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Editorial
Alwyn Thomson
Comment:
Failed Politics?
Norman Hamilton
From
the Director: Words and Deeds
David W Porter
Loyalism
and Me
Philip Rankin
Real
Life
David Campton
Policing
Matters
Sam Pollock
The
Crisis Within
Eddie
Kinner
Loyalism
- The Issues
Mervyn Gibson
Scapegoating
Billy Mitchell
Review...Beyond
Retribution
Stephen Graham
Down
to Basics
Malachy
O'Doherty
Faith
in the Future
David
W Porter
For
God and His Glory Alone:
Study 1: Love
POLICING MATTERS
Sam Pollock is Chief Executive in the Office of the Police Ombudsman for
Northern Ireland. He has been married for 32 years, has a family of seven
and two grandchildren. Brought up in the south Derry area,
he has been based in Northern Ireland for most of his career but spent
almost 10 years in Scotland and Wales prior to taking up his current post
in April 2001.
Tell us briefly
about your work, your career, and any sense of vocation you might have.
I graduated in Social Administration but had also qualified as a teacher
so I contemplated that profession but at the beginning of the seventies,
with the civil situation here being as it was, I felt a strong pull towards
criminal justice. I remember doing an undergraduate placement in Ballymena
Courthouse in 1969 and I could not get away from a deep sense of the deficiencies
in criminal justice. I went into this work firstly in Magilligan Camp
as a Welfare Officer. The Camp had been an internment camp and was being
transformed into a prison. Two years later I trained as a Prison Governor
and worked in Long Kesh or the Maze as it became known. In 1979 I moved
from prisons into community justice, again with the probation service,
for a further 12 years, finishing up as an Assistant Chief Probation Officer.
In 1991 I was appointed Principal Inspector in Strathclyde. I was involved
in overseeing the inspection of some criminal justice establishments such
as secure units and offender hostels, but the experience of
inspecting residential care for the elderly, children in care and disability
projects was really interesting and quite different. I also enjoyed getting
away from Ireland for a time. I returned to criminal justice as the Chief
Probation Officer in Mid-Glamorgan in South Wales for seven years, before
coming back here and taking up this job last April.
A sense of vocation? I suppose it has centred on justice and mercy. As
a professional person I have always wanted to deal firmly but fairly with
those who put themselves on the margins of society. Some individuals are
difficult to
accept or tolerate because of what they do to other people but we must
deal with them as human beings with rights and responsibilities. And as
a Christian it is the same calling or vocation; not to tolerate the conduct
or evil which might drive or motivate us in some situations but yet never
letting go of the eternal value God places on us as people he created
and who are capable of redemption and reformation.
How do you see
the relationship between justice on the one hand and mercy on the other?
Justice with
no mercy is not far away form tyranny. Mercy with no justice will eventually
lead to anarchy. The two imperatives need to be carefully balanced at
all times, whether in an individual's life, in a family, within an institution
or within a state. I was not legally trained so my understanding of justice
is shaped by how I have experienced it in the system for over 3 decades.
I tend to think of it primarily as holding a person to account against
a stated law or yardstick. That emanates from Moses conveying the commandments
of God to a people who, like ourselves, needed boundaries. People think
of justice often as punishment, I think of it more as a system of penalties
and a way of 'bringing to book', sorting the matter in the eyes of the
law and then moving on. Many of the early penalties to be used when the
law was broken were about repaying or making matters right. There should
be a restorative element to justice or else it fails the 'victim'. I do
not see justice as deterrence, though some penalties can be a deterrent.
The worst justice I have observed over the years has been where the court
has tried to punish a person more harshly than it would otherwise do simply
to deter someone else.
Mercy is not about
being soft or being let off. Some justice seems to be about 'an eye for
an eye' or 'just deserts' but mercy holds back from us what we deserve.
If my child was murdered, I know exactly how I would feel and what I would
like to do to the person who did it. But mercy within the law stops me,
it protects me from myself and stops us as a society from being debased
and dehumanised. Mercy in our legal system is about ensuring that criminals
are dealt with fairly and humanely, not because they deserve it, but because
it maintains our dignity and civilisation. I
think it is the same with God and us. He could and should deal with man
as he deserves and punish us for everything we have done to his creation
yet instead he inflicted the punishment on Christ and has shown us mercy.
Justice and mercy are two great pillars in my book.
You currently
have a demanding job, which has implications not just for policing, but
for the wider society in Northern Ireland. What are the values and vision
that undergird your work here?
