The supposedly skeletal Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) this weekend chose to devote its scant resources to travelling to London, where they then proceeded to bundle peaceful pensioners into the back of police vans. Their crime? Opposing genocide by highlighting their support for proscribed pro-Palestine group Palestine Action.
The Six Counties cops bravely lent their services to London’s incorrigibly prejudiced Met Police, who hoovered up a further 500 people at the weekend for apparent possession of offensive cardboard. This potentially deadly packaging material was used to write dangerously anti-Semitic rhetoric like “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”. The actual offence for this heinous act is ‘support for a proscribed organisation’, which carries a potential 6 month prison sentence.
The protest went ahead despite howling from across the political spectrum about pro-Palestine demonstrations generally. It was swiftly followed on Sunday by home secretary Shabana Mahmood taking to the airwaves once again on the matter. She professed her fondness for the right to protest and free speech which, as usual with the Labour Party, was an indication that she was about to radically violate both those rights yet further. Police will now get enhanced powers to clamp down on repeat protests, as the government seek to cynically profit from the Manchester synagogue attacks by doing what they wanted to do anyway – restrict Palestine protest.
UUP’s Beattie happy for PSNI to support genocide on “their own time”
The PSNI apparently may have been there on “their own time”, according to Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) justice spokesperson Doug Beattie. Recreational support for genocide is apparently ok with the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) who is quoted in the Belfast Telegraph supporting the move. He said:
If there is a mutual aid gone out to the PSNI by the Metropolitan Police they will respond, but not having the details of those officers who were sent it’s hard to quantify it, especially when people say we don’t have enough officers, but those officers may have of their own time decided they would go and support.
He went on to say “had no issue at all” with his local cops disgracing themselves by effectively providing material support to Zionist mass murder in Palestine, by rounding up those fighting to stop it. One may also ask why officers would spend their time doing that, when surely their duty rests in assisting a “skeleton police service” at home.
PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has repeatedly complained that the force lacks resources. In February 2025 he said the force had been:
…reduced to historically low numbers, has insufficient neighbourhood officers to keep communities safe, insufficient detectives to investigate and manage dangerous offenders, and is generally not resourced to keep society safe.
The presence of bottle-green uniformed cops in London highlights that, despite policing being a devolved matter, it is fundamentally a British police force in Ireland that can be hauled off to do the bidding of genocidaires in the English capital at a moment’s notice.
People Before Profit (PBP) MLA Gerry Carroll emphasised the PSNI’s apparent lack of concern about vicious local armed gangs, with their eagerness to hound those in London seeking peace:
Loyalist paramilitaries – proscribed organisations – again threaten to violently attack public services b/c of the Irish language. Yet yesterday PSNI officers were all the way over in London arresting people protesting genocide. Btw, the Irish for priorities is tosaíochtaí…
Racists go free as PSNI crack down on English peaceniks
The threat of violent attack to public services is in reference to Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA) vows to burn council properties down if Irish language signage is present on them. You would think this might be a more pressing matter than bits of allegedly errant cardboard several hundred miles away, but the PSNI have form here. They have consistently ignored the presence of loyalist paramilitary flags, yet have been happy to throw a 73 year old woman in a cell for wearing an anti-genocide t-shirt. They have escorted actual paramilitaries along roads, but put peaceful protestors before the courts for placing thumb-sized stickers on Israeli products.
The North of Ireland police force have also failed to deal properly with a rise in racist hate crime that has seen riots proceed for days unmolested by PSNI involvement. Things got to the stage where the United Nations felt obliged to step in and warn them of their failure. Yet there they were in Trafalgar Square, hauling off 80 year old protestors to cries of “what are you doing?!” and “shame on you!”
The total now arrested for supporting Palestine Action is a staggering figure of at least 2094. As the extreme authoritarians in Starmer’s government further wreck basic freedoms, that number is set to skyrocket further. The PSNI could be redoubling efforts to patch up a failing police service in the Six Counties, but instead are performing double duty entrenching right-wing cruelties on both sides of the Irish Sea.
Featured image via Unsplash/Geoffrey Moffett
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