Scumbags on Quay St last night!

galvianlord

Popped out for a few random drinks late last night to enjoy the weather and catch up with a few friends. Did the usual crawl along Quay St/High St.

Havin a pint somwhere in limbo between the Quays and the Spanish Arch Hotel when I saw the most random, sickening piece of random violence I think I have ever seen.

There seemed to be a high proportion of US college kids in town last night enjoying a few drinks. Two of these guys are approached by a teenaged scumbag who must have been drinking down the Arch all day. He asked them if they were American, they said yeah. Asked them if they knew how to box, they said no. Said he'd teach them, playfully sparring with the American kid. The yank throws a few half-hearted limp slaps that didnt touch scumbag. When next thing scumbag belts him across the head. American kid hits back a bit harder, when out of the blue, what could only be described as the Mother/Aunt/Overweight Girlfriend in her 40s, of the scumbag comes racing out of the crowd, punches American kid in the face and says: "touch him again and I'll ****ing kill ya!" At which point a few more emerged surrounded the American kid and his friend and started shoving and pushing them. Somehow they got away and ran up the street with this gang following them.

I hope they got into a taxi alright because it was pretty shocking. Saw the gang trawling up and down Quay St and the original scumbag broke a bottle over a table outside Artisan and tried to start a fight with a gang of lads from the North. Nothing came of it I think but they just seemed to be looking for trouble. Saw a couple of Gards earlier in the night but none were around when this gang was up to their ****!

It was so odd to see that kind of thing down that side of town. And I felt so bad for the American kid, who's impression of Galway is going to be forever marred by what happened! Also feel bad with myself for not stepping in and trying to stop it, but think that could have just made things worse...ah ****e!

bullpost

Any chance it would be on CCTV - If so maybe report it?

snubbleste

That could happen anywhere not just on a street in a city that attracts people

galvianlord

snubbleste wrote: »

That could happen anywhere not just on a street in a city that attracts people

perhaps, but i still think it is unusal to see that on Quay St: A gang of scumbags basically working the street, breaking bottles and picking fights with random people. They were deranged to say the least.

qwytre

snubbleste wrote: »

That could happen anywhere not just on a street in a city that attracts people

Yeah but it didnt happen just anywhere, it happened in Galway. And thats a pity to see. This is the kind of thing that must NOT be allowed to get worse.

therewillbe

Cops,Sunny evenings!More people having a few beers etc but so do the SKUM.So I think there should be more VISIBLE cops WALKING/CYCLING .Poor tourists/students they think they are coming to a "lovely place" where everyone is so friendly and they let their guard down.They should tell all their friends etc etc not to come and maybe something will be done in making your average local/tourist feel a lot safer.It is not just a Galway problem.Chin up you would have ended up getting bet up by that gang.:mad::mad::mad:

Steoob

To be fair the kid shouldn't have humoured the scumbag. Just ignore them til they **** off, thats the only way to treat them IMO.

bullpost

bullpost wrote: »

Any chance it would be on CCTV - If so maybe report it?

+1

No point posting on boards, there's not much anyone can do here. There is CCTV on Quay st and I'm sure it picked it up

Steoob

Steoob wrote: »

Just ignore them til they **** off, thats the only way to treat them IMO.

Bad advice

gary82

I'd noticed a very large amount of scumbags around the Spanish arch area yesterday afternoon alright. Seems to be a growing problem in the last few weeks, they're really dragging down the spanish arch.

When I was walking through, one scumbag who was walking down from Quay street punched the plastic wall of the bus-stop just beside the head of a fella who was sitting waiting on his bus to Salthill. What an idiot.

galvianlord

Steoob wrote: »

To be fair the kid shouldn't have humoured the scumbag. Just ignore them til they **** off, thats the only way to treat them IMO.

he was maybe 20, probably from the Midwest somewhere....i dont think he knew what a scumbag was sadly....will mention it to a Garda I know but dont expect anything to come of it. Guess it will just make them aware that these people are about.....next time you're on Quay St keep an eye out for them!

