The PSNI chief constable Simon Bryne has appeased republicans one time too many, and must go

Earlier this year, before Easter, the three unionist party leaders called for the chief constable Simon Byrne to resign over the Bobby Storey funeral.

The trio of leaders also criticised the PSNI’s general culture of appeasement of republicans.

This newspaper had been at the forefront of the coverage of the special treatment given to IRA supporters over the mass social distancing breach at last year’s event to commemorate one of the terror gang’s leaders. But we nonetheless cautioned against pinning too much blame on Mr Bryne for the saga. After all, Belfast City Council’s handling of the funeral, closing Roselawn for a criminal, was disgraceful. A later report into the council’s handling of it was disappointing, to put it mildly. Prosecutors came out of the affair no better.

It was in all, a shameful episode. At least the public, which had obeyed lockdown, knew the funeral and the failure of the authorities to hold anybody to account for it was shameful.

But after yesterday’s latest appeasement of republicans, it is clear that Simon Byrne must indeed quit.

First of all he created the furore over Crossmaglen by posing in a picture, tweeted out, with heavily armed officers. While Mr Byrne did point out during the initial row that the men were so armed due to the terror threat, he was from the outset far too apologetic.

PSNI officers won’t be so heavily armed soon, as a result of the South Armagh policing review, launched to appease the nationalist uproar over the picture and unveiled yesterday.

The PSNI under Mr Byrne will close Crossmaglen police station, plans to up its use of the Irish language in the area, move (ie downgrade) memorials to murdered RUC and, as Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says (in an excellent riposte to the proposals, published opposite), has approved a report that has all-island policing as its end goal.

This year Mr Bryne met one of the people convicted of the 1988 IRA corporal murders shortly before the anniversary of the barbarous attack. He is the latest weak man around republicans, and is now a completely discredited leader of the PSNI.

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