25 November 1999 Edition
Policing the future - A Conference on the Patten proposals
By Laura Friel
We are entitled to a police service which treats us all as human beings, a fair and efficient service which is part of the community and responsible to all the community, not just those who share their political opinions - Bairbre de Brún
There was complete silence. All morning we had discussed the fine detail of the Patten proposals for the future of policing and now we were confronted with the reality of the RUC. The conference, organised by the Falls Community Centre, had not attracted the numbers but within the community sector, the key activists were there. And now the ``movers and shakers'' were visibly moved and shaken as they watched film footage of RUC `policing' on the Lower Ormeau Road earlier this year.
The brutality of the RUC, captured on video tape, was as unremitting as the courage of nationalist residents, whose peaceful sit down protest was being so ruthlessly suppressed. Frame followed frame of defenceless citizens being repeatedly batoned, brutally kicked and dragged across the ground.
A camera records an RUC officer jumping with his full weight on the leg of a man already lying stricken on the ground. A number of people are smashed in the face with riot shields. At a run, an RUC officer smashes the edge of his shield into the neck of someone already lying on the ground.
Several people are beaten unconscious. A cameraman's nose is broken and his camera smashed to the floor. RUC Land Rovers are driven into the crowd. People are led away with blood streaming from their injuries. A woman is beaten by a gang of RUC men. The crowd around screams with anger and fear.
It would be a mistake to believe that simply adding more members of an excluded group to an entrenched law enforcement institution would change the essential nature of policing in Northern Ireland
- Tom Hayden
The lesson of the Ormeau Road had been the message of the conference. The RUC is a totally unacceptable force and no amount of tinkering will alter that reality. Radical change, fundamental change was required. The big question for delegates was does the Patten proposals measure up to the task.
California State Senator Tom Hayden began with a cautionary tale of 35 years of reform within the Los Angeles police service. In 1965, following a brutal attack on a young black women by a highway patrolman, Los Angeles erupted into five days of sustained street protests. In 1992, after an all white jury exonerated the policemen who beat Rodney King, Los Angeles erupted again. The failure of the reform programme implemented in the aftermath of 1965 underpinned the upheaval of 1992, said Tom.
Thirty-five years of affirmative action programmes did not resolve the problems within the Los Angeles police force. Criminality and racism within the police continued. Simply recruiting African Americans and Latinos in at the bottom rung did not challenge the ethos within the Los Angeles police. Today, 75% of commanding officers are still white males.
``It would be a mistake to believe, based on the Los Angeles experience, that simply adding more members of an excluded group, such as nationalists or Catholics, to an entrenched law enforcement institution like the RUC would change the essential nature of policing in Northern Ireland,'' said Hayden.
Columnist and historian Brian Feeney outlined the age profile of the RUC. Of its members, 60% had served between 10-24 years, and of that group only 7% were Catholic. 25% of RUC members had served up to 9 years, with 9.9% of them Catholic and of the most newly recruited, 12.6% were Catholic. The age profile of the RUC showed that recruiting Catholics at the lowest echelons of the RUC is unlikely to impact on the ethos and policy of the RUC as a whole.
It is not simply a matter of recruiting to change the culture of the RUC. ``You could have lots of Catholics in the RUC and it would mean nothing,'' said Brian. Catholics aren't necessarily nationalists and wouldn't necessarily share the experience of the community they are supposed to reflect.
Robin Livingstone of the Andersonstown News highlighted the contradiction of heavily armed RUC officers handing out road safety leaflets. Recounting a story of seeing armed IRA Volunteers and everyone cheering, Livingstone argued that it wasn't simply a question of disarming the RUC, it was about creating a police service in which a community could place their trust. ``Who they knew and who knew them.'' The key issue is accountability not the proportion of Catholics, said Robin.
Speaking from the floor, Clare Reilly criticised Patten for failing to ban plastic bullets. Plastic bullets have been condemned by every human rights group through out the world, said Clare. Seventeen people had been killed and hundreds maimed and injured but not one RUC officer or British soldier had ever been made accountable. One RUC officer who committed perjury at the inquest of one victim was later promoted to Assistant Chief Constable and was mentioned in the Queen's honour list, said Clare.
Jim McCabe, whose wife Nora was killed by a plastic bullet, asked how could he encourage his children to join the new policing service in the absence of a mechanism to root out human rights violators, knowing they might be serving with the man who killed their mother.
Former POW Harry Maguire said that the perception that the nationalist community is `anti police' was a myth perpetuated by the state. Community Restorative Justice believed the nationalist community wanted acceptable policing. ``Communities needed ownership of their own justice system,'' said Harry, ``and community accountability.''
