The Irish branch of the radical international union Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) has hit out at the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) for deliberately targeting members of the migrant community and other activists during a Black Lives Matters rally on June 6th.
Both rallies took place in Belfast and Derry following the brutal murder of George Floyd by white cops in North America.
In a statement issued following the release of a Policing Board report into the incident, a spokesperson for the IWW said, "It was no surprise to ourselves or to the majority of those who took part in both rallies that the cops actions on the day was totally wrong and inappropriate.
"We did not need a Policing Board report to tell us that they themselves behaved wrongful. Several of our members took part on that day in what was a well organised public rally at a time when the current pandemic was at its height. Both events and its participants adhered to social distancing and PPE was correctly supplied to all those in attendance who did not have any.
"Our members watched in dismay at how the PSNI disrupted a totally peaceful civil rights rally targeting organisers and intimidating members of the migrant community. This action further added to peoples anger here at the murder of yet another innocent black man at the hands of the police in the States.
"The Policing Boards findings the that actions of the PSNI on the day somehow "damaged" their credibility by the way in which they handled these two civil rights protests is farcical. People never had any credibility in them in the first place when it comes to the issues of civil rights or social justice.
"As a union who had several members fined for participating in the rallies of June 6t, the human rights of each and everyone targeted by the PSNI on that day were violated for simply making a stand. For standing up for civil rights and social justice. It is right that we echo that call again to demand that all charges, penalties and pending prosecutions are dropped immediately."