Your dealings with the Gardaí - positive or negative?

Fukuyama

I know there's a few Garda related threads going around at the minute but - have your dealings with the gardaí been positive or negative?

Mine have been mostly negative. When I was a kid I was treated fairly rudly by them (I was a fecken nerd that wouldn't harm a fly). For instance, hanging around in an empty school yard of a summers evening playing football they'd search us, take names, loads of remarks, intimidate, threaten, take the piss if a few of the younger lads were a bit nervous (we were like 14/15) only to then stand around for a few minutes and drive off

Then we'd have to wander the streets with nothing to do...

I'm older now and I can't say I've hand anything but negative experiences since then. I've been at a few protests. During the student demonstration (3rd Nov) everyone was walking down o'connell street. The volume of people was such that it started to spill over into the other side. Some fat **** of a guard decided it would be grand to baton my friend in the leg? Other garda were just directing people back but he decides to baton my friend who was on the phone at the time and of no danger...

Are your experiences positive or negative?

A poll would be cool too mods!!

-- Dean.

Redlion

To be honest, I haven't really had many dealings with the Garda, but on the occasional time that I have, it's been more positive than negative.

I work a job that involves Garda interaction. Most are grand, and will throw a friendly wave or hello my way, and are able to have a laugh and a joke. Any time I've had direct dealings with them, they've been more than helpful. Although, there was one occasion when a senior ranking member attempted to throw his weight around, but was brought swiftly back into line. He misjudged the timing of a power-trip.

A relative of mine has even worked in several Garda stations (not as a Garda) and they seemed nothing but pleasant towards him. They are after all just doing a job, and like any workforce you get the good and the bad. Like all people with authority, you will get some that go on power-trips, but from my experiences they seem to get labelled well too easily.

ScumLord

I got arrested by them years ago for hash, they gave me a snack box for free which went down a treat I can tell you. Can't say I was treated badly had a nice chat with the two guards during the interview about the drug laws and such.

I did think at the time if I was a real criminal the process wouldn't have scared me in the slightest every few minutes a guard would come in asking me if I was all right and if I'd like another cup of tea. Facing my parents was a much bigger worry.

blaze1

Redlion wrote: »

To be honest, I haven't really had many dealings with the Garda, but on the occasional time that I have, it's been more positive than negative.

I work a job that involves Garda interaction. Most are grand, and will throw a friendly wave or hello my way, and are able to have a laugh and a joke

You sound like a traffic warden/clamper to me

Redlion

blaze1 wrote: »

You sound like a traffic warden/clamper to me

Nah, wouldn't work a filthy job like that

jay93

Yes

Most of them are grand alot more are stuck up their own arse tough.
I've got stopped walking home so many times!!
They serched me and all but sure they were wasting their time as i had nothing on me at all :rolleyes::rolleyes:

One garda was a complete arrogant pr1ck to me on one occasion.
The mad thing is that when you actually need a Garda they are never around joke they are :rolleyes:

blaze1

Redlion wrote: »

Nah, wouldn't work a filthy job like that

haha..

I cant comment on the gardi really never had to deal with them.

In england where i grew up the local cops seemed sound enough, took our names etc if we were pissed up, one of them ran the footy team I played for.

osullic

Yes

Redlion wrote: »

Nah, wouldn't work a filthy job like that

banker maybe

Dravokivich

Yes

i'm not a scumbag, so never really had an issue with them.

Hyperbullet

Yes

Always had positive experiences with the Gardaí in Galway. Never any issues. Also had to give a statement when I was 13 to the guards in Clare, witness to a hit and run. Never been offered as much tea in my life.

Logical Fallacy

Had a fair few dealings with them through various jobs and in that capacity they were mostly grand (this would have been weekly interaction). Had one or two dealings with them as a normal person and they were pricks.

Pauleta

If you are nice to them, they will return the favour.

RichieC

Yes

Had a few not very serious run in's as a teen from loitering around the estate... not since, though. I generally like our police.

Cork boy 55

They keep asking me to be their friend on facebook, what's that all about?

Dravokivich

Yes

Cork boy 55 wrote: »

They keep asking me to be their friend on facebook, what's that all about?

keep yer friends close, but yer enemies....

Gunsfortoys

Dravokivich wrote: »

i'm not a scumbag, so never really had an issue with them.

Especially those scumbag TV licence dodgers.

seanybiker

Yes

One fella was a complete prick. All the other times they were all extremely sound. Never had to deal with them that much.

markc1184

The majority I've been in contact with have been grand. Most can have a laugh with you etc. But like everything else it only takes one bad apple.

