Strabane Ógra Shinn Féin Members Harassed by Political Detectives

tyrone | miscellaneous | news report Saturday May 20, 2006 22:41 by Ógra B - Ógra Shinn Féin osf6county at yahoo dot com

The PSNI in Strabane have been accused of harrassing members of Ógra Shinn Féin on Friday the 19th of May.

The Republican Youth organisation has claimed that plain-clothed members of the PSNI harassed two well known members.

The two Ógra members were sitting in the middle of the town when an unmarked vehicle approached them from behind.

Speaking of the harassment, one of the Ógra members involved said,
'Four men where in the car, all wearing suits. The front window of the car was rolled down and I was asked my name. I refused to give my name until identification was shown. When I made the request, the four men exited the vehicle immediately. My friend and I were then separated, with two suited 'detectives' to each of us.'

'While we were separated we went under various jibes and remarks about our appearance, clothes, religion, and political allegiances. We were searched and questioned about various family members and our movements on that day. We were threatened with arrest, and my friend was accused of disorderly behavior, and myself of obstructing the 'police'.

Barry McColgan, spokesperson for Ógra Shinn Féin slammed the activites of the PSNI, saying,
'Throughout the harassment these 'political detectives' were continually verbally abusive to the two members. It was clear from the attitude of these unreformed bigots that they were trying to provoke the men into a reaction, a reaction they did not get.'

'This continuous campaign of politically motivated harrassment, intimidation, detentions and arrests of Ógra members is directed to surpress our political ideals but infact, makes us more resilient, cohesive and stronger, safe in the knowledge 'that we are right!

'We will continue in our campaign to 'Smash Political Policing', and in our campaign to secure community based and community led policing, that is truly accountable and has no links to the securocrats, the 'political detectives' and bigots of the past, where accountability is held by all the people of Ireland!'