Editorial: PSNI officer’s attackers must be hunted down and brought to justice

The attack on a police officer on Wednesday night was despicable, not entirely surprising, and profoundly disappointing.

It was despicable in that it was a bid to murder someone who has put on a uniform to serve the community in a vital, often dangerous role.

It was not entirely surprising in that for 14 or so years there has been a persisting terror threat in which police officers are perhaps the top target. Also, there are armed gangs for whom police are the main barrier to ill-gotten riches.

And it was profoundly disappointing in that Northern Ireland is a far less dangerous society than it was 25 years ago, and vastly less so than it was half a century ago, at the height of the Troubles. The province is prosperous and modern and mostly normalised compared to the dark days of the not-so-distant past. There is no voter support for political proxies for either dissident or loyalist terror gangs.

Last night there was swift and overwhelming political repudiation of the attack, including an unequivocal statement from Sinn Fein, which was welcome.

We do not at time of going to press know the motives of the attack or the fate of the target, but the officer was believed to be alive as of late last night. Perhaps the attackers were gangsters? Whoever they are and whatever their motive, they must be hunted down and brought before the courts.

While sentences for murder or attempted murder of security force members have edged up in NI and been almost stiff in recent years, there are both deterrent and moral arguments for yet higher tariffs (the devious thug who murdered the prison officer Adrian Ismay, after befriending him in voluntary work, got only 22 years which is still not enough).​

We wish this wounded officer well. And we give thanks to the entirety of the PSNI for their difficult work.