The only somewhat negative experience I've had, was when a Beangarda tried to tell me that the factory fitted ''tints'' to the rear of my car were too dark. I explained to her that it was black glass rather than a tint so she spent the next 15-20 mins trying to prove me wrong and peel it off. She gave up then.

Chaotic_Forces

Very negative except the few times I was actually doing things that were against the law!

Drinking in a garden at night, perfectly legal if you have owner's permission and are of age but that suddenly equates with you being the biggest scumbag in history and should be talked down by some scumbag on a powertrip.

Drinking outside the garden, twenty foot from it and suddenly when you're doing something wrong (drinking on the street), they're very nice to you.

Then of course there was the one time a Polish fella was about to get a hiding from two scumbags and the garda said "sorry, can't leave my post", despite my pleads with him he wouldn't tell anyone that could do something about it (I didn't have my phone at the time).

So basically they're complete bastards when I'm doing nothing wrong but for some reason, they're lovely when I'm breaking the law...

Course, that's only the ones I met.

CrazyRabbit

Yes

Almost entirely positive, even when being arrested (no convictions!).

Just had two Gardai in the Blanchardstown station (Dublin 15) who 'questioned' me for about 5 hours. Pretty much non-stop harassment, asking me questions I didn't know answers to.

prinz

Yes

Positive. Both work related and personal experiences.

galwayrush

Thinking about the last 10 times i've dealt with the Gardai, 9 times i have come across fantastic people, very helpful and professional and once, met an absolute **** with a terrible attitute problem on a power trip. I didn't take any **** from him and reported him to a superior whom i knew well. Now the prick won't even look in my direction LOL.

Offy

Yes

Any time a crime was committed against me they were complete donut eating useless twats. If Im not looking to report a crime they are sound as a pound but in my experience they hate trying to catch criminals. Any time I committed a crime and had to pay some kind of traffic fine they were the nicest most professional people in the world. Personally I think they love gathering money for the government but hate doing any other kind of work.

Storminateacup

Yes

Funnily enough, the only run ins I've ever had with the gardai have mostly been with female ones. They must be on some serious power trips, or sprouting extra large lady balls, but they're venom.

For the most part, my experience with the gardai have been positive. Now, I was pretty wild back in the day, but any time I had cause to have dealings with them, the male cops were generally a lot nicer and respectful than the female ones.

dr.bollocko

Yes

Dean0088 wrote: »

A poll would be cool too mods!!

-- Dean.

Sure thing bro.
</trollface>

Offy

Yes

dr.bollocko wrote: »

Sure thing bro.
</trollface>

Great troll......I mean poll!

johnmcdnl

Yes

at home in the countryside the guards i can't say a single bad word against any guard that I've come across

I'm now up in the bhig shmoke and the guards do seem to be far bigger pricks up here....

so I'm have a mixed opinion...

lastlaugh

12 yrs ago, my father was found in a local park after having a fatal heart attack. Three Guards called to the door with the bad news.
I answered the door and I could tell by them there was something wrong.

Fair play to them, they came into the house and comforted myself and my mother. Really nice ban garda and two gardai. Made tea for us and were very sympathetic.

Not a nice part of their job, and I have a lot of respect for them since.

ScumLord

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

Almost entirely positive, even when being arrested (no convictions!).

Just had two Gardai in the Blanchardstown station (Dublin 15) who 'questioned' me for about 5 hours. Pretty much non-stop harassment, asking me questions I didn't know answers to.

Did you get a free snack box and 8 cups of tea? They make really nice cups of tea, I'm pretty sure there's cocaine in it.

Fluorescence

Yes

I've not actually had any dealings with them, besides occasionally asking for directions from one. Although one time when I was getting hassled by a big gang of junkies at a bus-stop on Aston Quay, there was a garda standing about 5 feet away ignoring everything that was going on. I wasn't particularly impressed, but I supposed he was waiting to see if they'd do anything more serious that he could arrest them for... *shrug*

Killer Pigeon

Yes

The only major dealings I had with the Gardaí was getting passport applications signed at my local Garda Station - never ever had a problem. Don't really understand why people hate the Gardaí so much, they're only doing their job like the rest of us. They have to put up with a lot of bullshit from clowns sometimes.

The simple code really is; stay out of shit and then you'll have positive experiences with them.

pragmatic1

Mostly negative.

Yes

No negative experiences just yet.

I'd be around them a fair bit, usually in a joe soap manner, but once or twice in a 'working' manner.

