Sinn Féin has defended its protest at a public meeting on policing which had to be abandoned because of persistent chanting.
The SDLP chairman of the Omagh District Policing Partnership (DPP) said the protesters' behaviour was "fascist" and the Policing Board's chairman said the action was "reprehensible". The PSNI district commander, Mr Michael Skuce, also criticised the protesters.
West Tyrone MP, Mr Pat Doherty of Sinn Féin, said the protest arose from "anger around the issue of policing and the confirmation of collusion between the RUC and loyalists by the Stevens report and continued evidence of spying on Sinn Féin".
District Policing Partnerships, called for by the Patten report on the future of policing, were established earlier this year to facilitate community input into policing decisions.
They comprise members of the public and local councillors. Monday night's meeting in Omagh, Co Tyrone was the first convened by the area's DPP.
Speakers at the meeting could not be heard because of interruptions from those taking part in a protest organised by Sinn Féin.
The SDLP's Mr Gerry O'Doherty, the Omagh DPP chairman, said: "Anybody who disrupts the meeting and does not allow people to speak is guilty of pure fascism, as far as I am concerned." Prof Desmond Rea, chairman of the North's Policing Board, said: "The meeting was about people having their say on local policing issues together as a community.
"The intimidation of members of the public who were there and the members of the DPP, in particular the independent members who have come forward to play their part, was reprehensible."
His vice-chairman, Mr Denis Bradley, accused Sinn Féin of abusing the consultation process. He told The Irish Times: "It's bad local politics, and it's bad national politics.
"Sinn Féin is fighting over an issue which is dead."
The Sinn Féin chairman rejected Mr Bradley's claim: "It is far from over," he said.
"I accept that many of Bradley's supporters in the SDLP would like the debate to be over, but Sinn Féin will not settle for less than the new beginning to policing promised in the Good Friday agreement."
He added: "We do not yet have the new beginning to policing envisaged in the agreement or Patten. We do not have a democratically accountable, acceptable and representative policing service."
Prof Rea insisted current policing arrangements were a "new beginning".
"We have come an incredibly long way in a relatively short space of time compared to those who seem to be very much stuck in the past".