The RUC Chief Constable has vigorously defended the firing of plastic bullets following a call from the North's Human Rights Commission for the force to curb the practice.
Prof Brice Dickson, chief commissioner of the human rights body set up under the Belfast Agreement, yesterday recommended that the RUC no longer use plastic bullets to control crowds.
He noted that disturbances in England had not led to their use. "In crowd control situations in Northern Ireland the police should not resort to them any more than the police in England appear to do," he said.
Prof Dickson acknowledged the attacks sustained by the RUC from both communities over the past week but stressed that the use of the plastic bullets "simply made matters worse".
Sir Ronnie Flanagan rounded on Prof Dickson for illustrating a "very alarming lack of rigour" in his statement. "We direct baton rounds at individuals who are identified as behaving in a way that brings about a risk to life. We would never use them for crowd control," he said.
If the " baton rounds" had not been used during the riots in north Belfast, life would have been lost. The Patten report had not recommended the abolition of plastic bullets because lethal force was still used against his members.
"At the moment there is rigorous research going on to find an alternative. We are absolutely committed to that. But it would be much more helpful if all people of influence exercised that influence to see that circumstances are not brought about where these dreadful things have to be used," Sir Ronnie added.
Mr Alex Attwood, of the SDLP, criticised the Chief Constable's response as "hysterical, ill-judged and ill-timed". He said Sir Ronnie should reassess his attitude to human rights and the commission.
"How serious can the Chief Constable be about human rights if he dismisses the views of the Human Rights Commission?" Mr Attwood asked.
A Sinn Fein Assembly member, Mr Alex Maskey, said that the RUC used plastic bullets almost entirely against the nationalist community, and his party would continue to press for a ban.
"Anybody with a concern for human rights will support the immediate banning of plastic bullets, and in this regard today's statement from the commission is both important and significant," he said.
Mr Pat Armstrong, chairman of the Police Authority, described Prof Dickson's comparison of handling disturbances in the North and England as bordering on the ludicrous.
"The authority finds it hard to believe that anyone, having watched what the RUC have endured over the past few weeks, could so crassly put out a statement calling on them not to use a piece of equipment without which lives would doubtless have been lost during those riots," he said.
An Ulster Unionist Assembly member, Mr Peter Weir, claimed that the commission was not living in reality. "What would Mr Dickson and others have the police do in a riot situation? Go over to the rioters and read them chunks of the European Convention on Human Rights?" he said.
Meanwhile, Ms Clara Reilly, a campaigner for the banning of plastic bullets, said the commission was moving in the right direction but she was dis appointed it had not advocated a ban.
Ms Reilly said recent events were grim reminders of past fatalities, and it was sheer luck no one had been killed.