Bobby Storey funeral: Police accused of ‘double standards’ by unionists as row over Simon Byrne interview deepens

DUP MP Carla Lockhart said the speed at which police action was taken towards members of Tandragee Baptist Church, compared to the mass gathering of republicans at the Storey funeral in Belfast on June 30, has left people “shocked at the double standards”.

Mrs Lockhart was commenting after Chief Constable Simon Byrne told the BBC he feared “widespread violence and disorder” would have followed any attempt to disperse large crowds that had gathered in the west of the city.

“When anyone considers the approach the PSNI is taking to the alleged Covid-19 breaches at Tandragee Baptist Church or Helen’s Bay or Belfast City Hall in comparison to the Bobby Storey funeral, they will be shocked at the double standards,” she said.

“The chief constable has openly admitted that the threat of public violence and disorder dictated the policing response to the Storey funeral. It is humiliating that the enforcers of law and order in Northern Ireland should bow to such a threat. It simply emboldens the arrogant attitude of those who organised the Storey funeral. Violence or no violence, no one acts outside the law or else we would have a society of anarchy.”

Mrs Lockhart added: “Against such a background, those gathering for private prayer at Tandragee Baptist Church were subjected to a police visit and a speedy investigation into alleged breaches.

The law is the law. Everyone must be equally subject to the law but it would seem that not everyone is equal under the law in Northern Ireland. Those who carry with them the threat of violence get seven months to think about their actions whilst everyone else is marched to the nearest police station without discussion.

“Our Policing Board members have been holding the chief constable and his team to account for this. The chief constable would do well to listen to the concerns being raised by our team because confidence in the police is fast becoming the most critical casualty of all of this.

“Many are now watching with interest to see the outcomes of these investigations. If it is the case that only easy targets are subjected to PSNI action, then the police leadership will have seriously damaged their credibility in the eyes of law-abiding people.”

TUV councillor Stephen Cooper said the BBC interview “has only added to the number of significant questions” for the PSNI.

“The public demand and deserve answers from Simon Byrne about any discussions which took place between his officers and Sinn Fein/IRA in advance of what amounted to a display of Provo power on the streets of our capital city in the middle of a pandemic.

“If charges are finally brought on this matter will we find Sinn Fein members citing a deal with the police as an explanation for why they thought they could act as they did?

“What does it say about Northern Ireland that government ministers can travel to an event at which the law is broken in ministerial cars? What are we to make of how Northern Ireland is being governed when the chief constable excuses his officers from enforcing the law there because they feared mass public disorder?

“How can anyone have confidence in the PSNI process when, six months after the funeral, they still have to interview people who broke the law in full view of the TV cameras?

“How can the PSNI tell the press that they are preparing a file for the PSNI about an alleged breach of Covid regulations at a church within hours and yet they are still on a go-slow when it comes to Bobby Storey?

Cllr Cooper, who represents the Comber area of Co Down, added: “My thoughts today are with the many innocent people who, in deference to the public good and because of respect for the rule of law which the PSNI should be upholding, did not give their loved ones the send-off they would have liked. I think of the families who were denied that shoulder to cry on which would should have been there. And when I think about that I, like every decent citizen in Northern Ireland, am outraged.”

Cllr Cooper went on to say: “A fundamental in any society is that all should be equal under the law and equally subject to the law. Yet even when it comes to funerals it seems that special rules apply to republicans. In life and in death it would appear that the powers that be apply different standards to Sinn Fein/IRA than they do to anyone else.”

However, Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly has rejected the chief constable’s suggestion that any PSNI intervention at the funeral of Bobby Storey could have led to violence.

The party’s policing spokesperson said: “The suggestion from the PSNI chief constable that any police intervention at the funeral of Bobby Storey would have led to violence is ludicrous.

“People attended the funeral to pay their respects to a much-loved friend and colleague to support his grieving family at that difficult time. They did so with respect and dignity.

“This suggestion from the chief constable adds to the hurt of the grieving Storey family.”