One ignorant Garda

LegacyUser

I suppose this is the best forum for this topic.
I had a rather heated discussion with a very rude and idiotic Garda this afternoon and it's the first time I've ever had any personal issues with a member of the Gardai.
Right, the story goes...
About 3 hours ago, I was travelling to my parents house, who live in a small residential cul de sac of about 14 houses. Anyway it's a big match day and as requested by the residents association, a garda was posted at the entrance to stop non residents parking there, a bit extreme you might say, but there have been issues on previous occasions, mostly down to very badly parked cars (in front of drive ways and such).
So driving into the housing estate, I notice 3 other cars parked at the entrance blocking my way in, the 3 cars belonged to neighbours and an uncle of mine. Everyone is standing around a garda, so I park a little bit away on a foot path and join the rest.
I asked the garda if they're was a problem getting in, he says "I'm not saying all this again", so I asked my dad, who's just come down from the house, what the story is. It seems nobody can get in without a residence pass, of course none was issued.
To cut the whole story short, nobody was getting in without a pass. I offered to show my driving license, which still shows my address of my parents home, he wouldn't take it and steadfastly refused me entry. One of my neighbours takes him aside and has some words with him and he allows her in, when asked how she got entry he uses a pulling on a rope motion to basically indicate she had some 'pull'. Now without going into the details of the conversation I had with him, I got the impression he was trying to rise me, but I've got good verbal restraint, so he picked a bad person to lay it on.
Anyway 5 minutes later a second garda appears, he seemed to be more resonable and follows my dad to his house to prove where he lived and based on that, allowed everyone entry on my dads invitation.
So whats the standing on this, is my driving license not adequate proof for a situation like this, could this fool even have arrested family members at home for trespassing?? Where the hell is the line drawn??

mayordenis

well there are gonna be unreasonable people in every walk of life, ill be honest ive met a few garda who really have gone out of there way to be rude but im not going to label them and i know your not going to either. in this case he was entirely in the wrong, and you should of hit him with a shovel.

dudara

Ever heard of the effects of giving a little power to a little person? Well that's what happened there. Unfortunately, you're going to come off the worse in an argument with a Garda

The_Conductor

You should be very happy that you have good verbal restraint- but for that, you'd probably be up on a public order offence- regardless of the relative merits of the situation. Its very unfortunate, but what happened to you is sympthomatic of whats happening all over the country. You'll find several threads on boards with broadly similar experiences. All in all- well done for keeping your cool!

Nuttzz

"very rude and idiotic Garda"

its a special course they take. accept that they are all twats and move on with your life

seamus

sufferingfools wrote:

I asked the garda if they're was a problem getting in, he says "I'm not saying all this again", so I asked my dad, who's just come down from the house, what the story is. It seems nobody can get in without a residence pass, of course none was issued.

Sounds like a case of misinformation or as others say, a bit too much power. If it was a young Garda, it's possible he was told that there would be passes. Now young Gardai stick to the letter of the law. That's the way they've been trained. So if he was told that "No-one gets in without a pass", then the fact that none were issued is none of his concern, he's just doing what he was told. If he's not a young garda, then he was probably just being a prick. Older Gardai, like the second guy (if he was older), are more willing to do the reasonable thing, as opposed to the thing they were told to do (in some cases).

So whats the standing on this, is my driving license not adequate proof for a situation like this, could this fool even have arrested family members at home for trespassing?? Where the hell is the line drawn??

No. This is a little different. You see, the Garda cannot stop you from putting your car in your driveway, but he has got the control to stop you getting your car to your driveway at all. Basically, as above, if he was told "No-one gets through without a pass", then that's it. Proof of residency is not a pass in your hand.

Agent Smith

Nuttzz wrote:

"very rude and idiotic Garda"

its a special course they take. accept that they are all twats and move on with your life

now i wouldnt paint them all with the same brush,
but you'll always get a few bad apple's,


i'd just say to myself, what a fuc¦<ing moran, then let it pass

Gillo

Got to agree with Agent Smith, I've met a few bad gadra's in my time, but the majority I've met are great and I've met a fair few (working in retail you tend to meet them on a regular basis).

If it was a young garda, then yeah he was doign his job and you can't blame him for doing his job. The other option you have is to request that no more garda's "protect" your fathers road and go back to a free for all.