Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey has accused the PSNI of participating in a witch hunt against a Catholic priest who witnessed the completion of IRA disarmament.
Fr Alec Reid
The Assembly member condemned the PSNI after it confirmed an investigation was taking place into comments Fr Alec Reid made at a public meeting in Belfast last Wednesday comparing unionist treatment of Catholics to the Nazis.
During angry exchanges with some audience members at the meeting in Fitzroy Presbyterian Church, Fr Reid, a Redemptorist priest who witnessed IRA decommissioning along with Methodist minister the Rev Harold Good, said: "The reality is that the nationalist community in Northern Ireland were treated almost like animals by the unionist community.
"They [Catholics] were not treated like human beings. It was like the Nazis' treatment of the Jews."
Issuing a apology after calming down, Fr Reid said he had been provoked and in the heat of the moment lost his temper.
Despite the apology, a complaint was lodged with the police by Willie Frazer of Families Acting for Innocent Relatives, which represents victims of IRA violence, through his solicitor, the DUP Assembly member Arlene Foster.
The PSNI confirmed yesterday officers in south Belfast had received the complaint and an investigation had been mounted.
"This move by the PSNI will cause widespread anger within broad nationalism and is further evidence of how out of touch the PSNI remain from our community," Mr Maskey said.
"It is not the job of the PSNI to try and provide succour to individuals who simply do not want to have the debate about the origins of the six county state [Northern Ireland] and the sectarian discrimination which underpinned its very existence.
"Whatever about the choice of language from Fr Reid, some sections of unionism are to a large degree in denial about the past and its role in the conflict over the past 30 years."
"Are the PSNI now also going to open investigations into the anti-Catholic statements articulated by unionist political leaders and the DUP in particular over the past 30 years, statements that were used by unionist paramilitaries as justification for killing innocent people over many years?" he said.
Mr Maskey said a line should have been drawn through Fr Reid's comments after he apologised for his choice of words.
However he said unionist politicians also needed to have a debate about the origins of Northern Ireland, the institutionalised discrimination that existed and the role of all of this in creating conflict.
"Otherwise unionist communities will continue to view the moves towards equality demanded by the Good Friday Agreement with suspicion and hostility," he said.