Scrabbling around for rationality

Eamonn Mallie seems to think that blowing up a bank and hotel has something to do with marking the anniversary of a civil rights march in 1968.  Just as likely to be marking the anniversary of an event a year later - the first showing of Monty Python's Flying Circus.  Or perhaps the anniversary of Dr No being released in 1962.

Quote of the day

"Although it's a much much lower threat than used to be from the Provisional IRA say, in the 70s, 80s and early 90s, it's clear that there is an episodic and occasionally lethal threat from those who are still unreconciled to the current arrangement.  Over the last five years they have killed nine people, which is an awful thing but nothing like enough to derail the current option of political progress through peace rather than violence."

Richard English of QUB on the nature and scale of the dissident threat.

Law and Order

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary has produced an interesting report (pdf file) on Anti-Social Behaviour.  It sets out the situation well that in terms of law and order the focus has been upon law while the harm of disorder de-prioritised.

"The truth is that despite its high public profile in recent years, ASB does not have the same status as ‘crime’ for the police. There are consequences to this.

Very importantly, the public draw no meaningful distinction between crime and ASB.  They exist on the same spectrum of bad or very bad behaviour. The public find it immaterial that the most insidious individual incidents of ‘pestering’, ‘taunting’ or ‘targeting’ individuals – including the most vulnerable - may not qualify technically as “crimes” with a prospect of prosecution. They dislike ASB, worry about reporting it,and are intimidated in significant numbers when they do.

However, for some people in policing and some outside, dealing with issues that qualify as crime is ‘real police work’. After all, for almost 20 years the police record of accomplishment and failure has been expressed, increasingly strongly, in terms of crime statistics. Meanwhile, the “non-qualifying” ASB issue, and its variants, that signal lack of control on our streets, have grown and evolved in intensity and harm."

Locally, there is no reason to believe that the PSNI's ability to deal with the issue is any better than their English and Welsh equivalents.  This inability has a broader ramification for Northern Ireland as it is a means of dissidents inveigling themselves into communities.

54 charged

At the policing board today the Cheif Constable, Matthew Baggott, said the police had put :

"54 dissident Republicans charged this year so far. Three times as many as last year."

This should provide some perspective on the ongoing battle between the dissidents and the forces of law and order.

Jaw Jaw Jaw

The issue of talking to dissidents has been kicking about for the a few weeks and this raises the questions why now and is there any value to them?

The Dissident Threat - A perspective

With three children left injured and no doubt traumatised by the most recent dissident attack the scale of the dissident threat is becoming the subject of much public discussion.  However, the treatment of it seems to owe more to the 1980's than the realities of 2010.  So what is the situation?

The scales have fallen from my eyes

I have read about the bomb attack in Londonderry during the early hours of this morning.  The target was supposedly the police station.  Instead it destroyed a kebab shop.  Now that some hard-working minority ethnic shopkeeper has had his business ruined and some grannies in a nearby old people's home had the wits scared out of them at 3am in the morning, the scales have been lifted from my eyes and I can see the sense of Irish Unity.  I am sure this feeling will be shared across the whole of Northern Ireland.