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DUP criticised in past

WHILE Peter Robinson has bitterly criticised Martin McGuinness's comments on his support for the PSNI the DUP has itself has come for criticism for its response to past police operations.

Previously the DUP leader criticised police alleging bias against loyalists involved in offences linked to the flag protests while the party accused the PSNI of a "sensationalist" arrest of councillor Ruth Patterson.

In March 2013, Mr Robinson said many people believed the PSNI were not being impartial in relation to loyalist protests linked to the Union flag controversy at Belfast city hall.

His comments prompted Chief Constable Matt Baggott to publicly hit back at Mr Robinson.

Mr Baggott said that the "incredibly volatile situation" had been "made all the more difficult by the absence of political consensus".

The then SDLP policing spokesman Conall McDevitt also urged the First Minister "to step back from any attempt to interfere with the professional independence of the PSNI".

In August 2012, the First Minister signed a letter with other unionist politicians describing former Secretary of State Owen Paterson as a "Pontius Pilate" and calling on him to disband the Parades Commission.

The open letter warned of possible violence in the area around St Patrick's church on Donegall Street, central Belfast, after a loyalist band was banned from passing the building during that year's 'Last Saturday' parade.

The DUP also came under pressure to clarify its stance on law and order after firebrand Belfast councillor Ruth Patterson called for the Chief Constable's resignation and branded him "a disgrace" over the policing of Union flag protests. "The political policing and persecution of our Protestant people must stop. They beat our woman and our children off the streets," the Belfast councillor told a crowd of loyalists at an event in May last year. "He needs to go," she added, referring to the PSNI chief. "He's a disgrace and some of our police officers are nothing short of a disgrace as well," she said.

When Ms Patterson was arrested about comments she made on the social media website about a republican parade in Co Tyrone the party also criticised police describing the PSNI tactics as "sensationalist". Ms Patterson's party colleagues, executive minister Nelson McCausland and MLA William Humphrey was criticised after they shared a platform with senior Orangeman William Mawhinney who called on loyalists to escalate protests in north Belfast by engaging in "civil disobedience" last year.

As west Belfast district master Mawhinney was involved in organising the September 2005 Whiterock parade that ended in riots and sparked days of street violence.