Police Reform after the Good Friday Agreement:
Potential Unfulfilled
Patrick J. Lynch
President, NYC PBA
Mondy, 11/10/03 6pm
McGillicuddy's Irish Inn |
 The
November 2003 meeting of the Brehon Law Society of Nassau County featured
guest speaker will be
Patrick J. Lynch, President of the New York
City Patrolmen's Benevolent Association (PBA), who spoke
about police reform in the Six Counties, from his vantage both as one of New
York's highest profile police officers and as an interested observer who has
traveled extensively in Ireland, north and south.
Click here
for Photos |
PATRICK J. LYNCH
Patrick J. Lynch, the youngest elected President of the
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA), is
a lifelong resident of New York City. Pat, the seventh of seven children, is
married to the former Kathleen Casey, who was a grammar school classmate. They
and their sons Patrick and Kevin continue to reside in their hometown of
Bayside, Queens, near Pat’s parents, Robert and Mary Lynch.
Pat graduated from Msgr. Scanlon High School in the Bronx in 1982
and followed in his father’s footsteps into the New York City Transit Authority,
where he was employed for a short time as a subway conductor before pursuing his
passion to become a police officer.
Sworn in as a New York City Police Officer in 1984, Pat earned
three Exceptional Police Duty awards and also received an Exceptional Merit
citation for his part in coming to the aid of two fellow police officers who had
been shot. He began his union career in 1989, being elected a delegate
representing the officers in the
90th
Precinct in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. His launch of an informative
alternative union newsletter, the Brooklyn North News, gave him citywide
exposure and made him a serious candidate for higher union office.
In 1999, at a time when the union was saddled with a do-nothing
image and tainted by corruption scandals, Pat led an insurgent team of
reform-minded delegates who fought against that corruption and, by an historic
margin, claimed the presidency of the NYC PBA
– the world’s largest police union.
Since that election, Pat and his team have scored a long series of
impressive victories against all odds and through some of the darkest hours ever
faced by the city and its uniformed services. He narrowly escaped the collapse
of the South Tower of World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Pat waged an
historic legal battle, leading to the highest court in the state, to cement the
PBA’s right to arbitrate labor disputes before PERB, and, thereafter, won a
groundbreaking contract settlement after a grueling round of arbitration
hearings in 2002. In August of that year, Pat was responsible for the largest
showing of police officers at a union rally in the city’s history. In 2003 he
was elected to a second term by an overwhelmingly majority of his fellow
officers.
In addition to being nominated for the prestigious Ellis Island
Medal of Honor, Pat has been honored by many organizations including the Walk
the Walk Foundation, the 10-13 Clubs of America, the Retired Detectives
Association, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and the Police Athletic League.
He has been named man of the year by the New York State Supreme Officer’s
Association, the New York Finest Foundation and the County Mayo Society of New
York and Grand Marshal of the Glen Cove
St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
The son of an immigrant from County Mayo and the great grandson of a NYPD
Deputy Inspector who hailed from County Westmeath, Pat cherishes his Irish roots
and proud heritage. He has, from his youth, been an active supporter of Irish
causes and travels to his ancestral homeland on a regular basis, including as a
performer with the County Tyrone Pipe Band.
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The SDLP’s Alex Attwood was last night publicly challenged by key
Irish-American groups following his St Patrick’s Day claim that
“Irish-America is not fooled” by Sinn Féin’s ongoing concerns over
policing.
Senior representatives of the
Ancient Order of Hibernians, Americans for a New Irish
Agenda, the Brehon Law
Society, the Irish American Labour Coalition, the
Irish American Unity
Conference and the Irish
Northern Aid Committee last night hit back hard by
co-signing a major public statement questioning Mr Attwood’s right
to speak on behalf of Irish Americans.
“Who is Mr Attwood to speak for Irish America? He is welcome to
speak with us whenever he wishes. Until he does, and knows what he
is talking about, we recommend he speaks for himself,” the statement
says.
“We are concerned that Catholic representation in the PSNI is not
truly representative.
“As for republican intimidation as a prime factor in making the PSNI
off-limits for Catholics, we suggest that there was no intimidation
in the voting booths last November when Sinn Féin policies, largely
based on its strategy for policing reform, were endorsed by a clear
majority of nationalists, while the SDLP policies were rejected.”
The statement continues by asking whether human rights abusers will
“be vetted from the PSNI under the power of the Ombudsman’s office,
when the Chief Constable has come out against independent inquiries
into police collusion to kill citizens?
“Can any combination of the Ombudsman’s office and Policing Board as
presently constituted see to it that the PSNI delivers critical
files concerning state killings, and collusion with others to kill
citizens, at coroners’ inquests as required by international ‘right
to life’ laws?
Or see to it that Irish children will not be injured or killed by
plastic bullets this year?”
On the controversial issue of Special Branch the leading Irish
Americans question what independent accountability actually exists
over the day-to-day activities of Special Branch.
“What is the religious and professional composition of Special
Branch?
“And how many in the old Special Branch are in the new Special
Branch?
“And what, if any, vetting process was used to ensure the human
rights abusers of the past do not contaminate the present and future
PSNI?”
The statement concludes by expressing concern that “political
leaders like Mr Attwood, and whoever might be on the Policing Board
now and in the future, will not have the power to implement and
maintain the changes necessary to achieve an effective and
politically honest policing service as envisioned by the Patten
report, implemented in full.”
In his comments on St Patrick’s Day Alex Attwood said that “Sinn
Féin has become increasingly desperate in its attempts to hide the
real reason why it has not joined the Policing Board.
“And Irish America is not fooled by expensive advertisements in the
American press,” he added.
|
| from
www.irelandclick.com |
|
Journalist::
Jarlath Kearney |
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