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This article is about the PSNI, a documentary released in 2017, and surveillance in 2018. While the history between NI, the rest of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland is obviously relevant, it’s a bit of a stretch to reduce this to the relationship between the UK and Ireland.

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It's really not. The existence of NI as part of the UK is not something that Irish nationalists have historically been very happy with. They aren't in charge, and the people who are in charge are scared shitless of them ever getting truculent again.

And they try to pre-empt it in the only way that they know how.

I’m aware of the broad history, and I’m not claiming the PSNI is particularly neutral or otherwise unwilling to engage in these tactics. However, discourse that reduces the PSNI abusing power to a UK vs. Ireland conflict doesn’t promote holding the appropriate features of society and institutions accountable as they should be.

You misspelled gangsters, terrorists, and thugs who murdered civilians willingly. I'll say the same about the RUC, which at its worst was a facade for loyalist paramilitaries. But let's not pretend a revival of the Troubles will do anything or that the UK wouldn't hand over NI if a durable majority wanted it that way.

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