August 22 1974
Sir – Mr [Merlyn] Rees thunders out: “The only police service in N Ireland is the RUC. It will remain so.” And furthermore, he adds that there will be no third force.
How uncommonly civil of Mr Rees! Could it possibly be that he is attempting to boost the now all-time low morale of the RUC while at the same time, using his condemnation of the proposed reincarnated B-Specials purely as a lever to force the Catholic population into accepting the RUC – it being the possible lesser of two evils?
No, Mr Rees, the minority will never again accept nor give aid to the RUC or, for that matter, any force under its command for the following reasons.
The RUC were seen by the minority not to take action against thousands of loyalist UWC law-breakers during the recent strike. (Even the Alliance Party wanted to know the reasons why.)
RUC officers perverted the course of justice (shades of Watergate) by their conspiracy of silence regarding the death of Sam Devenny in Derry. But what shocks and disgusts the minority even more is the fact that some have since been promoted.
The RUC is not, as Mr Rees says, a police service – it is and is seen to be a repressive paramilitary force.
The untimely removal of the reforming Chief Constable Sir Arthur Young.
The inhuman and degrading methods of the RUC Special Branch, whose brutal behaviour, especially at Hollywood Barracks, has since been declared illegal by Lord Gardiner.
The incorporation into the RUC of 547 ex-B-Specials whose fanatical hatred of Catholics is notorious.
The information supplied by the RUC to the Department of Public Prosecutions has now been proven beyond all doubt to be biased against Catholics.
The Police Authority – The refusal or inability of this body to act in the interests of justice.
Since 1968, not a single RUC man has been convicted (despite Lord Gardiner and Sir Arthur Young) of ill-treating, molesting, assaulting or torturing any political prisoner.
The Catholic community accepts the RUC in much the same way as it accepts a cancerous growth – it is an evil inflicted on them, over which they have little or no control, but which must be rooted out.