The only bad experience I have was when I was entering a local pub and two detectives were coming out. I had a question I'd been meaning to ask at the station, so felt this'd be handy enough.

They were in an unmarked car, so I think one of them got annoyed or something that I knew straight away they were Gardaì, and he was fairly ignorant to me. The guy that was with him was helpful, though.

Out from that, I find that if you treat them with respect, they'll treat you with respect.

Killer Pigeon

Yes

Dean0088 wrote: »

I'm older now and I can't say I've hand anything but negative experiences since then. I've been at a few protests. During the student demonstration (3rd Nov) everyone was walking down o'connell street. The volume of people was such that it started to spill over into the other side. Some fat **** of a guard decided it would be grand to baton my friend in the leg? Other garda were just directing people back but he decides to baton my friend who was on the phone at the time and of no danger...

What are you talking about? I was at the student protests too, there were no Gardaí with batons on O'Connell Street, they were all on Baggot Street, luckily I didn't get involved in the riot. I made sure I didn't follow those ultra-left clowns.

epgc3fyqirnbsx

Good.

Two of my best mates are cops. Neither play GAA or say ve-hi-cle. Neither are complete boggers, both are quite intelligent and neither would fit the sterotype.

Both have been commended by members of the public to their Supers on their performance.
Both have had friends killed whilst on duty.

They're good cops, they're good people and these tar them all threads are retarded.

Chaotic_Forces

Aliyah Grumpy Runt wrote: »

Good.

Two of my best mates are cops. Neither play GAA or say ve-hi-cle. Neither are complete boggers, both are quite intelligent and neither would fit the sterotype.

Both have been commended by members of the public to their Supers on their performance.
Both have had friends killed whilst on duty.

They're good cops, they're good people and these tar them all threads are retarded.

Except nobody has said anything to tar all Gardaí so far. But wait, you just assumed the worse, kind of like you tarred all these threads the same way.

df1985

Never really had many run ins really, i had a house party that got out of hand a few years ago, half the town was outside trying to get in. Guards showed up but they were really sound about it, i thought i was in for a bollocking but they said i was perfectly entitled to have a party even if my parents were away. they cleared the mob. Thats the only time i needed their assistance really.

Theres pricks in every profession so wouldnt tarnish them all, im familiar with the "big thick guard" type too though. Guards have the type of work where they need to appear perhaps tough or intimidating.....hence people thinking theyre pricks but if they werent tough/intimidationg then people would take the piss.

epgc3fyqirnbsx

Chaotic_Forces wrote: »

Except nobody has said anything to tar all Gardaí so far. But wait, you just assumed the worse, kind of like you tarred all these threads the same way.

BS. I'm on AH for well over a year and there is constant abuse to "culchie guards"

ShamoBuc

Yes

Thankfully I've not had dealings with them but I will say they have a largely thankless job. People rant and rave at them, yet if something bad happens they ring the gards immediately!!!
Having to knock at a persons door and inform them of a serious injury, car crash or worse still a death - no thank you. Not the job for me.
They have my respect for doing what they do and the vast majority of them do theit job well enough.

Chaotic_Forces

Aliyah Grumpy Runt wrote: »

BS. I'm on AH for well over a year and there is constant abuse to "culchie guards"

Oh... so from "these tar them all threads are retarded" to it only being on AH and for well "over" a year and also it's constant abuse towards "culchie gards"? :rolleyes:

Donald_ducked

About 50% good and 50% bad

I honestly do think they become bitter the longer they stay in the force

sagat2

Only a couple of dealings:

After Ireland drew with Germany in the Japan World Cup I was drinking oustide the Stags Head on Dame Lane with a pal, we were getting pissed off by the taxi's flying down the lane with reckless abandon every few minutes telling us to get the f**k out of the way. So we did what any reasonably drunken lads would do at that hour of the morning: constructed a wall of kegs across the road, about 5 kegs high and stood there enjoying the chaos. So the taxi's soon started piling up and the enraged drivers who suspected the two fella's laughing hysterically began leveling torrents of abuse in our direction while dialing furiously on their mobiles. None of them got out of their cars, probably because we were fairly big bastards.
About twenty minutes passed before Dublin's finest made it two the scene, surprisingly both the Gards were from Dublin, a rarity. Anyway they were very reasonable, apparently we had managed to back traffic up all the way to Aungier street and they issued us a simple ultimatum, remove the wall of kegs and bring our pints back inside or else they would take us to the station. The taxi drivers were livid, demanding we be charged with something but the coppers were good to their word and let us go back about our business as soon as the wall came down. not long after the street was closed to traffic, not sure if it still is.