My particular job is to help run this Office as a public body and to support
the Police Ombudsman in the exercise of her duties. What motivates me
is the belief that this is a vital part of the public service and it is
vital to the principles which undergird the rule of law and the maintenance
of good order in society. Effective complaints systems are important to
all public services but an effective police
complaints system is so much more important to us. The capacity for a
police officer to abuse the power and authority entrusted to him or her
by society is just so much greater than that of, say, a teacher or nurse.
I have contempt for any view that says that you can uphold the law by
breaking it. If a member of the public has a genuine need to make a complaint
against a police officer, that
complaint must be dealt with fairly and independently. It is also vital
to the police officer that he or she knows that the matter will be dealt
with fairly and independently. Values of being fair, open, not acting
with fear or favour, etc. do not come easy at times, but I am proud to
be part of a new organisation which is seeking to act in this way.
On a slightly wider
front, the maturity of a democracy I think is reflected in the professional
maturity of those institutions which maintain law and order. The worst
democracies, or the worst tyrannies, will also have corrupt police forces,
institutions and prisons. The great strength of our democracy in this
part of Europe is that we have a court system, a prison system and a policing
framework, which - for all the faults and weaknesses - are good in terms
of upholding and enforcing the law but also protecting the right of the
citizen. Having an effective complaints system is one more part of building
professionalism, integrity and maturity into our institutions and making
them the best in the world. And that drives me. At the end of my career
it.s just nice to be part of
something that is so central to a more just and fair society.
What about the
sectarianism within Northern Ireland society - do you see yourself as
having a role in challenging sectarianism?
On a personal level, of course I see myself as having a role in challenging
sectarianism in every situation where it raises its ugly head. If you
mean in my work role, yes, again there is a responsibility on all of us
to challenge institutional sectarianism in Northern Ireland. It is still
systemic in so much of our public life. I would have to say that I don.t
look to the police force to eradicate
sectarianism; I don.t have that expectation of the police, though they
have a vital contribution to it. I look to people in terms of their individual
accountability and responsibility; I look to families in terms of how
they rear their children; I look to politicians, too many of whom manipulate
and play on sectarian fears; I look to the public institutions to promote
the right to live free of sectarian oppression and I look to Christian
believers to be unequivocal in their condemnation of sectarianism. We
can never police sectarian bigotry or hatred out of a person's mind or
their community but all public servants - teachers, police, prison officers,
politicians, judges, magistrates must give a strong, strong lead and act
in a way that is exemplary.
Do you belong
to a local church and what role does the church play in your life?
Since coming back to Northern Ireland I have not yet taken up church membership,
though I probably will in the near future. All my life I have been active
in church life. If you need to put me in a denomination box it would be
Presbyterian, but it is enough for me to say I believe in God and his
redemption and have done since I was a child of 10 - well over 40 years
ago. My faith has been well tested but it gets stronger as time goes on.
Church for me is not a denomination or building, it is where God meets
with believers and it has played a massive part in my life. I always see
myself in terms of three dimensions: mind, body and soul. I see God only
within the context of the Trinity: God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
My faith is the most important thing to me in life, my wife and family
are the second and my career or service to other people is the third and
very important dimension.
Do you see religion
as having a positive or negative effect on society in Northern Ireland
in general?
Well, there aren't many societies where religion is not a major issue.
I see very few people and very few societies that can live just on the
basis of mind and matter. Often I think that through the darkest days
in the history of this country, when politicians and terrorists took us
right to the brink of civil war, it was only the grace of God and the
prayer of God-fearing people that stopped us going over the precipice.
I used to argue that religion had nothing to do with the troubles here
in Northern Ireland but now,
regrettably, I think that is wrong. I feel alarmed at the extent to which
religion seems to have been a focus of negative influence in this society.
Politicians have remorselessly used the religious and Christian identity
of people here to legitimise, promote and harden some of their dogma which,
without the respectability of the
Christian faith, would be shallow nonsense. And yes, some leaders in our
churches have wrapped their politics in the vestments of their church.
How important
do you think that the role of the church is in developing community relations;
do you think the churches have a positive role to play?
I think at this point in time they can't and they shouldnt, and perhaps
they should get out of it.
Out of politics
altogether?
Yes. I know that there is a strong view that Christians should get involved
in politics and be the salt - but no, at this point in time it's nearly
impossible for churches in Northern Ireland to get involved in structural
reconciliation without actually contributing to the political quagmire
that exists around them. The essence of politics is disagreement and diversity
of view, which in most societies
adds to the strength and integrity of a democracy. But here the political
process has generated division, conflict, killing, bombing, assassination
and everything that has torn us apart. I think the church has one primary
role to fulfil which is to demonstrate that there is an alternative, and
it cannot do that by trying to play amateur politics. I do respect the
good work that is done by so many churches and some politicians in building
bridges and working for better community relations, but so many of the
bridges are between people who are already peace-loving and well meaning.