Euro_Kraut

Thats a real shame OP. Quay Street is usually such a safe place. Normally just good humoured revelary. In fairness the Gaurds can't be everywhere. Might have been a good idea to ring them when this was breaking out. They are based very close by. Also no harm now to go in and report it - we have to stamp this kind of thing out in Galway City if the place is to keep its charm.

Steoob, let not blame the victim. He was a young kid on holidays from the States. Prehaps a bit niave, but if a young lad who probably abroad for the first time in his life can't be allowed to be niave than who can?

bullpost

Its a pity.
I was up around that area on Sunday going for lunch after visiting someone in hospital and was very impressed with how laidback and friendly things seemed to be , but as someone mentioned this could happen anywhere in Ireland and probably with more frequency.

Malice

Steoob wrote: »

To be fair the kid shouldn't have humoured the scumbag. Just ignore them til they **** off, thats the only way to treat them IMO.

rarnes1 wrote: »

Bad advice

What would you have done in that situation rarnes1?

Ronan_

If it was a lad with a green bulb lit under his car the gardai would be all over him but when it comes to trouble on the streets of this country, they do very little.

I was in Galway last night - I saw two gardai (tall male + short female) walking around Eyre Square. Other than that there was a traffic corp jeep following 'boy racers'.

You only have to watch Sky at night to see what law enforcement have to put up with in other countries. Gardai in Ireland have it a lot easier than Police in other countries and they still cannot keep control.

Zzippy

Ronan_ wrote: »

If it was a lad with a green bulb lit under his car the gardai would be all over him but when it comes to trouble on the streets of this country, they do very little.

I was in Galway last night - I saw two gardai (tall male + short female) walking around Eyre Square. Other than that there was a traffic corp jeep following 'boy racers'.

You only have to watch Sky at night to see what law enforcement have to put up with in other countries. Gardai in Ireland have it a lot easier than Police in other countries and they still cannot keep control.

WTF has their height or sex got to do with anything? :rolleyes:

Ronan_

Did you RTFP? :rolleyes:
Did I say it had anything to do with anything. I was merely pointing out that the only two gardai I saw in Galway last night. Perhaps you saw others? If not, those were the only two walking the streets.

galah

saw an awful lot of drunk kids (and I mean kids, they were hardly older than 15) staggering out of St. Mary's (must have been bushing) down towards town, being noisy, disorderly, definuteoly drunk, and messing with parked cars. At 8 pm.

Last time we called the guards about a similar incident (as it was 2.30 in the morning and they were really causing trouble), noone came. Very annoying. Where are the parents, I ask you!

malice_

malice_ wrote: »

What would you have done in that situation rarnes1?

Not told him to f*ck off anyway as that's all the excuse those scumbags need to draw a knife/bottle.

Tbh, I'd probably just walk off, even though every bone in my body would be wanting to smash the little f*cker.

5/6 years ago, I would have decked him without hesitation. The only problem with that is he then turns into the victim, and cue compo for the scumbag

inisboffin

There's been an increasing amount of this b*llox on Shop/High/Quay St recently. The bookies being robbed. Two buskers too. Someone did call the cops on the latter - the 'robber' was yer man with the really bad broken nose. Big guy, and really antisocial.
There's two youngish lads I remember from last year, real nasty f*ckers. They went up and down Quay St picking fights with everyone, similar to the OP's post. The took a few swings too. Nasty little gits.

skelliser

what was the story with all the young people out lastnite, seemed to be alot of drunk teenagers around

HoPpiE

I witnessed this incident, was an absolute disgrace.

Discodog

That American kid will go home & tell everyone. His friends will tell their friends & not only will it make them avoid Galway but they may stereotype the Irish.

If you witnessed this tell the guards.