Unlike policing within the narrow focus of the state, ``the essential mindset of community justice focuses on restoring the damage done to human relationships. The questions CRJ asks are ``who has been hurt, what are the needs of the victim, how can the damage be restored, what is the impact on the community and even what are the needs of the offender,'' said Maguire.
Paul O'Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre said the key to building a new police service was not the make up of the force nor the training but the sanctions applied to wrongdoing. Focusing on the new Ombudsman's office, which is to replace the Independent Commission for Police Complaints, O'Connor said it was unclear if the new office would have full legal powers of investigation.
``Patten might not have called for the disbandment of the RUC but he did recommend the disbanding of the ICPC,'' said Paul, but ``someone who was part of that defunct body is now in charge of the new Ombudsman's office.'' The ICPC had an annual budget of £8m but the new Ombudsman office has less than half the budget. Might lack of funding force the new office into accepting ``investigative'' help from the RUC, asked O Connor.
Local democratic accountability was the key, said Robbie McVeigh of the West Belfast Economic Forum. If police officers knew if they abused human rights they would attract immediate sanctions, they would conduct themselves differently. Differently from a force like the RUC, which has for the last 30 years routinely gotten away with murder.
The fundamental problem with Patten is that there is no mechanisms to address the legacy of the RUC. Patten said it was not the commission's job to resolve the issues like Pat Finucane, Rosemary Nelson etc. ``We need to ask whose job is it then,'' said Robbie.
John Gormley, a member of Lower Ormeau Resident's Action Group, highlighted the systematic nature of the RUC's abuse of his community. The historical fact that the RUC was a partitionist police force determined their relationship with the nationalist community as ``the enemy within''. Membership of the Orange Order was not compatible with being a member of the new policing service. The proposed oath expressing a commitment to human rights ran contrary to the oaths of Orangemen, said John.
Caitríona Ruane of Féile an Phobail said an all-Irish policing service was needed. Maggie Beirne of the Committee for the Administration of Justice pointed out that any police force with abusive powers will be abusive. Emergency legislation should be repealed. Margaret Walsh of the SDLP said that post Patten the debate had now gone beyond the extreme positions of disband or hands off the RUC. It was now a question of debating the details of how to deliver a new police service.
Sinn Féin Assembly member Bairbre de Brún said we were entitled to a police service which treated us all as human beings, a fair and efficient service which was part of the community and responsible to all the community, not just those who share their political opinions.
We are entitled to a police service which treats us all as human beings, a fair and efficient service which is part of the community and responsible to all the community, not just those who share their political opinions - Bairbre de Brún
There was complete silence. All morning we had discussed the fine detail of the Patten proposals for the future of policing and now we were confronted with the reality of the RUC. The conference, organised by the Falls Community Centre, had not attracted the numbers but within the community sector, the key activists were there. And now the ``movers and shakers'' were visibly moved and shaken as they watched film footage of RUC `policing' on the Lower Ormeau Road earlier this year.
The brutality of the RUC, captured on video tape, was as unremitting as the courage of nationalist residents, whose peaceful sit down protest was being so ruthlessly suppressed. Frame followed frame of defenceless citizens being repeatedly batoned, brutally kicked and dragged across the ground.
A camera records an RUC officer jumping with his full weight on the leg of a man already lying stricken on the ground. A number of people are smashed in the face with riot shields. At a run, an RUC officer smashes the edge of his shield into the neck of someone already lying on the ground.
Several people are beaten unconscious. A cameraman's nose is broken and his camera smashed to the floor. RUC Land Rovers are driven into the crowd. People are led away with blood streaming from their injuries. A woman is beaten by a gang of RUC men. The crowd around screams with anger and fear.
It would be a mistake to believe that simply adding more members of an excluded group to an entrenched law enforcement institution would change the essential nature of policing in Northern Ireland
- Tom Hayden
The lesson of the Ormeau Road had been the message of the conference. The RUC is a totally unacceptable force and no amount of tinkering will alter that reality. Radical change, fundamental change was required. The big question for delegates was does the Patten proposals measure up to the task.
California State Senator Tom Hayden began with a cautionary tale of 35 years of reform within the Los Angeles police service. In 1965, following a brutal attack on a young black women by a highway patrolman, Los Angeles erupted into five days of sustained street protests. In 1992, after an all white jury exonerated the policemen who beat Rodney King, Los Angeles erupted again. The failure of the reform programme implemented in the aftermath of 1965 underpinned the upheaval of 1992, said Tom.
Thirty-five years of affirmative action programmes did not resolve the problems within the Los Angeles police force. Criminality and racism within the police continued. Simply recruiting African Americans and Latinos in at the bottom rung did not challenge the ethos within the Los Angeles police. Today, 75% of commanding officers are still white males.
