Police under pressure in North
Representatives of a largely republican community in the North today challenged police to offer them greater protection from crime.
Residents in Crossmaglen, south Armagh are seeking face to face talks with senior officers to discover how they plan to halt crime in their area.
Sinn Fein MP Conor Murphy said: “The community, having been confronted with serious incidents of anti-social violence and criminality, firmly believe that the response to tackling what is happening by the PSNI, has, at best, been totally inadequate.”
The call comes on foot of news of attacks targeting members of the PSNI as they carried out raids on homes in a loyalist estate in Co Down last night.
It is believed they were looking for drugs.
A mob of about 100 people pelted police lines with petrol bombs, fireworks, stones and other missiles.
At least one car was also set alight and 10 police vehicles were damaged.
There were no injuries reported and no arrests were made.
Meanwhile Conor Murphy told a meeting at Crossmaglen: “Sinn Fein’s focus in all of our engagements with the PSNI - indeed with all of the policing structures – will be to ensure that it carries out its duties and responsibilities in a fair and impartial way, as an effective civic police service, which is democratically accountable to the public.”
