The GRA want taser guns for officers.

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

Link

I'd have big reservations about this. I do think the Gardai deserve to be fully able and capable of protecting themselves and the public while on duty but there are so many deaths caused by taser guns used by police officers in other countries.

We already have the Garda Emergency Response Unit, expand it if necessary instead.

hatrickpatrick

No.
Just... No.

Boombastic

I think they said 'Tay n' buns' but the journalist misheard

Pumpkinseeds

Yes. Let them have tasers. Maybe then they won't be such easy targets for scumbags.

Celly Smunt

Whats the point in giving them tasers when they're never around anyway? (Note this isn't and attack on your run of the mill guard, but an attack on those in charge)

osarusan

Great for warming up water for the tea I'd say, if you fire away with a few at the same time.

Gran Hermano

First we need to issue the garda water/scuba unit with sharks.
Then we issue the sharks with tasers.

Garda sharks with tasers? Seriously cool.

top madra

Boombastic wrote: »

I think they said 'Tay n' buns' but the journalist misheard

Well played sir..

SEPT 23 1989

Bring in a minimum height of 6ft for all Gardai on the street

looking at some of them wandering around they are like kids in fancy dress

the_syco

I oppose this. I think we should give them P90's instead.

Kimbot

Gran Hermano wrote: »

First we need to issue the garda water/scuba unit with sharks.
Then we issue the sharks with tasers.

Garda sharks with tasers? Seriously cool.

Dont forget shooting bee's out of their mouths too

Hell Ram

About time they're given something.

The Diabolical Monocle

Yes - If approaching some opium addled street bohemian I would want a distance weapon.

Batons are great an all, but when it comes to a hiv filled syringe a few meters distance sounds appealing.

Hell Ram

Also, some skanger is assaulting a Garda, gets tased and dies as a result. Big f*cking loss.

KTRIC

Hell Ram wrote: »

Also, some skanger is assaulting a Garda, gets tased and dies as a result. Big f*cking loss.

And why are they assaulting a Garda in the first place ??? Go to the UK, mainland Europe or the US and assault a police officer and see what happens to you !!

People have no respect for the Gardai here simply because there is no recourse when they assault them. Respect needs to be earned by asserting authority, you can't do this with the general scumbag populace with a little billy club :rolleyes:

Hell Ram

KTRIC wrote: »

And why are they assaulting a Garda in the first place ??? Go to the UK, mainland Europe or the US and assault a police officer and see what happens to you !!

People have no respect for the Gardai here simply because there is no recourse when they assault them. Respect needs to be earned by asserting authority, you can't do this with the general scumbag populace with a little billy club :rolleyes:

I agree. I thought my post was more than clear on how I feel!

Gatling

Hugely in favour of this ,
Backed up by a 9mm pistol too its about time the force was modernised and brough into line with European forces ,
Asking a guard to deal with a person/group of teens with nothing more than a pair of handcuffs and a telescopic baton , is completely inadequate and dangerous

OldGoat

The Gardaí need Lugs Branigan heading up the Prevention and Detection of Street Nuisances Unit.
Teach the new gardaí to box and let them loose on the streets.

iForgetMyPW

I would rather them with guns tbh. Because tasers are seen as non lethal I could see them using them way too often, even on drunk people etc....

iForgetMyPW

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Bring in a minimum height of 6ft for all Gardai on the street

looking at some of them wandering around they are like kids in fancy dress

Height means **** all. All the short lads that I know would kick the crap out of me.

Davarus Walrus

It would be amusing it see them being used on protestors from fringe Republican groups like eirigi. Or on the type of people who upload videos of police brutality without showing what happened in the hours leading up to this gross violation of 'me roights'.

SEPT 23 1989

iForgetMyPW wrote: »

Height means **** all. All the short lads that I know would kick the crap out of me.

its presence when they arrive at a situation

iForgetMyPW

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

its presence when they arrive at a situation

Some lanky c unt is not going to scare me. Tall people are much easier to take down.

Sh1tbag OToole

DONT TASE ME BRO!

orangesoda

I had read that as GAA and thought to myself Christ there's going to be quare scenes in Clones come Ulster final day

suicide_circus

In favour.

visual

I think they all should be armed as it silly to expect them stop armed raiders with nothing more than a hi-vis jacket and keystones cop baton.

The Diabolical Monocle

Hell Ram wrote: »

I agree. I thought my post was more than clear on how I feel!

Yes but I think you'll find this is boards - you racist


On Boards : :rolleyes: > common sense

iForgetMyPW

visual wrote: »

I think they all should be armed as it silly to expect them stop armed raiders with nothing more than a hi-vis jacket and keystones cop baton.

