Why?________Volume One.

27 February 2009
By Freelance

MORE and more police stations in Northern Ireland are being listed for closure with the PSNI assuring a concerned public that law and order is being preserved in all parts of the Province by vehicular patrols.
This may be the case in some parts of Northern Ireland, but clearly not in the Co Fermanagh border region of Rosslea and Clogh.

There, in a sectarian attack a petrol bomb was thrown at a Protestant church hall on Wednesday night and it was not untADVERTISEMENTil daylight the next day that the police were able to arrive at the scene for an investigation.

The area has had some dissident republican terrorist activity, but the church members and other local residents have good reason to feel abandoned and let down on the crucial issue of basic law-enforcement.

Had the petrol bomb resulted in injury and even death, would the PSNI have shown more urgency in attending to the crime scene or is the problem now more a matter of absolute minimal resources as the reality of the progression of the flawed Patten report on police reforms becomes apparent?

Police require to do much more than simply state that they have been in touch with local community representatives and the Garda Siochana on the Republic side of the border and are planning an operation to investigate the incidents. Hardly reassuring.