Met chief 'must apologise' over paramiltary police remark

The North's rank-and-file police today lambasted Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Ian Blair over claims he referred to RUC members in the North as members of a paramilitary force.

The Police Federation of Northern Ireland demanded an apology after he dubbed the RUC an “almost completely paramilitary organisation”.

The senior officer said he was being misinterpreted and didn’t intend to offend anybody within the RUC, but the Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists have reacted with fury.

Federation chairman Terry Spence said: “Sir Ian would hardly appreciate his own officers being described as a paramilitary force and he should therefore apologise to the Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde immediately.”

He added that police were armed for their personal protection.

Sir Ian, 53, was speaking after attending an international conference on the future of policing in Belfast.

He told Ulster Television: “I pay tribute to all the people who contributed, from so many walks of life as well as the police themselves, in making the change from what – as you say – was a paramilitary or almost completely paramilitary organisation into what I think now is an emblem of hope, as Patten wanted it to be – one of the great police forces.”

Mr Spence, who represents 9,500 members, said it was ironic that as London faced a growing threat from terrorism, the sight of heavily armed Met officers was now commonplace.

DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson labelled the comments offensive and said they had caused great hurt.

Sir Ian, a married father-of-two, has been Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police since February 2005, five months before two bombings and attempted bombings of London in July.

A spokesman for the senior officer said the DUP’s assertion was false.

He added the commissioner was responding to a phrase used by the interviewer and not drawing a comparison between the RUC and a terrorist organisation.

“Sir Ian went out of his way to pay tribute to all of the police officers in Northern Ireland who have worked to move from the militaristic style of policing they were forced to adopt in the face of the significant security threat, to one of policing in partnership with the community,” he said.

“The Commissioner was using the term paramilitary in its literal sense meaning ’on military lines’. He, and we understand the interviewer, was in no way drawing a comparison between the RUC and a terrorist organisation.

“Deputy Chief Constable of PSNI Paul Leighton, himself a former RUC officer, said today he is ’grateful for Sir Ian’s support, not only to the Police Conference this week, but his support to officers throughout the organisation over very many years,’ a view echoed by Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde.”

Alliance Party leader David Ford insisted unionists had over-reacted.

“The unionist parties should have had a look at a dictionary before they started throwing around wild accusations,” he said.

“This episode illustrates how pathetic they are, because they don’t understand the English language and they don’t understand the serious nature of the welcome recent changes in policing.

“It’s time they grew up and started discussing substantive issues instead of knee-jerking because they don’t understand plain English.”

Ulster Unionist Assembly candidate Michael Copeland said it was an outrageous and deeply insulting assertion.

“The RUC, of which my wife was proud to be a member, held the line against paramilitaries and along with the (British) army, helped secure – at great personal sacrifice – the relative peace that many take for granted today,” he said.