According to PSNI statistics between April 2025 and March 2026, Black people were eleven times more likely than white people to have a gun drawn on them, and 15 times more likely to be targeted with tasers.
PSNI members were 12 times more likely to threaten Black members of the community with weapons that fire plastic bullets, the same deadly weapons wielded by the RUC.
This follows recent revelations that Black people were almost 4x more likely than white people to be stopped and searched. At the same time, recent race riots in Unionist areas have shown the PSNI’s lack of willingness to protect minority communities when faced with organised racist intimidation and disorder.
Catholic and Nationalist communities also continue to face disproportionate discrimination, with Catholics twice as likely to be stopped and searched than Protestants. The reality is that the attention of the PSNI is disproportionately focused on particular communities.
In a Socialist Republic, both police forces on this island would be disbanded and replaced with a genuinely democratic police service, one accountable to the communities it serves, free from sectarianism and discrimination, and organised around protecting all people without privileging particular communities.
