|
CAPITOL
HILL. TUESDAY MARCH 16, 2004 - "The Civil Rights
Act of 1964 (coupled with the Voting Rights Act of
1965) did for African-Americans, roughly, what the
Good Friday Agreement of 1998 did for Catholics in
Northern Ireland - created constitutional possibility
for equality... But Segregationists still ruled the
Deep South, and J Edgar Hoover still ruled the FBI
until 1972."
That
is how Father Sean Mc Manus, President of the Capitol
Hill-based Irish National Caucus, sees the state of
policing in Northern Ireland. His comments were made
while he attended a Congressional Hearing on policing
held by Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ).
Father
Mc Manus went on to explain: "Even with all his
goodwill there was still no way that Martin Luther
King could urge Blacks in 1964 - 1965 to trust the
police or tell them that the Civil Rights Act and
the Voting Rights Act meant the police-leopard had
changed its spots.
"Although
I respect Hugh Orde, in the same way I do Tony Blair
(for both have brought promising attitude-shifts to
Irish affairs, but both, too, have made have made
some bad individual judgements), the Special Branch
(the nearest NI equivalent to the FBI) has not changed
its spots; it still rules the roost, and it still
-with the different British Intelligence Agencies
- runs murderous agents who have colluded with Unionist/Protestant
paramilitaries in State- sponsored assassinations.
(Under the Police Act of 2000 the totally discredited
RUC Special Branch moved en bloc into the PSNI Special
Branch).
How
much in control of the Special Branch is Hugh Orde?
Has
Hugh Orde totally removed the ethos and the mind -set
that flourished under Chief Constable Ronnie Flanigan
and all his sectarian predecessors in the RUC?
Can
Chief Constable Orde look the Finucanes, the Hamills,
the Nelsons -- and the US Congress in the eye -- and
truthfully tell them that collusion, sectarianism
and anti-Catholic bigotry are no longer part of his
police Service, and that the Special Branch no longer
has a partisan political agenda?"
Index: Current Articles + Latest News and Views + Book Reviews +
Letters + Archives
|