That's why we have armed detectives, armed response units etc

Look at the state of US with these cops shooting people all the time, sure Canada is looking to dis arm it's police force.

suicide_circus

iForgetMyPW wrote: »

That's why we have armed detectives, armed response units etc

Look at the state of US with these cops shooting people all the time, sure Canada is looking to dis arm it's police force.

Not in favour of firearms per say but defo in favour of the "less lethal" weapons. There are a large amount of people where I live (dublin city centre) who are in dire need of a tasing.

Temptamperu

Yeah I think they should even though all the deaths according to statistics only 547 deaths since 2001, sure that's less people than die from getting battered by the police with their little sticks.
This and longer sentences for assaults on the gardai. But the gardai have no money and have a spending freeze the last few years so we wont have to worry about this for some time.

Meanwhile drug gangs are raking in millions on the black market every week and its only a matter of time before they are more well protected and armed than the guards.

Caliden

Completely in favour. It's a hard enough job as it is without being afraid of being attacked by scumbags.

A friend of mine is a prison officer and has seen first hand that the young offenders are not afraid of authority figures and they are absolutely ruthless.

donvito99

A man attempted to gain access to Leinster House only today armed with a sword and a couple of knives that were concealed on him. However isolated it is, the Garda who has to deal with him is totally powerless at present, unless he/she wished to put themselves at risk of serious injury.

I would support the issue of Tasers as well as cameras for each and every Garda dealing with the public. Accountability and safety, but would the GRA support that?

EDIT: garda sustained injuries to his hand this **** is exactly what tasers are for

Boombastic

donvito99 wrote: »

A man attempted to gain access to Leinster House only today armed with a sword and a couple of knives that were concealed on him. .....

they could have let him

Outkast_IRE

Would rather see money being spent boosting Garda numbers to a point where can effectively police the streets, along with a prison service that's expanded to deal with the numbers being sent to them.

donvito99

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Would rather see money being spent boosting Garda numbers to a point where can effectively police the streets, along with a prison service that's expanded to deal with the numbers being sent to them.

Not to mention a complete overhaul of our courts service, the middle-men.

jamezy

I am generally in favour as long as the Gardai were responsible with there application.

Im sure 99% of Gardai would be but there is always one who will think he is Raiden from Mortal Kombat and try to electrocute the ****e out of someone like a protester and then we will ALL have to bloody listen to how the Gardai are a pack of heavy handed fascists etc etc.

DubVelo

Phuk no! Do we have to import every mistake the Brits make?

It's just normalizing violence. What we need is a proper justice system with consequences for committing crime. I've heard someone outside court referring to going in to face a burglary charge as "Doin' me paperwork".

Witcher

DubVelo wrote: »

Phuk no! Do we have to import every mistake the Brits make?

It's just normalizing violence. What we need is a proper justice system with consequences for committing crime.

I'm sure a good justice system would be a great help to a Garda being slashed at with a knife.

DubVelo

Blay wrote: »

I'm sure a good justice system would be a great help to a Garda being slashed at with a knife.

Baton, training, vest, armed response.
And yeah it probably would because that sort of thing wouldn't be common.

Witcher

DubVelo wrote: »

Baton, training, vest, armed response.
And yeah it probably would because that sort of thing wouldn't be common.

Gardai being attacked isn't common...you must be fcking joking me?:pac:

The baton requires that they close the distance to the attacker which isn't exactly a good idea if the guy is holding a screwdriver or a knife. The standard Garda baton is 16 inches long..add that onto the length of your arm..would you go that close to a lad with a knife?

The vest isn't great if the knife/screwdriver gets buried in their neck. Scumbags know what the vest is for so they'll avoid it altogether.

Armed response is no good when the threat is standing in front of you. There were two Gardai nearly shot last year when a lad with a shotgun and rifle started firing at them, thankfully he was close and one of them pepper sprayed him and he eventually shot himself but if he'd stood back and fired both of them would have been dead..so yeah armed response is fcuk all use if the threat is mobile.

Jester252

iForgetMyPW wrote: »

That's why we have armed detectives, armed response units etc

Look at the state of US with these cops shooting people all the time, sure Canada is looking to dis arm it's police force.

For lack of a better term you kinda shot your argument in the foot. Canada police are armed and the cops aren't shooting up everyone they see. If fact if you look at the world of policing, the trigger happiness of USA cops is an extreme not the average.

It's a flawed argument to suggest arming the guards will make them trigger happy because American cops are trigger happy. If you break it down USA cops aren't even that trigger happy, given the size of the police force.