With a good CCTV system that is monitored & 2 Guards one could easily cover the town centre. It's no good having the Gardai walking around. We need them being able to react quickly to a CCTV alert.

banshee_bones

Maybe you should have rang Mill Street when you saw this kicking off, im sure guards would have been there in no time. I know they were able to direct a patrol car to me when i was almost robbed at an ATM by Roma gypsies further up the town a while back.

snubbleste

Discodog wrote: »

That American kid will go home & tell everyone. His friends will tell their friends & not only will it make them avoid Galway but they may stereotype the Irish.
If you witnessed this tell the guards. ...

Er, the irish drink a lot and get into donnybrooks - sterotypical image from The Simpsons

biko

Scumbags are a scourge of any town/city but I really hate to have them here where we have a reputation of being a friendly city.

galvianlord wrote: »

American kid hits back a bit harder, when out of the blue, what could only be described as the Mother/Aunt/Overweight Girlfriend in her 40s, of the scumbag comes racing out of the crowd, punches American kid in the face and says: "touch him again and I'll ****ing kill ya!"

This is the reason they grow up to be monsters. Useless parents create useless kids.

Pete4779

galvianlord wrote: »

...
It was so odd to see that kind of thing down that side of town. And I felt so bad for the American kid, who's impression of Galway is going to be forever marred by what happened! Also feel bad with myself for not stepping in and trying to stop it, but think that could have just made things worse...ah ****e!

I don't think it's odd at all. Galway is rough as hell and full of knackers in the summer, or else vomiting students during college terms. It's a pretty unattractive place TBH, there is not even minimal policing at the best of times. I think tourists primarily visit for the countryside, not the amazing town which essentially is Carrick-on-Suir on steroids.

Pete4779

Pete4779 wrote: »

I don't think it's odd at all. Galway is rough as hell and full of knackers in the summer, or else vomiting students during college terms. It's a pretty unattractive place TBH, there is not even minimal policing at the best of times. I think tourists primarily visit for the countryside, not the amazing town which essentially is Carrick-on-Suir on steroids.

Complete and utter rubbish.

I've been living in Galway since '96 and could count on 2 hands the number of incidents I've seen.

And please don't compare Galway to Carrick-on-Suir .

aloevera

thats a disgrace... poor american kids

rdow

rarnes1 wrote: »

Complete and utter rubbish.

I've been living in Galway since '96 and could count on 2 hands the number of incidents I've seen.

And please don't compare Galway to Carrick-on-Suir .

I've only been living in Galway 6 months and I've seen loads of incidents.
I saw a guy walk up to a taxi outside Jury's recently and spit on the driver then a group of them came out of nowhere and kicked the crap outta him till other people intervened, a girl attack someone with a stilletoe, a guy beating up a girl near Eyre square, a guy get robbed outside the bus station, thats all only in the last month... so either you don't get out to often or your oblivious to whats going on, Galway isn't any different to the rest of the country unfortunately.

Malice

rarnes1 wrote: »

Not told him to f*ck off anyway as that's all the excuse those scumbags need to draw a knife/bottle.

Tbh, I'd probably just walk off, even though every bone in my body would be wanting to smash the little f*cker.

5/6 years ago, I would have decked him without hesitation. The only problem with that is he then turns into the victim, and cue compo for the scumbag

But nobody advocated telling him to fuck off. According to the OP the Americans were pleasant to the scumbag and Steoob said to ignore them. I agree with you though that you shouldn't give them any excuse to start anything. Sadly though, they often just start it anyway.

Pete4779 wrote:

the amazing town which essentially is Carrick-on-Suir on steroids.

What does that mean?

rdow

rdow wrote: »

I saw a guy walk up to a taxi outside Jury's recently and spit on the driver then a group of them came out of nowhere and kicked the crap outta him till other people intervened, a girl attack someone with a stilletoe, a guy beating up a girl near Eyre square, a guy get robbed outside the bus station, thats all only in the last month

You must have bad timing.

Report any of these?

rdow

rarnes1 wrote: »

You must have bad timing.

