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Socialist Environmental Alliance protest against PSNI

Thursday 2nd June 2005

Both Protestant and Catholic young people have been on the receiving end of harrassment and attack by the PSNI.

The police assault on young Protestants in Violet Street in the Waterside last month was not a one-off incident. People in the Fountain, and in Protestant working-class estates in Belfast and Lisburn, have had similar experiences.

The experiences of young Catholics at the hands of the police in Northern Ireland have been widely publicised and the subject of protests. The SEA has supported and taken part in these protests, and will continue to do so.

The point we are making today is that this is not the whole story.

People in working-class Protestant areas often feel they have nobody to turn to when they suffer at the hands of the police. Unionist politicians won't hear a word said against the police, while Nationalist politicians often seem to suggest that problems only arise between the PSNI and Catholic areas.

Once again, sectarian politics leaves working class people on all sides in the lurch.

Today's visit of Hugh Orde to Derry coincides with the latest Morris Tribunal report, which reveals a level of corruption and harrassment in the gardai to equal anything on this side of the border. Last week, gardai used lead bullets against robbers who might well have been arrested, killing a man who was unarmed at the time.

Bertie Ahern called people who demanded an inquiry into this killing "weak-kneed." If a NIO minister had used such language in similar circumstances, there'd have been uproar.

This week too, the police in Scotland have threatened the use of plastic bullets on protestors against the G8 leaders who will be gathering at Gleneagles in July.

The cops are essentially the same all over, whether it's Los Angeles, Derry, Donegal or Strathclyde.

Only a broad socialist approach, taking up the cases of all who are oppressed and fighting for justice, can deal with this issue.





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