In Ballymurphy the other evening the PSNI made
an arrest of a man in the immediate wake of an
incident that resembled a punishment attack. The
now rare hum of the once ubiquitous helicopter
droned its way into our homes. Police land rovers
roamed the area. PSNI members, batons pounding
their shields and sides of their vehicles, stood
menacingly, poised to aggressively confront anyone
who might interfere with their business of the
day.
I
was not there so did not see it. But witnesses
to this display of PSNI zero tolerance toward
some forms of violent activity in West Belfast
complained that those who once postured as defenders
of the community against a British police force
raiding nationalist homes 'skulked' away rather
than give some leadership. There was no sign of
the promised policing of the police. But what
leadership could they have provided apart from
leading the police into the homes to be searched?
Things have been inverted so much that those who
once called Pearse Jordan 'comrade', have no destination
but that certain day when they shall address those
who killed him barely half a mile away as 'colleague.'
Since
February, there have been something like 700 related
incidents of violence or intimidation in Ballymurphy,
many of them life-threatening. Apart from the
catalyst for this violence, the murder of Gerard
Devlin, there have been few arrests and no record
of anyone being apprehended in circumstances similar
to the Ballymurphy arrest the other evening. A
family who claim their home was targeted by a
thirty strong gang yesterday evening allege that
the PSNI told them not to ring for assistance
if it happens again as the force was fed up responding
to emergency calls from the estate. Not half as
fed up as the people making them.
The
Ballymurphy arrest demonstrates that the police
acted because they considered the supposed punishment
beating a subversive act that had to be politically
policed. The quality of life of people in Ballymurphy
has not improved one iota due to that arrest.
The arrests that would make a difference have
not been carried out because the police show little
interest in tackling anti social crime. Actions
that threaten to destabilise the political equilibrium,
no matter how marginally, will be robustly dealt
with whereas more serious actions that damage
the wellbeing of a working class community will
accumulate by the hundred with minimal police
intrusion.
There
is little doubt that anti-social activity and
violence against the vulnerable has become a scourge
in working class nationalist communities. People
who once had the power to stand up to the armed
repression of the British state now feel impotent
in the face of hoods. Without the ultimate power
to coerce their tormentors, they face a further
depreciation in the quality of their lives. Those
who claim to have a legitimate monopoly on the
exercise of such coercion, the British state and
its armed police, the PSNI, show little sign of
using it unless it is to apprehend someone they
might believe is engaged in violent republican
activity.
Peter
Hain has argued that by reversing its long standing
policy on the RUC,
Sinn Fein would allow some badly needed succour
to arrive in the communities they represent; crime
and anti-social behaviour could be tackled. This
underlines how policing remains a political loaded
issue. Why individual citizens, including republicans
who may wish to avail of it, should have their
right to be defended from violent gangs contingent
on Sinn Fein supporting the police, is not explained.
Surely the democratic right of the weak to be
defended against the strong is a stand alone justice
issue not to be bartered over on grounds of political
expediency.
Sinn
Fein support for the police will increase the
number of people willing to report their neighbour
over minor disputes or tout on others doing the
double. It will do nothing to end anti-social
behaviour. The type of crime that stalks working
class communities will not be affected by Sinn
Fein supporting the police. The most salient effect
of that support will be to legitimise British
force in Ireland. That is why there is such an
emphasis on securing it. It has nothing to do
with Peter Hain wanting to curb the hoods of Belfast
any more than he wants to put manners on the gangs
of Cardiff. Why would the British police be successful
in curbing anti social behaviour in Belfast but
not in Liverpool, Glasgow or Birmingham? The failure
of British policing in this respect is evidenced
only today in a report from the Institute for
Public Policy Research in Britain which showed
that more than any other European society the
British are afraid of teenage gangs.
The
type of crime that plagues working class communities
from Limerick to Liverpool, from Cork to Cardiff,
from Belfast to Bolton, fuelling a generalised
fear and immiserating numerous lives is largely
impervious to the application of modern policing.
Working class communities need a multi-agency
approach which is supported by more resources
rather than more rozzers.
In
Britain such communities pragmatically acquiesce
in policing. They do not normatively endorse the
police. The police are those who arrest you and
lie on oath in court to send you down. What a
turnaround it would be for Britain's fortunes
in Ireland if there are to be more people applauding
a British police force in Ballymurphy than in
Brixton.
