IN my opinion, despite the challenges of under-resourcing and under-funding, Chief Constable Jon Boutcher is the most effective head of policing in Northern Ireland since Sir Hugh Orde.

Like Orde, he’s direct, which doesn’t always sit well with the establishment in Belfast or London.

While he receives praise and sympathy from the inmates at Stormont Castle, Parliament Buildings and Erskine House, his requests often go unrewarded.

I understand policing is a difficult job, whether at HQ or on the ground.

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During a recent Policing Board meeting, he informed members that some paramilitary groups had asked their members to stay away from the recent racist pogrom targeting migrant businesses and residences. However, other intelligence suggests other paramilitary groups and/or individuals were involved in orchestrating or participating in those riots.

Jon is direct but there’s an elephant in the room, which the ineffective Policing Board prefers to ignore.

There are no good and bad paramilitaries. This is fairytale nonsense adopted by those who like to believe the outlaw Jesse James and bushwhacker Ned Kelly were latter-day Robin Hoods instead of brutal, violent criminals and killers.

This media shaping has now spread to include paramilitaries in Northern Ireland.

They’re not folk heroes. They’re plain old extortionists, thugs, pimps of prostitution, knee-deep in racketeering and loan-sharking. There’s nothing romantic........

© The Irish News