PSNI could have kept John Boreland safe by locking him up
Festering loyalist feud and the criminality behind it have been as public as a parade
“On the day of his death, John Boreland’s own name was in print. He was almost certainly aware of this.” Photograph: AFP/PSNI
The PSNI’s slogan is “keeping people safe”. This is variously described in official documents as its purpose, strategy and vision. It is also its hashtag. Last week, an annual appraisal from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary found the PSNI “does not have a crime-prevention strategy” and is “not consistently good” at protecting victims of crime. However, the force was still judged to be “using its resources well to keep people safe”.
A policing operation in Belfast last Sunday might be said to show these contradictions at work. Officers stopped a dissident republican protest entering the city centre in breach of a Parades Commission ruling, successful avoiding the violence that had been widely feared.