Editorial: Uniformed PSNI should police parades, not participate in them

​​The involvement of PSNI officers in the Pride parade in Belfast is, in one respect, understandable.

The police high command want to show that their officers are entirely free to live their lives according to their own sexual orientation. It is a mere 41 years since homosexuality was illegal in Northern Ireland. For decades after decriminalisation it was stigmatised and barely discussed.

Around the western world now, even including in religious states in the southern USA, people under the age of 50 think such stigma was appalling. But however understandable is the impulse of police leaders to allow uniformed participation in Pride, it is still wrong – and, indeed, obviously so.

Pride is an inherently political event. The organisers can take satisfaction from the fact that they have wide public support. But even so it cannot be right to allow officers to march in uniform in a Pride parade and not to stand in uniform at a religious protest against Pride.

This newspaper strongly supports the right of the loyal orders to march on the Queen's highway, yet it would be utterly inappropriate for uniformed officers to do so. Similarly it would be inappropriate in a republican parade. That such marches might attract strong local opposition is not the reason why uniformed participation is wrong – it would be wrong even if the opposition is mild. The wrongness is rooted in the fact that once you allow identifiable police participation in any march that advocates a disputed cause, then you have to allow it for all marches, whatever the cause. Unless, that is, you start to say this cause is OK for police but that one isn’t.

The police have a vital function and they need the widest possible support, and to do that they must be widely perceived to be impartial on politics. If PSNI leaders are belatedly coming to see that, then it is welcome.