Manic Moran

[QUOTE=Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo;90155100
We already have the Garda Emergency Response Unit, expand it if necessary instead.[/QUOTE]

and

iForgetMyPW wrote: »

That's why we have armed detectives, armed response units etc

Having the best trained men with all the best weapons in a special response force doesn't do a damned bit of good to the Garda who is on the line and needs a ranged weapon right-the-hell-now, not 'when the GRU get here, which is likely to be more than 30 seconds"

Look at the state of US with these cops shooting people all the time, sure Canada is looking to dis arm it's police force.

They are not. There is a minority section lobbying for the disarmament of Toronto police, but it certainly isn't going over well with the police.

My highlight, below.

http://www.newstalk1010.com/news/2013/12/16/cop-union-boss-calls-disarm-toronto-police-protest-insulting-and-ludicrous

The Toronto Police Association boss says some who have weighed in on the incident just do not appreciate what a police officer must do in a potentially dangerous situation.

"Its not ice cream-making, or whatever. Its a job that, unfortunately, at times is going to involve a certain amount of violence," he says.

McCormack insists he's got no problem with public debate over how his members use deadly force, calling it a 'healthy' discussion to have.

When it comes to the idea of disarming police officers, McCormack calls the notion 'ludicrous.'

When asked whether this incident might prompt the police to make another push to equip front-line police officers with tasers, McCormack says while he supports adding the stun guns to a beat cop's belt, it is not clear yet whether the device would have helped resolve Friday night's shooting any differently.

"We've been advocating for years for front-line officers to have tasers and that first responders are the ones who need them the most."

DubVelo

They have pepper spray too? Sure what more do you need?
Or why not just arm them all instead, will we give them the nasty bullets as well, the hollow-points or whatever that cause maximum injury? Where does it end?

A Taser is a nasty torture device with no place in a civilised society, I wouldn't object to letting responsible armed response Gardai have them but to be honest if someone is waving a samurai sword or a gun around I wouldn't two hoots whether they get shot or tasered or what.

There's plenty of cases of police getting trigger happy with Tasers, it's not just the US, loads in the UK and elsewhere too. The problem is people get lazy and start using them on people who they think are just too much hassle or who are failing to comply with instructions, or mental, or ill, or injured and not quite with it instead of just when someone is a direct threat.

The scum are worse these days because they've grown up in a society with next to no consequences for their actions, we can see that the whole way through our society from top to bottom. It doesn't have to be that way. I don't want to live in a society where the police are tooled up like Judge Dredd and the criminals walk in and back out of court day in day out without a care anyway.

Witcher

DubVelo wrote: »

They have pepper spray too? Sure what more do you need?
Or why not just arm them all instead, will we give them the nasty bullets as well, the hollow-points or whatever that cause maximum injury? Where does it end?

A Taser is a nasty torture device with no place in a civilised society, I wouldn't object to letting responsible armed response Gardai have them but to be honest if someone is waving a samurai sword or a gun around I wouldn't two hoots whether they get shot or tasered or what.

Yeah they're a torture device:rolleyes:

ffs

Manic Moran

Pepper spray does not incapacitate, and is much shorter ranged. Tasers are more reliable and more effective. While I share your concern that police may go for the taser a little too freely, this is partially mitigated by proper training and enforcement, and partially by not being sufficient of a dick that the police feel tempted to use it to begin with. I cannot think of any videos of tasing incidents which were not instigated by the tasee being stupid. Counter that with instances of police under a definite threat, also not of their making, and I think the balance of benefit to detrement falls pretty much in favor of giving the tasers

MRnotlob606

Gardaí should use hatchets

DubVelo

Blay wrote: »

Yeah they're a torture device:rolleyes:

ffs

According to the UN and Amnesty International etc.

DubVelo

Manic Moran wrote: »

Pepper spray does not incapacitate, and is much shorter ranged. Tasers are more reliable and more effective. While I share your concern that police may go for the taser a little too freely, this is partially mitigated by proper training and enforcement, and partially by not being sufficient of a dick that the police feel tempted to use it to begin with. I cannot think of any videos of tasing incidents which were not instigated by the tasee being stupid. Counter that with instances of police under a definite threat, also not of their making, and I think the balance of benefit to detrement falls pretty much in favor of giving the tasers

There was the blind man in the UK who got Tasered because plod thought his white cane was a samurai sword... :rolleyes:

Santa Cruz

I always found that a good kick in the bollix usually sorted things out

Manic Moran

DubVelo wrote: »

There was the blind man in the UK who got Tasered because plod thought his white cane was a samurai sword... :rolleyes:

That was not a case of misuse of the taser. A samurai sword would be a perfect reason for using it. That was a case of the constable screwing up and misidentifying the threat since they had received a number of reports of a guy with a sword. This is a different issue entirely.