Report any of these?

the one with the taxi driver, we just told security in Jurys and the girl with the stilletoe and the guy beating the girl were broken up so I didnt.

suimhneas

and all this going on while there are 300 guards are up at the shell to sea crap in mayo. Drives me mad now they have two navy ships there as well

KevR

Discodog wrote: »

With a good CCTV system that is monitored & 2 Guards one could easily cover the town centre. It's no good having the Gardai walking around. We need them being able to react quickly to a CCTV alert.

I would disagree with the bit in bold. I think a visible presence on the streets prevents a lot of trouble. Last year in when I went to New York it stuck out to me how little CCTV they have (comapred to London or even Dublin and Galway) but there was always a large presence of officers patrolling the streets; there were officers at every second street corner almost. As a result it seemed incredibly safe. I didn't see any trouble and it was always reassuring to know that if you did get into any bother there would be police officers very close by.

CCTV is very important also. It acts as a deterrent, can provide evidence and can alert the Gardai to situations they may not otherwise be aware of.

I know if I was getting attacked I would rather there were lots of Gardai out on the streets that could help me quickly rather than someone sitting in a CCTV control room watching me have 9 bags of ****e kicked out of me from several different angles. That's if I had to choose between the two; obviously we can and should have both.

biko

Maybe we should follow Stockholm's example and introduce crime prevention stewards?

The Lugna Gatan programme in Stockholm started in 1994. The basic idea is to reduce levels of violence, vandalism and other forms of offending among youths in the county of Stockholm by means of activities run by young persons who themselves have experience of asocial behaviour and of not fitting in. The objective is to reduce crime and social marginalisation among the youths participating in the project, and to reduce corresponding problems in those areas where these youths are active

http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Work-live/Society-welfare/Reading/Swedes-stamp-out-violence

Mike...

Galway is turning in a right hole...

banshee_bones

Mike... wrote: »

Galway is turning in a right hole...

wow thats not a big generalisation atall....

KevR

Let us not get overly dramatic.

Galway still has the lowest crime rate of any city in the country. If you can't feel safe in Galway then where can you feel safe?!

dinneenp

I saw a few 'unsavory characters' checking out the bikes by The Dew Drop, phoned the Garda station. They said that the'll look at the CCTV. I'd imagine that Quay St has a CCVT as well.

You should phone the station and they might have a look at it (while it's happening) or send someone over

bigeasyeah

Magnus wrote: »

Maybe we should follow Stockholm's example and introduce crime prevention stewards?



http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Work-live/Society-welfare/Reading/Swedes-stamp-out-violence

To me thats akin to letting the lunatics run the asylum.

Mrs OBumble

OP, it's a shame that you didn't have your cellphone on you at the time? Or that you didn't use it. Whichever.

Does anyone know what's the best number to ring when you see something like this? I'm guessing not 911/112, since it's not a life-and-death emergency. Mill St? Anyone know what it is, I'd like l to save it into my phone.

bigeasyeah

The number I have for Mill Street is 091 538000

cornbb

JustMary wrote: »

OP, it's a shame that you didn't have your cellphone on you at the time? Or that you didn't use it. Whichever.

Does anyone know what's the best number to ring when you see something like this? I'm guessing not 911/112, since it's not a life-and-death emergency. Mill St? Anyone know what it is, I'd like l to save it into my phone.

091 538000

Although I'm sure they'll be ok with 999 (not 911) if someone is getting the sh*t knocked out of them. I guess the local number would be slightly quicker though.

KevR

JustMary wrote: »

OP, it's a shame that you didn't have your cellphone on you at the time? Or that you didn't use it. Whichever.

Does anyone know what's the best number to ring when you see something like this? I'm guessing not 911/112, since it's not a life-and-death emergency. Mill St? Anyone know what it is, I'd like l to save it into my phone.

Certainly not 911, unless you're in the US.

999/112

EDIT: cornbb just beat me to it.

big b

KevR wrote: »

Certainly not 911, unless you're in the US.

999/112

EDIT: cornbb just beat me to it.

You sure, guys?

Haven't had to used it myself, and I'm clearly not going to try it to find out, but I've been told by several people that 911 will indeed connect you to the emergency services.

