Workers Solidarity Movement

The reality behind the new beginning to policing was once again revealed on the streets of the North yesterday when children returning from a bus trip to Dublin where terrorised by heavily armed PSNI members for up two hours. The bus trip organised by the Republican Network for Unity contained 13 children and 6 adults were returning from a trip to Kilmainham Gaol was stopped and searched allegedly for explosives just outside Banbridge by up to 60-70 PSNI officers with a forensic lab and helicopters.

One father described the search operation,“I had my 3 sons with me, this has left my youngest son traumatized, 4 years of age took off a bus by heavily armed men at gun point, videoed an photographed as he was getting of , he was then separated from me by the PSNI which caused the kids more distress, the child wet himself with nerves, the PSNI then held him on a grass verge for near two hours with the child soaked to the bone with his own urine.”

Behind the media spin and propaganda, a change in name and badge and ‘respectability’ given by its endorsement by all the political parties, is a police force which is committed to active harassment and intimidation of anyone who dares to question the status-quo.

Just over two weeks ago, an Eirigi demonstration in Belfast to oppose PSNI harassment of republicans outside Governor Road police station highlighted exactly that, when a police land rover attempted to drive through a crowd listening to a speech.  These examples are just the tip of the iceberg in ongoing PSNI/MI5 harassment of republicans and their families.

The WSM is opposed to state repression even if it does not agree with the politics of those on the receiving end. We are under no illusions that the state is the biggest practitioner of violence and the primarily role of the police is to protect the status-quo which is the case the world over. From the streets of Athens to Barcelona and Rossport the naked brutality of the police is witnessed. However, such intimidation and abuse should not be swept under the carpet and needs to be exposed and opposed whenever possible.

WORDS: Sean Matthews