SDLP Policing Board member Mark H Durkan has hit out at the language used by DUP leader Gavin Robinson, comparing it to that of US President Donald Trump. The Foyle MLA was speaking after the DUP leader said he had been contacted by a mother who is concerned her son will not get a training place with the PSNI because he is "male, white, heterosexual and a Protestant".
In an email to party members over the weekend, Gavin Robinson called on the PSNI to move away from the "craze of woke quotas" following a suggestion of reintroducing 50-50 recruitment policy in the force. Around 3,500 applications have been received in the latest recruitment campaign for the PSNI, which closed on Wednesday. Of those, about 27 per cent were by those who identify as Catholic.
Last month, the US President blamed Diversity, Equality and Inclusion programmes for a plane crash in Washington DC in which 67 people died.
Responding to the comments, Mark H Durkan said: "Whether Gavin Robinson likes it or not, it is not unrealistic to want to have a police service representative of the community it serves. In the North it is clear that the PSNI falls far short of that and the only way we will address it is by encouraging more people from a nationalist background, women and minority groups to consider a career in policing.
“The DUP leader’s comments continue an increasing trend of the party’s representatives adopting the language and tactics of Donald Trump. Whether to try and obfuscate an important issue like representative policing or to try and label MLAs as sectarian simply for asking questions about a lack of transparency around school funding, it would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad. It’s embarrassing to see politicians here desperately trying to shoehorn Trump-like rhetoric into our local politics.
“When we wonder why we struggle to establish a police service that reflects the diversity of our communities, one could look at the words and actions of many of Mr Robinson’s party colleagues over the years. Instead of trying to turn what is an important issue into a culture war flashpoint, he should show some leadership and get to grips with the issues preventing us from having a police service that is representative of society here.”
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English (United States) ·