The deep hatred of those who terrorise our society needs to be tackled
and that requires the church to stand up to those people and say, in the
name of Christ, that they are accountable beforeGod for their actions,
they need to acknowledge what they have done to thousands of people and
then acknowledge the grace and mercy of God in putting things right. I
am not asking them to give up their political objective or identity, just
say sorry and try to put things right with those they have harmed. That
will bring lasting reconciliation. I know a lot of people would take a
different view, but that's how I see it.
So you think the
churches must first of all extract themselves from being bound up with
any type of political identity in order to rearticulate a sense of who
they are, in a language which leaves politics behind?
Yes. I don't think the churches can ever build some artificial, nice,
acceptable political identity or compromise that doesn't offend anyone.
And yes, absolutely, the church, Protestant or Catholic, must extract
itself or cease to be party to any political identity that flies in the
face of God.s imperatives on us as believers and as neighbours, identities
which are built on division, sectarianism and so on. Speaking personally,
for most of my life I have been a
Presbyterian and from a very evangelical background. I value highly the
many good things that represents for me. I also come from a strongly Unionist
and Orange background and again, I understand how all that shapes my sense
of identity. But my faith and my destiny as a person are not determined
or bound by any political or national allegiance. As a believer I am part
of a universal
church and kingdom. How I vote at an election is an important social responsibility
but it should never separate or cause conflict between myself and another
believer in the community next to me, or in another part of this little
island, who may vote in a very different way to me. You cannot mix and
match obligations to Caesar and obligations to Christ; otherwise you mix
and match garbage and gold.
Do you think that
the churches have a role in challenging sectarianism? What about the values
that you mentioned earlier - justice and mercy: aren.t these gospel values?
The individual Christian or a Christian church should be saying that sectarianism
and racism are evil, hate is hate, violence is violence, killing is killing
-no ifs or buts, no spurious justifications or rationalisation, no weighing
of politics and morality in the balance. The statement of the church must
be unequivocal. I won't criticise other churches, I will only throw a
stone in my own glasshouse. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland has had
a unique history. It has embodied a great breadth of plurality in its
membership; it has embraced Nationalism, Unionism, Republicanism, Orangeism,
Gaelic traditions and Loyalism and much, much more. But I have to say
that large parts of evangelical Presbyterianism have shown awful ambivalence
and indifference to the cocktail of bitterness, division and hate which
emerges when you mix deeply held religious
conviction with political or social ideologies. Rather than being a powerful
witness of reconciliation and redemption, of grace and mercy, parts of
my church have been a stumbling block to the gospel and the love of Christ.
The Presbyterian
Church is a sleeping giant with a meeting-house in almost every hamlet
in this country. I would love to see it put the call of God first and
rise above any trace of sectarianism or parochialism. One of the recent
Moderators put it very well when he said (and I paraphrase his words):
I can't accept the Word of God from somebody who wraps it up in a Union
Jack and I can't accept the Crucifix from someone who has wrapped it up
in a tricolour. Christians in Ireland and Christians in Northern Ireland,
in my opinion, need to start being unequivocal about the love of God and
the demands that that love makes on us as neighbours.
What do you think
loving your neighbour might look like in Northern Ireland?
I always start with a view that love is generally a verb - it is about
doing things. How do you be a good neighbour? It's about giving, it's
about doing and receiving, no less than what you would want to do, give
and receive yourself. It's nothing more profound than that. Paul, in Galatians
chapter five, talks about the fruit of the Spirit being 'love, joy, peace,
long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, temperance, against these
there is no law'. I think that is
a lovely recipe for being a good neighbour. With those attitudes and values
we wouldn't need the 'law' to be keeping us apart. This part of Ireland,
and in fact the whole of Ireland, still has the potential to be one of
the best democracies and places to live in Europe. It has the potential
to be one of the shining beacons in terms of faith and practice, of people
living together and bringing out the best in each other. The pain and
suffering of the last 30 years could be turned to an eventual good because
the moral sensitivity, the faith, the commitment and generosity, the basic
kindness and hospitality that exist in
Irish and Ulster people are surpassed by none. This potential for good
just needs to be set loose.
Based on an interview carried out by Anna Rankin with Sam Pollock in August 2002 and subsequent correspondence.
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