Opinion

ANALYSIS: Noticeable difference in bonfire policing from previous years

Large numbers of police move into Cluan Place in east Belfast to remove a loyalist bonfire.
Large numbers of police move into Cluan Place in east Belfast to remove a loyalist bonfire. Large numbers of police move into Cluan Place in east Belfast to remove a loyalist bonfire.

CAST your mind back to the loyalist flag protests of 2012 and the policing of those disturbances which brought parts of Northern Ireland to a standstill.

Then Chief Constable Matt Baggott adopted a 'best case scenario' approach, allowing protesters to block roads rather than challenge them and have to deal with potential violence.

That turned out to be the worst case scenario for people and business impacted by protracted protests.

In 2017 a Belfast resident won an appeal to the Supreme Court that ruled the PSNI was wrong to facilitate the flag protests.

A change at in the top rank of the PSNI, as well as a changed political landscape, and the policing operation in east Belfast this week could not have been more different.

More than 200 riot police closed off parts of Newtownards Road on Wednesday to allow contractors, drafted in from outside, to remove a bonfire at Cluan Place. The scenes were unprecedented.

Earlier police had moved in to start clearing a controversial fire at Bloomfield Walkway that was set on fire by fleeing loyalists.

On the Eleventh night, Assistant Chief Constable Alan Todd released a statement saying police had information that the East Belfast UVF intended "to orchestrate and participate in serious disorder".

Such statements deliberately singling out a paramilitary group are rare, where ambiguity is often used to dance around important security issues for fear of offending a section of the community.

Police were also quick to point out the large number of officers deployed to tackle ongoing sectarian violence in Derry, targeted at the small Protestant Fountain estate, following accusations of unfair policing measures.

Dissident republicans were also singled out as having been responsible for orchestrating much of the violence.

There has been anger directed at police from those who feel they are being singled out for a heavy handed approach on both sides.

However, the vast majority of citizens will no doubt welcome this much more direct form of policing problem bonfires and street disorder.

The carrot in the form of funding without sanction and soft policing has not been able to effectively tackle the handful of remaining trouble hotspots.

Instead the response from government authorities and PSNI has this year been to use the stick. Only time will tell whether this new approach will act as a more effective deterrent for those who continue to cause annual problems.