In defence of Creggan

I haven’t written in a while owing to other commitments but I felt there was a moral imperative to respond to some of the ridiculous comments and stories published in the last week about Creggan and its people.

I don’t want to miss and hit the wall – lazy journalism has sought to characterise the Creggan area as some sort of dystopian festival ground.  We are blessed with some journalists that actually go out and seek stories and provide us with raw truth, like it or not.  On the other hand, we have journalists – both local and not so local, that sit behind desks or behind laptops in their homes writing about a community they could point to on a map, but wouldn’t know where to start if they to write a story about it.

Two articles in particular caught my attention – and ire – this past week.  One was from Tony Evans writing on Tortoise Media (link: torto.se/2KaSKkC) that frankly made my blood boil.  Have a read yourself – and pay special attention to the piece regarding young people who fail the transfer test being thrown ‘on the scrap heap’.  I was mad angry having read it, especially knowing that he had written it after what was probably a 48-hour trip to the City.

The other was the interview given by Assistant Chief Constable Stephen Martin on BBC NI’s Spotlight programme.  Mr Martin is a former commander of the PSNI in the City.  Enjoying a pre-bed cup of tea on the night, I near had to be scraped off my ceiling having listened to him wax lyrical about the good old days when the PSNI could patrol Creggan on bikes.

Violence in Creggan, or Clooney, or anywhere else in my City is unacceptable and can’t be supported, for me that goes without saying.  Groups or individuals seeking to engage in violence, whether that be politically motivated or by death driving, is not what Creggan is about.

However, the one-sided viewpoint being pushed out the world that Creggan is a dissident infested, backward and violence-loving hellhole is just wrong.  It’s perpetuated by people who are happy to have their name printed on anything that moves, or there is an agenda at work.  I lived in Creggan in my younger years and many of my family still live there, it is a place apart, there is no doubt about that.

Those people who pour scorn on the area and dip in and out of Creggan and other areas when there are negative stories to be told are incapable of digging just beneath the surface and identifying that Creggan is one of the few places left in this City where there is a still a community feel.

I recently knocked (almost) every door in Creggan for the local election and as much as I am closer to other areas in the City, Creggan is still a special place.  They know their neighbours, front door keys are still left in their doors during the day, and residents have maintained their bonds through good times and bad.  It reminds me of miner towns prior to the mid 1980s.  It has heart, and it takes challenges in its stride.

Contrast that with the policing strategy overseen by Mr Martin and his colleagues.  Why don’t his officers ride bikes across the Heights any more?  For sure the ‘security threat’ is partly behind this change of tactics, however, only someone who willingly ignored or didn’t care about assessing the impact of security policing on the area would fail to see the realities.

I’ve seen it with my own eyes all too often.  Young men shadowed by armoured police cars with their passenger windows down, feeling comfortable calling these men by their first names – “where are you off to today Pat? Sure we will see you later”.  I know of three young men who have lost part-time jobs either because they have been constantly stopped under anti-terrorism legislation on busy morning roads, deliberately keeping them late, or because officers have repeatedly engaged with them at their place of work.  I once even witnessed a 19-year old man out on his first date with a woman in Waterloo Place, and having been spotted by a police car, stopped and very publicly searched in the middle of a busy thoroughfare.  Needless to say there was no second date.

A taxi driver stopped in front of Pilot’s Row with a young mother and child as passengers, blocked in by two police landrovers and a dozen police officers.  Losing the fare and publicly embarrassing the driver.  This would all be fine if these searches had uncovered weapons, ammunition etc – but we know they don’t.  What they do, and consistently deliver, is either young people into the hands of certain organisations, or their absolute hatred of the PSNI.

As for community policing that Mr Martin lauds in his interview, don’t make us laugh.  I couldn’t keep count of the number of people that have come to me and others because they have called police to their home for issues ranging from anti-social behaviour to domestic violence, only to be left high and dry.  No visit, no calls, nothing.  Now, we can all debate the reasons for this trend, but I have no doubt it is because of the constant fear police have of being attacked – a legitimate fear until you stand back and realise they patrol the area in bullet and bomb-proof vehicles and helicopters, whilst the victims of crime are abandoned to pick up the pieces.

You’ll not hear any of this from the police and you certainly wont hear it from these journalists or commentators – because when these things happen – and they do all too often – they are at home sitting comfortably.  It’s too easy to zoom in on Creggan’s problems – the same problems that exist in Dungannon, Coleraine and Newry and take pot shots at its people when you lack the talent and gumption to stand on its streets and see its people come together.

I have long since programmed myself to turn the channel when I hear interviews with people about Creggan – especially about the murder of Lyra McKee – given by people who again that night, were at home.  They couldn’t deny they didn’t know there was trouble in the area that night – did they come up to support residents, talk young people into going home or show solidarity with the people – all of whom despise what happened? Nope.  They ran to the Daily Mail’s of the world to say how terrible it was and what they think the people of Creggan think, how they live and what challenges they face.

Put up or shut up I say.