Recent events in Brownlow once again demonstrated the fundamentally unchanged nature of policing in the Six Counties. The images of convoys of armoured jeeps, of masked, baton-wielding police and of front doors being broken down could have come from any point in the last forty years.

The police-fuelled propaganda that followed was also in keeping with the PSNI/RUC's long and ignoble history. Residents can confirm that the attitude of the PSNI was both combative and provocative from the outset.

So where does all of this fit into the bigger picture?

Policing in the Six Counties has, as its primary function, the defence of the British state in Ireland. The PSNI is funded by the British exchequer to enforce British legislation in Ireland - a reality which will remain unchanged even in the event of the transfer of extremely limited policing and justice powers to Stormont.

The challenge facing all Irish republicans and other progressives is to develop effective, workable alternatives to endorsing or co-operating with British policing in Ireland.

éirígí believes that the whole debate around the issue of crime needs to be commenced afresh with an emphasis on a community-based preventative ethos replacing the current state-based punitive one. It would be far more effective to identify and address the causes of crime than to maintain the conditions that encourage crime to fester and then spend countless millions punishing the offender and compensating the victim.

Alternative and exclusively community-based initiatives need to be developed to tackle the complex problem of what is euphemistically termed 'anti-social behaviour', pending the creation of an acceptable justice and policing system within a unified Ireland.

Across the world there are examples of communities that have had no other choice but to build alternatives to unacceptable, or corrupt, police forces. Citizen's juries, restorative justice, neighbourhood watch, youth outreach and diversionary projects, along with effective rehabilitation programmes all have a role to play in reducing the impact of crime within the community.

Of course it would be naive to think that such parallel, community-based, structures alone will eliminate crime – but, equally, no one should be under the impression that acceptance of the PSNI will eliminate it either. One has only to look at the 26 counties to see a police force that arguably has widespread acceptance but where the problem of crime is reaching crisis point within many communities.

éirígí understands that crime in general, and 'low-level' anti-social activity, in particular, are largely, but not exclusively, caused by inequality, deprivation and poverty.