Republican rejects stop and search figures
A hardline republican from Derry has dismissed claims made by the city's top police officer about the number of times people have been stopped and searched by the PSNI.
Martin O’Neill, a member of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, has rejected Foyle area commander Chris Yates’ claim that “one or two” individuals had been stopped “between 6-8 times over a three month period.”
The area commander’s information was provided in an answer to a written question to a recent District Policing Partnership meeting.
Mr O’Neill says he personally has been stopped 24 times in the last three months. He says he knows other republicans who are in a similar position.
He showed the ‘Journal’ documents given to him by the PSNI each time he has been searched.
Mr O’Neill said he was surprised when he read chief inspector Yates’ comments.
“Either Chris Yates has got it wrong or he does not know what his officers are doing. I have been stopped 24 times in just over two and a half months. Most of the times I was stopped when I was working as a taxi driver, sometimes when I had a fare in the car, and I was not arrested once and the police never found anything,” he said.
He also challenged members of Derry’s DPP to explain the apparent discrepancy in Chris Yates’ claims.
“Is this the accountability that Sinn Fin and their community worker proxies tell us about? The DPP say they can deliver accountability but where is the accountability in figures that are not accurate,” he asked.
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Monday 20 May 2013
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