What is stopping the PSNI moving against the east Belfast UVF?

Posted By: February 03, 2019

What is stopping the PSNI moving against the east Belfast UVF?   Newton Emerson. Irish News. Belfast. Saturday, February 2, 2019

THE brutal murder of east Belfast man Ian Ogle has been blamed by his family on the UVF, which had been intimidating them for 18 months after a confrontation with Ogle’s son. The east Belfast UVF says it will offer “no protection” to the killers – a revealing statement of general contempt for the law.

Such contempt is justified while loyalists enjoy official protection. The community in Lower Newtownards Road, where Ogle was slain, will recall the UVF’s attempted murder in 2013 of local woman Jemma McGrath. The PSNI never solved that crime and could barely be bothered going through the motions of pretending to.

A vigil for the Ogle family this Wednesday brought 2,000 people onto the streets – a huge number, ten times the size of rallies outside the city hall that attract far more media attention. Safety in numbers is required because nobody can count on the PSNI for protection when it cynically asks for help to put loyalists behind bars. Police know exactly who the east Belfast UVF are and have enough powers to act without exposing anyone else to intimidation. As that is clearly what the community wants them to do, what exactly is stopping them?