Arthurs arrest test for both Sinn Fein and the DUP
20 May 2007
Statement by Jim Allister MEP:
"The response of Sinn Fein to the lawful arrest of top republican, Arthurs, not just, again, demonstrates that nothing has really changed in the anti-police mindset of Sinn Fein, but it raises a fundamental issue for the DUP.
Ian Paisley told us Sinn Fein now fully supported the police, indeed had pledged to do so, or as he lavishly put it "sworn allegiance" to the police. How wrong he was! So, what does he intend to do about it. Merely, ignore it, I suspect, and give his partner in government a by-ball, because he knows in his heart that he has taken into government a Party unfit for office.
It is clear Sinn Fein does not fully support the police, but insists on cherry-picking between what it misnames "civic policing" and anti-organised crime policing such as we've seen with this arrest."
