards members of Tandragee Baptist Church, compared to the mass gathering of republicans at the Storey funeral in Belfast on June 30, has left people “shocked at the double standards”.

Mrs Lockhart was commenting after Chief Constable Simon Byrne told the BBC he feared “widespread violence and disorder” would have followed any attempt to disperse large crowds that had gathered in the west of the city.

However, Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly has rejected the chief constable’s suggestion that any PSNI intervention at the funeral of Bobby Storey could have led to violence.

The party’s policing spokesperson said: “The suggestion from the PSNI chief constable that any police intervention at the funeral of Bobby Storey would have led to violence is ludicrous.

“People attended the funeral to pay their respects to a much-loved friend and colleague to support his grieving family at that difficult time. They did so with respect and dignity.

“This suggestion from the chief constable adds to the hurt of the grieving Storey family.”

Please try to look past the fact that this is from The News Letter.

The inconsistency in the enforcement of Covid restrictions by the PSNI calls its impartiality into question.

It's not the first significant failure of the PSNI, as the following article from 2008 shows:

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/psni-blasted-as-shamed-officer-returns-to-work-28397732.html

The boss of the company who made the road safety TV advert featuring shamed PSNI officer Geraldine Donnelly said last night he was "embarrassed" by the adverse publicity surrounding the policewoman's return to work.

Constable Donnelly, who fronted the PSNI/DoE campaign Smashed, which warned of the dangers of driving while under the influence of drink or drugs, was herself later caught drink driving.

She was fined £120 and banned from driving for a year - but yesterday it emerged she had held onto her job.

Yesterday, PSNI deputy chief constable Paul Leighton defended Ms Donnelly's return to work - despite his earlier assertion that in most cases officers would lose their jobs if convicted of similar offences.

He said that drink driving was wrong, but pointed out that the incident involving the woman police officer preceded the PSNI's dismissal policy of May 2006.

I never heard of an RUC officer being allowed to remain in the job after being convicted of drink-driving. I wonder was that indicative of the Unionist community's conservative attitude towards alcohol.

PS: This OP is about the PSNI, not Covid, so I put it in this forum.

ILoveYourVibes

OP i don't live in Northern Ireland. So i really can't claim to know much about the PSNI.

I am sure there are good and bad. I don't claim to understand the complex relationship they might have with the Irish community in NI because I don't live there.