The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have again engaged in shocking intimidation tactics clearly designed to deter peaceful pro-Palestine activism. On Friday February 27, police abducted a Belfast campaigner from his home. Two officers entered BDS Belfast activist Damian Quinn’s house without showing evidence of a warrant. This is likely illegal, given the alleged offence they were citing was merely contempt of court.
The police’s outrageous disregard for the law only got worse from there, as Quinn described in a video posted to the BDS Belfast Instagram page. After the cops handcuffed him, the activist described how they:
…brought me out to this unmarked car and told me that I was being driven to Musgrave Police Station.
We got to Musgrave Police Station and parked in an empty car park within the station itself. The two policemen got out of the car, came around to my side of the car, opened the door and stood and continued to talk with each other. This lasted over about 40 odd minutes.
He continued:
At one stage it seemed like the two police officers were in disagreement with each other over my detention because one of them had said he needs to be detained, the other had said no.
PSNI incompetence or malice?
Quinn said that soon after that:
…a policewoman…came over to me and proceeded to tell me that she was not authorising my detention because there’s a voluntary route that I can take to speak with my solicitor and come back down at a later date.
The police then drove the 33 year old home. When removing the cuffs before doing this, they warned Quinn not to try anything, otherwise they’d have to intervene with force. The suggestion that a peaceful activist being taken home would suddenly become violent is absurd, and clearly amounts to another pathetic attempt at intimidation.
So to summarise: cops entered – probably illegally – a peaceful activist’s home, dragged him in cuffs to an unmarked car, then kept him captive for over an hour outside in the late February cold. They were then told by a superior that the whole arrest was unnecessary, and returned him home. All for a minor alleged offence the PSNI claim was committed four months ago.
The abduction may be an attempt to intimidate six (previously nine) activists being prosecuted for road protests in 2025. All witnesses in those cases are PSNI officers.
According to the activist:
Cardin Solicitors Limited have been instructed to consider a civil action for unlawful arrest and false imprisonment of myself.
Pattern of criminalising peaceful activism
Quinn’s supposed transgression seemingly relates to “images or video” allegedly taken by the 33 year old in the corridor of a court building in October 2025. BDS Belfast members have appeared in court multiple times due to the prosecution service launching numerous frivolous attempts to criminalise their activists. No guilty verdicts have ever been returned by magistrates.
The group are a local pro-Palestine direct action collective. They have a particular focus on getting ‘Israeli’ products removed from supermarkets. Videos on their social media pages show their activists entering supermarkets, removing Zionist items from shelves and covering them with ‘Boycott Israeli apartheid’ stickers.
In his video, Quinn highlighted many other cases of state repression of Palestine activists:
We’ve seen Mothers Against Genocide in Dublin go through strip searching for just sitting outside the Dáil and blocking the gates…We’ve seen QUB [Queen’s University Belfast] students get dragged through courts for protesting complicit companies at their careers fairs, as well as the war criminal Hillary Clinton when she arrived to Queen’s University Belfast.
And even two days ago, we’ve seen a BDS Belfast activist arrested for storming the stage of a Google Engage conference, where he highlighted the complicity of Google and the disgraceful, disgraceful decision that the ‘Israelis’ were at that conference in Dublin.
He nonetheless urged activists not to be disheartened, but rather be encouraged by the legal wins obtained by the likes of Palestine Action and BDS Belfast.
“Boycott ‘Israel’, free Palestine”
Speaking to the *Canary,*Quinn said that during his abduction, he:
…thought about police mistreatment and abuse of other comrades across Ireland, Britain, Europe and elsewhere across the world.
He said it was part of:
…a pattern of mistreatment of fellow activists as they stand against a live streamed genocide, with our government, institutions and companies you spend money in everyday, supporting and facilitating this economy of genocide.
What we go through as activists pales in comparison to what our brothers and sisters are experiencing in Palestine as they endure a barbaric, horrifying occupation, apartheid and genocide.
Everyone must do what they can – join solidarity groups, follow the BDS movement, boycott ‘Israel’, and free Palestine.
Featured image via the Canary
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