Policing of illegal dissident parade was not ‘marshmallow’, commander insists

A senior officer has rejected a claim that the PSNI’s handling of a dissident republican Easter parade amounted to “marshmallow policing”.

Officers did not directly engage with the event in Derry on Easter Monday, instead deploying a drone to monitor the proceedings and inform participants they were taking part in an illegal parade.

The hands-off approach to the activities around Derry’s City Cemetery and the Creggan Estate came after officers were attacked by petrol bombers at the same event the year before.

Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton defended the police approach to the dissident parade .

This year, youths threw petrol bombs at members of the media after the dissident republican march to mark the anniversary of the Easter Rising.

The event started in the Central Drive area of Creggan before making its way to the cemetery.

There was a colour party of people wearing face coverings, sunglasses and paramilitary-style dress, carrying the Irish flag and a host of republican flags.

A number of young people with masks covering their faces were at the parade carrying crates of petrol bombs and lumps of masonry and later in the day members of the media came under attack, with a number of petrol bombs thrown.

Masked men take part in the dissident parade in Derry

At Thursday’s meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board in Belfast, DUP board members raised concerns at the approach taken by the PSNI.

Keith Buchanan referred to the murder of journalist Lyra McKee by dissident republicans in the Creggan estate in 2019 and said someone else could have been murdered in the petrol bombing incidents this year.

Highlighting the police use of the drone, he added: “Is that marshmallow policing?”

His colleague Trevor Clarke said he welcomed that no officers had been injured during policing of the dissident events this year but raised concerns around the perception of a “two-tier” police approach, as he suggested a similar hands-off tactic was not taken when it came to marches involving members of the unionist community.

However, SDLP board member Mark H Durkan praised the police tactics on the day.

“I think the approach was sensible, sensitive and successful in terms of minimising disorder and hopefully will prove successful in terms of identifying and bringing to justice those guilty of crime,” he said.

Responding to the comments from board members, PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said he was confident commanders had made the right calls.

“I would reject the characterisation of marshmallow policing, and I think I know where that comes from. I think there are some on the sidelines who look at these operations and offer their opinions,” he said.

“It was an extremely challenging set of circumstances for the police commanders.

“It was evident that those who were behind the unnotified element of this parade, who donned paramilitary terrorist garb, did so under the cover of exploiting and using young people as an almost human shield to allow them to do that.

“That alone presented significant challenges for us to try and balance in terms of the policing operation.

“It was a significant operation. We had somewhere in the region of about 1,500 officers in the city at the height of that operation, the full range of assets at our disposal to make sure that we had the full range of options.

“And I’m satisfied that based on all the information and intelligence that officers had at their disposal that the policing operation that we produced on the day was the best that we could have in the circumstances.

“We’ll continue now the criminal justice follow up.”