PSNI DIDN’T NEED A PASTOR – IT NEEDED A SMITER

Posted By: June 30, 2014

TOM KELLY. Irish News (Belfast). Monday, June 30, 2014
SO MATT Baggott has gone. The chief constable who came to Northern Ireland on a wing
and a prayer has, like Frasier, left the building. Personally, I won't miss him. He
always seemed like a fish out of water, albeit a very nice fish. His departure was
accompanied by all the usual meaningless platitudes from the political parties - and
sure why not? Wasn't it themselves who unanimously appointed him?

The chief constable's job was never going to be an easy one and in Northern Ireland.
It is a near impossible one. Baggott came here with a good reputation and was
reported as having narrowly lost out on the top job at West Midlands. The PSNI job
is one of the highest-paid posts in policing and it is also one of the most
high-profile. That second part of the Northern Ireland job meant that Baggott was
ill-matched from the start.

He never came across as a forceful communicator and when it comes to winning hearts
and minds perception is half the battle. Our near shores were too green and too
alluring for Mr Baggott to ignore and so he crossed the sea. His family probably
crossed their fingers too.

Baggott came to the PSNI job with the naive optimism and enthusiasm of a new sports
master. He also appeared to think that the war against terror was over. And that was
a fatal mistake. The man who came promising "community policing" soon found that
there were still no-go areas for the PSNI. He seemed to spend several years in
denial over the true extent of the dissident threat to the point that PSNI press
statements on the matter appeared to have about as much credibility as the continued
denials of IRA membership by Gerry Adams.

To the chief constable's credit, he persevered with his community policing strategy
and in many areas like Newry and west Belfast, the PSNI got cooperation from local
communities that his predecessors could only dream about. To that end Baggott bagged
a big success. Yet for all of that, he often failed to provide a sense of security
or confidence. He seemed to come across as a ditherer and appeared to exude all the
political surefootedness of a three-legged goat. When he talked about praying for
dissident terrorists, my heart and the hearts of thousands of others sank with
dismay. We wanted a chief constable who would prey on these parasites - not pray for
them.

God has his own cops. They are called bishops, clergymen, preachers and pastors.
Northern Ireland did not need a pastoral police chief in the face of dissidents; it
needed an enforcer. In biblical terms we needed a 'smiter'. When republicans rioted
and went rampant in north Belfast in 2012 the chief constable chose a policy of
containment rather than direct engagement with rioters, which resulted in 92 police
officers being injured. And this it seemed this was his preferred tactical approach
as was witnessed by his response to last year's loyalist flag protests that with
relative ease were able to take over whole public roads with grannies, teenagers and
paramilitary orchestration.

What was most irritating of all were the mixed messages from PSNI HQ during the
Baggott era on the role and extent of both the UDA and UVF in criminal and
paramilitary activity including prostitution, racketeering, intimidation, punishment
beatings, drugs and intra-community turf wars.

It was as though an NIO-inspired mist intended to protect the miscreants outside of
the peace process fell over Knock HQ rendering the inmates incapable of rational
thought or action. Baggott also seems to believe that the burden of the past is now
too great to carry but like others within the establishment he appears to forget the
past is all too present. Thousands of victims and their families deserve better than
to be swept under a carpet of political convenience.

He was right in one other respect - he should have had better support from local
politicians. While they supported him on big-ticket issues like the murder of police
officers they fell way short when it came to supporting operational policing within
their respective communities. In that sense, Baggott was always boxing with one hand
behind his back and was ultimately failed by those whose support he most needed.

Baggott had a tough job but whether he was up to it may depend on some future
Horatio looking at his record and telling his story to this harsh world.

* DUTY: Matt Baggott also seems to believe that the burden of the past is now too
great to carry but like others within the establishment he appears to forget the
past is all too present. Thousands of victims and their families deserve better than
to be swept under a carpet of political convenience