In the wake of a call for 1,000 more police officers in Northern Ireland, NI Conservatives’ co-chair, Trevor Ringland, has called upon the parties at Stormont to “step up to the mark, back our police force without equivocation and take politics off the streets”.
“The police are doing an incredible job, in the face of incessant violence and intimidation and NI Conservatives offer the PSNI our full and unequivocal support”, Trevor emphasised. “It’s time for other parties to do the same, without any ifs, buts or maybes, without basing their support on who officers are called upon to police at any given time and without an eye on placating trouble-makers, within whichever perceived part of our community.”
“I have a great deal of sympathy for the Police Federation’s call for more officers, given the violence and extraordinary work-load which the PSNI has had to face, over the past nine months. There is yet another opportunity though, with the Haas Process, for politicians to take responsibility, show some leadership and ease the pressure on the police. There are very many issues which that process will confront which are solvable. We need to make every effort to build a society where officers can get on with fighting everyday crime, rather than constantly policing riots and disorder.”
“It’s all very well to talk about ‘peaceful protest’, but if political parties cannot guarantee that demonstrations will remain peaceful, then they shouldn’t encourage people to take to the streets. It simply isn’t tenable to, on one hand, express sympathy for the PSNI’s predicament, but on the other, do nothing to ease tensions or even condemn the police’s actions.”
“The Stormont parties must finally stop this mealy mouthed approach and show full, unequivocal support for the rule of law, in all circumstances. Otherwise, going into the future, we will have to look at creating a permanently enlarged police force, for a permanently divided, permanently disrupted society, where the voice of the peaceful majority is side-lined and ignored.”