Interesting that the families don't want prosecutions.
Well, we're only hearing a version of what some family members may think, as finessed through Boutcher's filter.
He said the majority of families of victims of the state-compromised IRA internal security unit preferred to know the truth about what happened to their loved ones rather than seeing those responsible brought to trial.
“It has become apparent to me that most Operation Kenova families do not support prosecutions. The reasons for this can be complex. There will always be a spectrum of opinions, even with divergent views within families. Most relatives have told me they want the truth of what happened, in particular the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of their loved ones’ deaths, rather than a criminal prosecution.
“The views of families must be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not a prosecution is in the public interest, should the evidence exist to support such a proceeding,” Boutcher said.
If families are being asked something along the lines of ‘we could prosecute but in all likelihood it will fail and everyone will clam up and we'll never learn what actually happened to your Uncle Brendan - or we could offer a discreet deal and find out the truth’, then it is not incomprehensible to see why, given a binary choice they might not want to pursue prosecutions against those who set up, tortured and had murdered their loved ones.
And leveraging apart families, friendship groups, gangs, groups, whatever associations of individuals may be before them, and inflating the importance of the evidence, information, perspective or value of some over that of others (often for reasons of strategic intent, tactical advantage or operational ‘necessity’ rather than any sincere belief in the objective accuracy of one version over another) is, after all, one of the things police routinely do in pursuit of their
cases.
Without knowing what options and conditions were placed before ‘the families’ - and indeed who these ’families’ are (are police engaging with single representatives of victims? If so how are they selected? Or were all living relatives invited to have a say? If so how are their views collected? and so on) would also seem to be of some importance - it is difficult to form a clear view on this.
So I take Boutcher's spin here with a pinch of salt, in the absence of hearing from actual relatives of those murdered under spook-mandate.
www.theguardian.com
www.breakingnews.ie
www.urban75.net