I would get untold pleasure from seeing the likes of that scumbag(in the op) getting kicked to a pulp after picking the wrong person to threaten.

cornbb

big b wrote: »

You sure, guys?

Haven't had to used it myself, and I'm clearly not going to try it to find out, but I've been told by several people that 911 will indeed connect you to the emergency services.

Wikipedia says "maybe, but not officially"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/999_%28emergency_telephone_number%29 wrote:

It has been reported that on some networks in the UK, and in Ireland dialing 9-1-1 will forward you to the emergency line as well.[9] Despite this, 911 is not the official number in those locations and can not be relied upon in case of emergency.[1

I'll give it a go next time I'm in the middle of being murdered.

Or you could always try 0118 999 881 999 119 7253

Edit: grr, embedding disabled http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8GtuPdrUQ

big b

cornbb wrote: »

Wikipedia says "maybe, but not officially


I'll give it a go next time I'm in the middle of being murdered.

Would ya?

There doesn't seem to be too many different ways of calling, worldwide. Given that, maybe it'd make sense if 999/911/112 all got ya through, in any country.

Edit - Cornbb's clip looked embedded ok a few mins ago

Mrs OBumble

KevR wrote: »

Certainly not 911, unless you're in the US.

Oops ...

No landline in my house, so I only bothered learning learning 112. That's my excuse anyway.

Pete4779

KevR wrote: »

Let us not get overly dramatic.

Galway still has the lowest crime rate of any city in the country. If you can't feel safe in Galway then where can you feel safe?!

This is typical of the made-up nonsense I experience when living in Galway, which is actually a ****hole of a town, and from videos seemed much ncier in the 1950s.

http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/documents/crime_justice/current/gardacrimestats.pdf

Manslaughter: (p27): Galway (west) rate is 15th of the 25 areas studied.

Dangerous Driving leading to death: Galway West is 1.66/100000. That is higher than North central and Eastern Dublin Metropolitan (DMR), more than Cork City, North Cork or West Cork. In fact of the 25 regions in the CSO, Galway West ranks 8th highest in the country for dangerous driving leading to death. Look a the stats, it has a higher rate than all of the Dublin metropolitan regions.

Rape: 5th highest rate of the 25 regions in Ireland. That is HUGE. If you add in Galway East and Roscommon (reported as one), Galway + Roscommon have the 3rd highest rate rape per 100000 populaiton in Ireland. safe place, yeah?

Defilement of a boy or girl under 17 years old: (p36) Galway has the highest incidents of this in the whole country; I suppose you have to be number one at something. Wow, what a fantastic place to have children, isn't it. The highest reported difilements of minors per population in the whole country. What an achievement.

Sexual offences involving a mentally impaired person: (p37) Once again, Galway leads the pack and has the highest rate in the country.

Non-aggravated sexual assaults: an improvement. Galway West ranks as 18th of 25. Not the safest place in the country, but an improvement as long as you are not actually being raped or mentally impaired.

Other assaults: middle of the road, 12th in the country (p49)

Dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm: Galway is number 1 in the country, with Dublin metropolitan area West. Well done Galway and your second (or is it third) highest rate of a crime per population in Ireland!!! (p56)


In charge of a vehicle while under influence of drugs: Galway ranks as the 7th highest rate of this crime out of the 25 areas studied. (p58)

rate of Abandonement causing child neglect: keeping up it's "low crime" image, Galway ranks as 7th in the country again for this out of 25 areas. Keep it up boys! Sure isn't it the safest place in Ireland, to be sure!

You get the idea. Out of 25 areas that are reported on by the CSO, galway is:

5th highest of 25 for endangering road traffic incidents
13th of 25 for non-aggravated burglarly offences
12th for vehicle theft
9th of 25 for theft from person incidents
10th of 25 for theft from shops


Basically, people in galway live in fantasy land. It has slightly higher than average crime, but particularly high rates for rape and defielment of minors.

Now, lets forget about facts and concentrate on bigging up the next town over from boston.