In response to the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) presentation to Derry and Strabane Council’s Health and Community Committee today regarding allegations of disproportionate and heavy-handed policing in Creggan
People Before Profit Cllr Shaun Harkin said,
“The report validates the criticisms made about police conduct in Creggan and elsewhere. Police actions were violent and disproportionate.
Working class communities, Creggan and elsewhere, dealing with high levels of deprivation and social need are regularly criminalised.
The Stormont Executive parties have questions to answer when it comes to the PSNI’s lack of democratic accountability.
Are these police actions Stormont government policies or is the PSNI a law unto itself?
The Stormont Executive needs to explain why we see police harassment and criminalisation of Hovis strikers, of Save our Sperrins campaigners, of women demanding the right to choose, Black Lives Matter protestors and of Palestine solidarity supporters – but not of those responsible for the denial of human rights, for corporations responsible for pollution and destruction of our environment, for the promotion of racism and for rising inequality and poverty.
Governments are becoming more authoritarian in response to rising levels of inequality and social crises.
We need to continue to push for accountability through whatever means we have available but a bigger challenge to the structural role of policing and its relationship to the lack of democratic accountability, injustice and inequality is now underway.”