BAGGOTT LOST IT BY BOWING DOWN TO LOYALIST VIOLENCE

Posted By: January 25, 2014

Newt Emerson. Irish News ( Belfast). Friday, January 25, 2014.
Chief Constable Matt Baggott, who has announced he will be leaving in “months”, was
appointed by the Policing Board in 2009 on the basis of his “community policing”
philosophy. This was an honourable leap of faith towards a more normal society but
it is now clear we leapt too soon and Baggott must bear some responsibility for the
jump falling short. His pivotal misjudgement came in 2011 when the PSNI apologised
to “community representatives and others” for provoking UVF riots, sending a signal
of weakness from which all subsequent disaster flowed. The retreat before loyalists
concluded with the UVF being facilitated to take over the flag protests, despite
orchestrating riots, petrol-bombing a PSNI patrol car and shooting a young woman,
all while the chief constable expounded on the overriding “right to life”. Baggott
said he was hampered by resources and political division