![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOWEXJGJar458sBosL71YHrktc206I2xRGyeBXB8QYtOjl6mj6PjHLGpwfmiejpGay5DIpiAmHnu6XnNUX1HH597Ll4LPEjrLr14Yto2aklFONmYQ2c94cwVJ-vr39ftndSyyI8qBzHwsf/s400/Poppy+Coleraine.jpg)
Firstly let me say that burning a poppy is, in my opinion, a disgrace. I don’t wear a poppy, I never will. I’m not British and as such wearing a symbol to honour Britain’s war dead would be inappropriate. On the other hand dishonouring someone who laid down their life for their country, even if that country isn’t mine, is appalling.
But what is more appalling is the disgusting, sectarian double standards put on display by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. If a small group of scumbags burn a poppy it merits officers investigating it, arresting those people, probably charging them and possibly even prosecuting them. If hundreds, thousands, possibly even tens of thousands of people burn effigies of the Pope, other Catholics, Tricolours, election posters of Nationalist candidates etc on bonfires then it is business as usual.
If the PSNI insist on punishing this collection of idiots in Coleraine then should they not also punish the far greater number of people who do just as bad on the 11th night every single year, a group that undoubtedly includes some Police Officers?