Sinn Fein's fractured relationship with PSNI vehicles

[Wildweasel74]

g a parade went down the town on friday nite in my local, town/village! did i and all the neighbours get out and protest? no, cause we dont give a damn and have better things to do. nothing worse than trying to go out of your way to be offended. How many of these protesters especially the teenagers would actually attend the chapel the parade is marching by!!

[Myles Na G.]

So you continue to claim that your knowledge of the events is better than that of the quoted witness, simply because of his identity. And you maintain the bizarre stance of looking for sectarianism in the wrong place, given that the whole raison d'etre of the occasion is a sectarian demonstration.

Yep - that's sectarian and bigoted, no matter who you are.

Nope, simply because what he's saying is obviously untrue. Take a look again at the clip and count how many photographers you can see taking pictures (round about 1.12 in, for e.g). Seriously, are you telling me that all these professionals missed the one thing they came for?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K2juHYzDKs&sns=em
And the whole raison d'etre is a sectarian demonstration, but not all the sectarian demonstrators are wearing orange collarettes. Some turned up wearing pyjamas and Celtic football strips.

[Oraisteach]

Just watched the video clip myself and frankly I'm infuriated.  The driver of that police vehicle should not have budged an inch.  Why, in God's name did he consider that a clever move?  What would have happened had Kelly lost his grip and slipped?  At the same time, the one image of the flag protest that lingers in my mind is the sight of a loyalist protester up on the bonnet of the police vehicle beating the crap out of the windscreen with the butt end of a flag pole.  And what happened to that lout at that instant?  Nothing.  It is these small but significant events that help shape public perception of fairness.

[theticklemister]

The driver of thon jeep will be very lucky to keep his job & drivers licence IMO.

You cannot just ram a fella who poses no threat to you.

feck it, twas only Gerry Kelly.

[T Fearon]

Bad week for PSNI land rovers.Playing the Birdy Song at Lough Erne on Tuesday in public, and carting away Sinn Fein Ministers without their consent both posed a serious risk of wide scale public disorder.

[johnneycool]

g a parade went down the town on friday nite in my local, town/village! did i and all the neighbours get out and protest? no, cause we dont give a damn and have better things to do. nothing worse than trying to go out of your way to be offended. How many of these protesters especially the teenagers would actually attend the chapel the parade is marching by!!

I'd be in agreement with you Wildweasel to a point. I happened to be in the holy lands around the time of the lower Ormeau road residents and the Ballynafeigh lodge exercising their right to march passed the area to the main orange 'demonstration' on the 12th.

The RUC parked two landrovers back to back at the top of each of the streets of the lower ormeau from about 7AM and these stayed in place until some time after 9.30 to allow the Ballynafeigh lodge to walk passed. No one was allowed to get out of the lower Ormeau even to walk to the shops until all this transpired.
No wonder the residents there found it hard to stomach.

[orangeman]

The driver of thon jeep will be very lucky to keep his job & drivers licence IMO.

You cannot just ram a fella who poses no threat to you.

I'd say he could get a promotion.


Kelly was lucky he only got a wee spin on the bonnet.

Down the years, there were plenty of lads and ladies who weren't as fortunate even though they posed little or no threat whatsoever.

[Applesisapples]

Fair play to Alban Magennis, he called it as it was. Gerry Kelly was with others trying to keep the situation calm. I've no doubt the Police Officer thought he was doing the correct thing but it could have been so much worse. I couldn't see SF support for policing surviving the serious injury or death of an MLA or indeed a resident. That said the OO and their followers just can't help themselves. Whilst I see know evidence of the FTP or spitting allegations, the way they play hymns is clearly designed to annoy. The beating of the drums and general playing turn so called religious songs into something entirely different. What is clear not just from Unionist reaction to this but in general over the last number of years is that to them a shared future can only be on loyalist terms. They consider the Croppies defeated and have no idea what real equality or parity of esteem means. That said what was the wee boys ma doing out in her PJ's perhaps if she had been out of bed earlier he wouldn't have been arrested.

[orangeman]

Fair play to Alban Magennis, he called it as it was. Gerry Kelly was with others trying to keep the situation calm. I've no doubt the Police Officer thought he was doing the correct thing but it could have been so much worse. I couldn't see SF support for policing surviving the serious injury or death of an MLA or indeed a resident. That said the OO and their followers just can't help themselves. Whilst I see know evidence of the FTP or spitting allegations, the way they play hymns is clearly designed to annoy. The beating of the drums and general playing turn so called religious songs into something entirely different. What is clear not just from Unionist reaction to this but in general over the last number of years is that to them a shared future can only be on loyalist terms. They consider the Croppies defeated and have no idea what real equality or parity of esteem means. That said what was the wee boys ma doing out in her PJ's perhaps if she had been out of bed earlier he wouldn't have been arrested.

Sinn Fein's support for policing is well founded now. It's here to stay.

[Applesisapples]

Not if they lose the support of their voters.

[orangeman]

Not if they lose the support of their voters.

That's never going to happen no matter what might have happened Kelly on Friday night.

SF have a form grip on their very loyal electorate hepled by the fact that the SDLP are in trouble.

[T Fearon]

Police now investigating Gerry for obstruction.

I think he was merely practicing for the mother of all showdowns with the PSNI Water Cannon.

[JUst retired]

 Sinn Fein should pull out of the Stormount deal. Then the Irish and British governments would have to run the mad house. The prospect then would be no more marches for anyone. That would be some craic.

[Rossfan]

Sinn Fein should pull out of the Stormount deal. .
[/quote

That ain't gonna happen anytime soon 
Without a private army what exactly would be the point of SF then?

[Evil Genius]

Well, well, how much further down is there for the Mighty to fall?

Thirty years ago, Republicans would have been using bombs and bullets to protect themselves from Police oppression.

Even 15 years ago (i.e. post-Ceasefire), it would have been bricks and barricades.

Yet now the best they can do is to send Gerry Kelly along to make a complete dick of himself on the bonnet of a police landrover, as he attempts to "spring" some wee spide who got lifted, and who was already half way to the Station in another landrover.

This from a man who assured us all that when the GFA was implemented and he got appointed to the Police Board etc, SF would then be in a position to put an end to political policing and oppression of Republicans etc.

Yet where is he now? When SF support the police, he/they are "sellouts", But when they stand up to them, they are compromising their commitment to the new system of Law and Order which they had negotiated.

And worst of all, poor Gerry appears to consider himself in greater danger on the front of a landrover driven by the PSNI, than he would have been in the back of one, in the days when the RUC were after him.

Still, I'm sure he can console himself with the fact that SF's ability to pull the wool over the eyes of the sheep who vote for them appears undiminished.

Baaa.

P.S. Any truth in the rumour that the PSNI have presented Carul Nee Gollum with a bill from the garage for the damage she caused when she got her teeth tangled in the grill on the front of another landrover?