Lurgan: condemnation as anti-PSNI posters are pasted up by 'Irish Socialist Republican' group

A variety of posters have been put up in the Kilwilke area, accusing the PSNI of ‘being heavily involved in court cases to cover up and hide RUC collusion, preventing justice for victims and families’ and claiming officers have ‘arrested and charged twice as many Catholics than Protestants in the last five years’.

They look similar to police recruitment campaign posters, but instead warn local people: ‘Don’t join the PSNI’.

The posters appeared as the latest in a series of community engagement meetings continued this week in the Lurgan area which police said were being held ‘within local community shared spaces to give our local residents an opportunity to attend’.

A meeting in Mourneview Community Centre on Monday evening was advertised as focusing on crime prevention with a crime prevention officer in attendance to offer advice and support.

On Tuesday afternoon, police said they were aware of ‘a number of inappropriate and unacceptable posters featuring our advertising material’ which had been put up in Lurgan.

A spokesperson said: "Our enquiries are continuing and we would urge people not to share or circulate images of these posters.”

Superintendent Brendan Green, PSNI District Commander of Armagh Banbridge and Craigavon, said: “We engage with all members of the community on local policing priorities and issues that affect them.

"We will continue to use our outreach activities, like those hosted this week in north and south Lurgan, to encourage people from all communities, particularly those currently under-represented within the Service, to apply for a career in policing.”

The appearance of the posters have been strongly condemned by DUP Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart.

"The lack of applications from members of the nationalist community to join the PSNI, is solely a mindset of conditional acceptance by nationalists,” she said. “They speech play their support on occasions but are rarely found wanting when it comes to criticising perceived imbalance.

"The truth of the matter is that their every spoken concern has been over accepted.

"The sacrifices of the brave men and women of the RUC were hidden in police stations in acts of wanton betrayal. The RUC were disbanded at the behest of rationalists / republicans, the ludicrous change of uniform and a new name. There is nothing that will be good enough for them to unconditionally support the police.”

Lasair Dhearg, which describes itself as an Irish Socialist Republican organisation, said it was responsible for the posters.

The group posted on their Facebook page: “A number of events have been arranged across Lurgan this week to allow the PSNI to interact with and spread their propaganda amongst local people.

“Our activists there presented the community in Kilwilke with the truth – there is nothing normal about the PSNI.

"They may have been rebranded, but they remain a core part of the British military occupation in Ireland, actively helping to cover up RUC collusion, withholding the truth from victims and families, and preventing them from attaining justice.”