Policing in Northern Ireland in the aftermath of the Patten
proposals is an issue of extreme importance - and concern
- for the law-abiding people of this Province.
The people who obey the law and pay their way constitute
by far the bulk of the population. But there is a growing
minority who not only disobey the law, but are flaunting their
disregard and disdain for the rest of the population.
Every city and town in Northern Ireland has been experiencing
a significant increase in serious crime, ranging from the
most serious of all, murder, to things like burglaries, thefts,
car thefts, mugging and drug abuse.
At a time when the R.U.C., the finest police force in Western
Europe, and the model for most forces when it came to combating
terrorism, needed to be increased to police a society becoming
more materialistic and brutalised, and also becoming more
urbanised, the Government took the terrible decision to implement
the Patten report and disband the R.U.C.
Thousands of experienced and top quality police officers
have been made redundant.
The new Northern Ireland Police Service is struggling to
hold the line, it is badly under-manned, and at the present
rate of recruitment it will be years before it is strong enough
to do the job the people of Northern Ireland are entitled
to expect.
This is a serious and deplorable business, and it would be
folly to pretend otherwise. But is the Government listening?
It has promoted a 'peace process' which depends on continual
concessions being made to terrorists and their political representatives.
It is prepared to allow the Ulster people to pay the price
of this folly and appeasement by having to endure an unprecedented
and unsurpassed crime wave which is an outrage to the vast
majority of the people of Northern Ireland.
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