[PR] Passenger banned from Traveling on the Luas

Victor

http://www.luas.ie/ul/78.doc

Media Release
29 March 2007

Passenger is banned from travelling on the LUAS by Dublin District Court for racial abuse and attempted assault of Luas Customer Service Officer.

Veolia Transport, operator of the Luas welcome the decision made in Dublin District Court 53 to ban Kevin Mc Loughlin from travelling on the Luas .Mr McLoughlin was also handed down two three month suspended sentences for racial abuse and attempted assault on a LUAS Customer Service Officer.

The incident happened on the 26th February 2006 at the Blackhorse stop on the Luas Red Line (Connolly to Tallaght).

Brian Brennan, General Manager of Veolia Transport, welcomed the courts decision, commenting on it, he said “the safety of Luas staff and passengers is our No. 1 priority. Luas is a very safe way to travel. Veolia Transport will continue to prosecute people for racial, verbal and physical assault on staff and passengers. We welcome the courts decision and thank the Gardai for their continued support and co-operation”


Ends

KTRIC

Might sound like a bit of a conincidence but I had an incident near that same stop with a member of the Luas staff.
I was on the way out to Tallaght to meet my girlfriend after work and a ticket inspector got on around Smithfield somewhere. He inspected my ticket and others and moved his way down the tram. On his was back up with his collegue he wasn't watching what he was doing and knocked off my laptop which was on my lap (in a case) and sent it to the floor. He just ingnored it and kept walking, I turned to him and asked if he was going to even apologise and he went off on one saying I was a racist (he was African).
This little guy really blew his top, totally over board. Everyone around me backed me up and said there was nothing racist about asking for an apology.

So when I see stuff like this in the news I have to ask if we are hearing the full story ? and is this guy just being made an example of by over the top polictically correct judge.

murphaph

I hear ya KTRIC, seen the race card being pulled waaaaay too many times now for me to immediately condemn people accused of racism. I've been accused of it myself and it's not nice, especially when you go out of your way to treat people as you find them. Maybe yer man was a scumbag and was racially abusing the inspector in which case I'm glad he was done for it.

AlekSmart

If it`s gonna happen on the Red Line odds on it`ll be between James`s and Long Mile.
Perhaps Little Seamus`s idea about the stilts was`nt that wide of the mark after all,just needed a little relocation of the yokes........

MarkoP11

Problem with Luas is the customer service officers are under orders to avoid confronting passengers where a physical confrontation is likely, as such it is well known that late at night on both Red and Green lines things can get interesting as groups of trouble makers are left well alone

This contrasts with the Irish Rail bouncers who have no problem wrestling people to the ground, hauling them off and sitting on them until the cops arrive. It doesn't look good but is very reassuring.

Basic outcome of all this is the need for a dedicated transport police it seems somewhat unfair that the transport companies be burdened with the cost (which they pass on to the passenger) of security companies when the problem is at society level.

The lack of a custodial sentence in this case hardly the message we need the courts to send out. What is 'attempted assault' anyway either the member of staff took a thump or not

lucernarian

KTRIC wrote:

Might sound like a bit of a conincidence but I had an incident near that same stop with a member of the Luas staff.
I was on the way out to Tallaght to meet my girlfriend after work and a ticket inspector got on around Smithfield somewhere. He inspected my ticket and others and moved his way down the tram. On his was back up with his collegue he wasn't watching what he was doing and knocked off my laptop which was on my lap (in a case) and sent it to the floor. He just ingnored it and kept walking, I turned to him and asked if he was going to even apologise and he went off on one saying I was a racist (he was African).
This little guy really blew his top, totally over board. Everyone around me backed me up and said there was nothing racist about asking for an apology.

So when I see stuff like this in the news I have to ask if we are hearing the full story ? and is this guy just being made an example of by over the top polictically correct judge.

I would simply have lodged a complaint with the Luas operators for almost damaging expensive equipment. Staff can't call you racist either, and that's another ground for complaint.

Ethnic minorities using such a significant allegation for their own ends and bad manners is simply unacceptable. So such slanderous behaviour should be tackled in the appropriate way. I think going the legal route would stop incidents like what happened to you.

P.S. what makes you say he was african in particular?

Mr. Presentable

"ban Kevin Mc Loughlin from travelling on the Luas "

Are they going to post his picture at the stops?

AlekSmart

nipplenuts wrote:

Are they going to post his picture at the stops?

Interesting to see the Centra at Drumcondra Train Station regularly featuring still pictures from its Video Surveillance of various Thieves,Pickpockets and general low-lifes which the management want to interview.

Many years ago RTE`s Today Tonight programme did a fly on the wall piece with the Gardai`s then new Cobra Units in Dublin.

While the crew were with the Unit it recieved a call to a serious incident adjacent to the US Embassy in Ballsbridge.
The incident involved some scruffy criminal types who had attempted to commandeer a car from a female motorist.

Luckily the Cobra team made an interception and apprehended the gougers.
The most enlightening part of the entire drama however,was how the presence of Armed Gardai did not really phase them at all......What sent the scummers absolutely Ballistic was the sudden realization that they were being Filmed.

Both of the Hard Chaws went Ape-**** and drew upon the full vocabulary of curses and other iliberal threats against the RTE crew if the camera was`nt turned off tout-suite.

With the advent of excellent high quality CCTV systems on both Buses and Trams now there is a strong case to be made for identifying regular Troublemakers and coincidentally warning the ordinary law-abiding punter of who to watch out for.....

Use the technology,thats what its for !!! :eek:

KTRIC

To_be_confirmed wrote:

P.S. what makes you say he was african in particular?

Because I don't know what African country he was from. I'm pretty sure people in Africa or the America's call us European when they don't know what European country we're from.