A year or so later I noticed the door to a neighboring apartment had been kicked in so I called the fuzz, took them about 10 minutes to arrive on scene. A couple of big country boys this time. Both were excellent and professional, we entered the apartment to discover it had been stripped clean by burglars and they patiently searched through the rubble until they found information about the tenants identity (the lads who rented it were down the country for the week). No complaints in either case.

Saila

Yes

jay93 wrote: »

Most of them are grand alot more are stuck up their own arse tough.
I've got stopped walking home so many times!!
They serched me and all but sure they were wasting their time as i had nothing on me at all :rolleyes::rolleyes:

One garda was a complete arrogant pr1ck to me on one occasion.
The mad thing is that when you actually need a Garda they are never around joke they are :rolleyes:

take your trousers out of your socks and things should go better

Fukuyama

Killer Pigeon wrote: »

What are you talking about? I was at the student protests too, there were no Gardaí with batons on O'Connell Street, they were all on Baggot Street, luckily I didn't get involved in the riot. I made sure I didn't follow those ultra-left clowns.

The crowd simply got too wide and spilled into the opposite lane. Most gardaí started to instruct people the other way to get traffic moving. One guard decided to baton my friend in the legs.

The small swell only lasted a few minutes at most... It's not incomprehensible you missed one small incident in a crowd of around 150000 people... And garda always have batons with them....

Doublin

A mix. I think it depends what station they work in. It's a closed club where you have to act like the majority in order to be accepted/one of the group.

I've only had serious dealings with 2 stations. Both in area's of serious crime, while mine were minor.

With one I was given a serious going over in the body one night, then when it
went to court months later, the amount of Guards there at my arrest was said to be half what was(4 to 2). I had no evidence, no name of the guard who threw the digs, but luckily the judge saw something was not right. I heard he later left the force after a number of complaints & someone dying in custody while he was on duty* (*don't believe any charges were ever brought against him re this).

Second station did not act out of anger, did their job, saw you as something to be processed and sent on to the courts. Did their job, nothing more, nothing less. Still see these guards around & we say hello, hows things, keeping your head down etc. whereas the first station I wouldn't even nod at guards from there. It all comes down to how you deal with other's & how you expect people to treat you. We all have interactions with others and how we do this defines us..

amacachi

Nothing but negative; semi-literacy, ignorance of the law, illegal search of a minor, trying to turn me into a grass, using my name over their radio, not responding to a fight involving machetes. etc.

Saila

Yes

Poll win

epgc3fyqirnbsx

Chaotic_Forces wrote: »

Oh... so from "these tar them all threads are retarded" to it only being on AH and for well "over" a year and also it's constant abuse towards "culchie gards"? :rolleyes:

yeah

:rolleyes: = tosser emoticon

Chaotic_Forces

Aliyah Grumpy Runt wrote: »

yeah

:rolleyes: = tosser emoticon

Really? I was under the impression it was to indicate that I would have "rolled my eyes" at the end of what I typed.

Hmm... I'll be sure to notify the users then that the meaning has changed!

Edit: Good for you, not having anything useful to contribute to the debate though. You just give a blanket statement about these threads, which is not true and then try to be funny, well done!

jay93

Yes

Deleted User wrote: »

No negative experiences just yet.

I'd be around them a fair bit, usually in a joe soap manner, but once or twice in a 'working' manner.

The only bad experience I have was when I was entering a local pub and two detectives were coming out. I had a question I'd been meaning to ask at the station, so felt this'd be handy enough.

They were in an unmarked car, so I think one of them got annoyed or something that I knew straight away they were Gardaì, and he was fairly ignorant to me. The guy that was with him was helpful, though.

Out from that, I find that if you treat them with respect, they'll treat you with respect.

Have to agree that if you treat them with respect and not get cheeky with them they will be nice to you.however I was stopped by one garda before and he was an unplesent git very rude even tough I was being very friendly to him and answering all his questions that he asked.i think they were from navan garda station as our garda station here in duleek is always empty they are rarely if ever there when you need them!

Chaotic_Forces

amacachi wrote: »

Nothing but negative; semi-literacy, ignorance of the law, illegal search of a minor, trying to turn me into a grass, using my name over their radio, not responding to a fight involving machetes. etc.

Um... you mean they wanted you to tell them about any crimes you know that others have committed? That's kind of a normal thing they do.