Northern Ireland’s first minister has defended her call for the police chief to resign after a decision not to prosecute Sinn Féin politicians who attended a large funeral last year despite Covid-19 restrictions.
Arlene Foster also deflected criticism for not meeting Chief Constable Simon Byrne just weeks after she met representatives of loyalist paramilitaries a few weeks ago.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland recommended prosecutions against Michelle O’Neill, the deputy first minister, and 23 others for alleged breaches of the regulations last year at the funeral of Bobby Storey, a republican, but the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) announced last week it would not pursue prosecutions.
The PPS pointed to police engagement with the funeral planners as one reason why any prosecution was likely to fail, as well as the repeatedly changing and inconsistent nature of Stormont’s coronavirus regulations. The UK policing watchdog is to conduct a review of the PSNI’s handling of the policing of the funeral.
Foster blamed police commanders, accusing them of “facilitating” the funeral. She also claimed that the PPS report was “devastating”.
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Naomi Long, the justice minister, told RTÉ that it was “preposterous” that Foster “refuses” to meet Byrne just weeks after she met the Loyalist Communities Council. Foster dismissed the criticism as comparing two different things, and insisted that the loyalist community must be heard.
The decision not to prosecute caused anger across the political divide in the region. It caused particular disquiet among loyalists who have complained of “two-tier policing” and have taken to the streets to protest in recent nights. However, violent scenes over recent nights have also been blamed on Brexit and a local response in the southeast Antrim area by what police term “criminal elements” against recent drug raids.
Concern has been expressed that the disorder, in which 41 police officers have been injured, will continue. Further protests are planned.
Byrne is expected to brief the Policing Board in a private session on the disorder.
Foster insisted that she supported police officers but said that she must “call out failure”.
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“Police have my full support ... there is no difficulty in supporting police, we support the rule of law,” she told the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme. “It’s actually because we support the rule of law that we are so perplexed by the decision of the PPS not to prosecute those who very clearly broke the law at the Bobby Storey funeral.”
Foster said she believed that the leadership of the PSNI had “compromised itself to a point where it needs to change”.
“I support all of those police officers who are having to deal with an outrageous couple of nights of violence and I stand foursquare with them but as a political leader and as a public representative I don’t just have a right to talk about these issues, I have a duty to call out things when they are not correct,” she said.
“As the leader of unionism it is my duty to call out failure when failure is very obvious.”
Mark Lindsay, chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, voiced concern about the “lack of confidence that political leaders have in the chief constable”.
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“The proper mechanism for that is the Policing Board, of which all political parties are represented,” he said. “So they hired him two years ago and it’s up to them then to make the decision around that. Certainly our members are very disturbed around the political use of commentary that says the chief constable should resign.”
Foster said she had spoken to police officers who feel “let down by the leadership of the PSNI”.
“I’m not speaking to the chief constable because first of all he hasn’t asked to speak to me. I haven’t asked to speak to him and the reason for that is if I meet the chief constable I will simply repeat what I said to him last Tuesday after the devastating report from the PPS for him when I said that he had lost the confidence of the unionist community and he should resign,” she said.
Foster also pledged to continue listening to loyalists.
“I will always speak with people to try and bring them along and change them in a constitutional way and I will continue to engage with loyalist communities,” she said. “There is a huge need to engage with loyalist and unionist communities and I will not be stepping away from that as the leader of unionism,” she said.
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The Northern Ireland Assembly is set to be recalled from recess on Thursday to discuss the recent disorder.
