Taylor jailing and stop and search huge issues

Tony Taylor's incarceration and the use of stop and search powers have hiked support for groups opposed to the Good Friday settlement in the Bogside and Creggan.

That’s according to the newly-published ‘Building Capacity to Support Transition in Brandywell and Creggan’ report commissioned by The Executive Office two years ago in efforts to tackle paramilitarism.

“It is clear that the detention of senior republican figures coupled with the use and alleged abuse of stop and search powers are huge, burning issues in Derry, generating sympathy for traditional republican views and hostility towards the police,” is one of the report’s headline findings.

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Despite this the report observes how more anti-Belfast Agreement republicans are being persuaded political violence is not the way forward.

“Recent trends appear to support claims that republican socialist, dissenting and traditional republican constituencies have made considerable progress towards the endorsement of peaceful political strategies,” it states.

Yet it lists several factors “preventing larger sections of those constituencies moving in the same direction”.

“The detention of senior republicans such as Tony Taylor; the repeated concerns around the separated regime at Maghaberry Prison; the highly publicised activities of the Paramilitary Crime Task Force, including the remit given to the NCA; and the use and alleged abuse of stop and search powers against individuals deemed to be associated with paramilitary groups, including those who may be working to persuade and build the capacity of members of their constituencies to take positive transitionary steps.”

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