Conference tallis::celt

>Policing the police

perhaps the IRA would be kind enough to volunteer, they must be bored
just sitting around twiddling their thumbs these days...  :)

Chris.

    re <<< Note 1449.1 by WELSWS::HEDLEY "Lager Lout" >>>
    
>perhaps the IRA would be kind enough to volunteer, they must be bored
>just sitting around twiddling their thumbs these days...  :)

    I know you meant it as a joke but you may be right. The IRA became
    stronger over the years thanks to the terror tatics of the RUC and the
    army. When the so-called police raid your home, smash it up, terrorise
    your family and threaten to pass your name on to loyalist death squads
    what can you do? Who can you turn to?  There is no one to turn to so
    you have to help yourself. If that means organising into a
    military-type organisation then so be it.
    
    So, come on, Chris "Lager Lout" Hedley, tell us what you'd do if you
    lived in NI and the police terrorised you.
    
    Tony
    

Give me a vaguely realistic situation and perhaps I'll give an answer,
but I won't be drawn into discussion on such an absurd exaggeration.

Chris.

>but I won't be drawn into discussion on such an absurd exaggeration.
    
    What's so absurd about what I outlined? It happens *every day* to
    nationalist families living in Northern Ireland.

what, you mean Police will break into a person's house with no motive other
than that person's political persusion, smash the place up, assault them etc
etc on a daily basis?  Perhaps the people I know who are from NI must be living
in a very sheltered part of the area, as they haven't witnessed these regular
occurences.

Chris.

  re. .5

 Perhaps you need to make some friends in the Nationalist community.

                         Mark

                         AN PHOBLACHT/REPUBLICAN NEWS
                                 Jan. 12, 1995

                              __________________

                         Home wrecked by RUC raiders

 IN A PROVOCATIVE ATTACK on a Caolisland family, the RUC and British army
wrecked their home and terrorised three young children. The raid was the
climax of a week of harassment by the crown forces and culminated in over
100 British army/RUC personnel besieging the O'Donnell bungalow off the
Stewartstown Road at around 8.30pm on Sunday, 8 January.

 Neighbours confirmed the heavy crown forces' presence saying that
up to 17 RUC cars were in the driveway of the house at the height
of the raid.

 Fifty-seven-year-old Hugh O'Donnell was in the house at the time
of the attack with his wife, daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren.
O'Donnell, who refused to open the door, said:
''The came up the driveway and knocked at the back door but I would not let
them  in because they would not identify themselves, produce a search
warrant or say under what legislation they were raiding my house.

 ''When I refused to open the door they threatened to fire plastic
bullets through the window. They then began to sledgehammer the
backdoor.''

 Up to 30 crown forces members eventually forced their way in and
ransacked the house, emptying everything out of wardrobes, drawers and
shelves.

 ''They turned the place over and were extremely abusive and even
threatened to handcuff my daughter when she tried to use the bathroom.
There were two or three senior RUC men in the raiding squad but they
seemed to have little or no control over their men many of whom seemed
to be drunk and out of control.''

 During the raid the man's three grandchildren, aged seven, eight
and ten became hysterical.

 According to Hugh their parents tried to calm them down but to no avail.
They phoned an ambulance and doctor but the RUC refused to allow the
ambulance to leave the hospital while the doctor was refused entry to the
house when he arrived.

 When challenged about the destruction they were causing, the RUC became
even more abusive and said, ''we have to do something as we have no
overtime now''.

 So much damage was caused to the house that the Northern Ireland Office
civil representative who arrived at the house to estimate the cost was
unable to do so leaving the family to wait until someone suitably
qualified surveys the damage.

 During the raid, the RUC confiscated a legally-held shotgun and permit
belonging to the man's son-in-law. The O'Donnell family say this was an
attempt by the RUC to justify the raid.

 ''The shotgun and permit were together so the RUC knew it was a
legally-held gun '', confirmed O'Donnell.

 Hugh's own shotgun was seized by the RUC several months previously after
the RUC accused him of assaulting an officer.

 Hugh told AP/RN he believe that the crown forces could be setting him
and members of his family up for assassination by loyalists. He pointed to
the fact that crown forces files with his address was found in the
possession of a loyalist 18  months ago; that the raiding party
deliberately destroyed locks on exterior doors, making them unusable and
the fact that British soldiers took photos of the house during the raid.

 ''There is supposed to be a ceasefire on but you wouldn't have thought it
going by the actions of the RUC. They are deliberately trying to break the
truce and have been trying to provoke trouble not only here but in and
around the town for weeks.''

 The family have now made an official complaint through their solicitor
to the RUC.

 Sinn Fein councillor for the area Brendan Doris accused the crown forces
of 'heavy handed and bully boy tactics'' and he called for ''the
immediate withdrawal of the RUC from the Coalisland area''.

    re � up to 17 RUC cars were in the driveway
    
    Must have been a bloody big driveway.
    
    Say an average car is 11 feet long;
    
    17 * 11 = 187 feet long drive way, hmmm
    
    May be they parked two abreast. 
    
    187 / 2 = 93.5,   Still not happy about this. Lets go for 4 abreast;
    
    187/ 4  = 46.75, Getting closer but still a damn big driveway. Just
    think of the size of the house.
    
    How about 4 abreast and one on top of each other;
    
    This gives a length of 23.375 feet, how wide is it?
    
    I give up, that report really must be a load of old rubbish.
    
    
    Simon

>    Say an average car is 11 feet long;
>    
>    17 * 11 = 187 feet long drive way, hmmm
>    ...
>    I give up, that report really must be a load of old rubbish.
    
What seems to be the problem with this Simon?
We not talking about Reading suburbia now. In
country districts here I've been to little farmhouses 
where the drive has stretched over two miles. Whilst 
Mr. O Donnell's drive need not  have been that 
long, I don't find it surprising that it could 
fit 17 cars.

Reports backing up Mr. Holohan's story appeared
here in the Belfast Telegraph, the Irish Times 
and the Irish News.

    RE: .8
    
    MR. French, if you are judging the validity of this story purely on your 
    assumption that you cannot fit 17 cars in a driveway, then I think it is 
    you who is talking a 'load of old rubbish'.
    
	Gerry

RE               <<< Note 1449.5 by WELSWS::HEDLEY "Lager Lout" >>>

>what, you mean Police will break into a person's house with no motive other
>than that person's political persusion, smash the place up, assault them etc
>etc on a daily basis?  
    
    YES, that's *exactly* what I mean.