``It would be a mistake to believe, based on the Los Angeles experience, that simply adding more members of an excluded group, such as nationalists or Catholics, to an entrenched law enforcement institution like the RUC would change the essential nature of policing in Northern Ireland,'' said Hayden.
Columnist and historian Brian Feeney outlined the age profile of the RUC. Of its members, 60% had served between 10-24 years, and of that group only 7% were Catholic. 25% of RUC members had served up to 9 years, with 9.9% of them Catholic and of the most newly recruited, 12.6% were Catholic. The age profile of the RUC showed that recruiting Catholics at the lowest echelons of the RUC is unlikely to impact on the ethos and policy of the RUC as a whole.
It is not simply a matter of recruiting to change the culture of the RUC. ``You could have lots of Catholics in the RUC and it would mean nothing,'' said Brian. Catholics aren't necessarily nationalists and wouldn't necessarily share the experience of the community they are supposed to reflect.
Robin Livingstone of the Andersonstown News highlighted the contradiction of heavily armed RUC officers handing out road safety leaflets. Recounting a story of seeing armed IRA Volunteers and everyone cheering, Livingstone argued that it wasn't simply a question of disarming the RUC, it was about creating a police service in which a community could place their trust. ``Who they knew and who knew them.'' The key issue is accountability not the proportion of Catholics, said Robin.
Speaking from the floor, Clare Reilly criticised Patten for failing to ban plastic bullets. Plastic bullets have been condemned by every human rights group through out the world, said Clare. Seventeen people had been killed and hundreds maimed and injured but not one RUC officer or British soldier had ever been made accountable. One RUC officer who committed perjury at the inquest of one victim was later promoted to Assistant Chief Constable and was mentioned in the Queen's honour list, said Clare.
Jim McCabe, whose wife Nora was killed by a plastic bullet, asked how could he encourage his children to join the new policing service in the absence of a mechanism to root out human rights violators, knowing they might be serving with the man who killed their mother.
Former POW Harry Maguire said that the perception that the nationalist community is `anti police' was a myth perpetuated by the state. Community Restorative Justice believed the nationalist community wanted acceptable policing. ``Communities needed ownership of their own justice system,'' said Harry, ``and community accountability.''
Unlike policing within the narrow focus of the state, ``the essential mindset of community justice focuses on restoring the damage done to human relationships. The questions CRJ asks are ``who has been hurt, what are the needs of the victim, how can the damage be restored, what is the impact on the community and even what are the needs of the offender,'' said Maguire.
Paul O'Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre said the key to building a new police service was not the make up of the force nor the training but the sanctions applied to wrongdoing. Focusing on the new Ombudsman's office, which is to replace the Independent Commission for Police Complaints, O'Connor said it was unclear if the new office would have full legal powers of investigation.
``Patten might not have called for the disbandment of the RUC but he did recommend the disbanding of the ICPC,'' said Paul, but ``someone who was part of that defunct body is now in charge of the new Ombudsman's office.'' The ICPC had an annual budget of £8m but the new Ombudsman office has less than half the budget. Might lack of funding force the new office into accepting ``investigative'' help from the RUC, asked O Connor.
Local democratic accountability was the key, said Robbie McVeigh of the West Belfast Economic Forum. If police officers knew if they abused human rights they would attract immediate sanctions, they would conduct themselves differently. Differently from a force like the RUC, which has for the last 30 years routinely gotten away with murder.
The fundamental problem with Patten is that there is no mechanisms to address the legacy of the RUC. Patten said it was not the commission's job to resolve the issues like Pat Finucane, Rosemary Nelson etc. ``We need to ask whose job is it then,'' said Robbie.
John Gormley, a member of Lower Ormeau Resident's Action Group, highlighted the systematic nature of the RUC's abuse of his community. The historical fact that the RUC was a partitionist police force determined their relationship with the nationalist community as ``the enemy within''. Membership of the Orange Order was not compatible with being a member of the new policing service. The proposed oath expressing a commitment to human rights ran contrary to the oaths of Orangemen, said John.
Caitríona Ruane of Féile an Phobail said an all-Irish policing service was needed. Maggie Beirne of the Committee for the Administration of Justice pointed out that any police force with abusive powers will be abusive. Emergency legislation should be repealed. Margaret Walsh of the SDLP said that post Patten the debate had now gone beyond the extreme positions of disband or hands off the RUC. It was now a question of debating the details of how to deliver a new police service.
Sinn Féin Assembly member Bairbre de Brún said we were entitled to a police service which treated us all as human beings, a fair and efficient service which was part of the community and responsible to all the community, not just those who share their political opinions.