€35,000 compensation for seeing excrement on prisoners face.

maudgonner

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

injury does not have to be physical.

No, but in an occupation where you must expect to be subjected to verbal assault, threats to your well-being and that of your family, and see sights many, many times worse than this, I find it hard to categorise this event as an 'injury' of any type.

Being a Garda requires a certain type of mentality, and if you don't have that then you are not suitable for the job - it's as simple as that. If I was a colleague of hers who had suffered much worse incidents than this I would be outraged by the settlement. I would fully support there being a counselling service available to help Gardaí deal with difficult events, but I don't feel that payments of this scale are in any way appropriate.

Elemonator

Jesus what happened to the fighting Irish? Load of wusses hanging around now!

ohnonotgmail

maudgonner wrote: »

No, but in an occupation where you must expect to be subjected to verbal assault, threats to your well-being and that of your family, and see sights many, many times worse than this, I find it hard to categorise this event as an 'injury' of any type.

Being a Garda requires a certain type of mentality, and if you don't have that then you are not suitable for the job - it's as simple as that. If I was a colleague of hers who had suffered much worse incidents than this I would be outraged by the settlement. I would fully support there being a counselling service available to help Gardaí deal with difficult events, but I don't feel that payments of this scale are in any way appropriate.

i'm trying to imagine what sights would be "many times" worse than somebody eating their own **** inches from your face and coming up short. death bodies, mutilations and what have you are probably par for the course for a garda and they would expect to see such during their service.

ScumLord

maudgonner wrote: »

I would fully support there being a counselling service available to help Gardaí deal with difficult events, but I don't feel that payments of this scale are in any way appropriate.

Definitely, I'm not saying seeing what she saw isn't disturbing but it's not a career ending event.

What can be done to rectify this problem too. I would assume that after each case like this someone is tasked with trying to ensure it doesn't happen again or the risks are reduced.

maudgonner

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

i'm trying to imagine what sights would be "many times" worse than somebody eating their own **** inches from your face and coming up short. death bodies, mutilations and what have you are probably par for the course for a garda and they would expect to see such during their service.

Really? Cases of brutal rape, assault, child molestation, murder - these are less offensive to you than somebody eating shit?

You have very different standards of outrage than I do, I guess.

I have a cousin who is a Garda. She described a rape case to me that she investigated. It was horrific, and something I would never have wanted to witness. She dealt with it, it's part of her job.

ohnonotgmail

maudgonner wrote: »

Really? Cases of brutal rape, assault, child molestation, murder - these are less offensive to you than somebody eating shit?

You have very different standards of outrage than I do, I guess.

I have a cousin who is a Garda. She described a rape case to me that she investigated. It was horrific, and something I would never have wanted to witness. She dealt with it, it's part of her job.

I never said these things were not offensive. dont put words in my mouth.

Like i said, they expect to come across these things as part of their work. ****-eating, not so much.

ScumLord

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

Like i said, they expect to come across these things as part of their work. ****-eating, not so much.

Like I said earlier in the thread, the cells in garda barracks are covered in **** all the time. The walls, the floors, the beds. Seeing **** is nothing new to a guard. They deal with a lot of inebriated people, people out of it are going to be puking and ****ing all over the place. Seeing someone eating that **** isn't nice, but it's not €35,000 worse.

maudgonner

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

I never said these things were not offensive. dont put words in my mouth.

Like i said, they expect to come across these things as part of their work. ****-eating, not so much.

Not putting words in your mouth at all. You said:

i'm trying to imagine what sights would be "many times" worse than somebody eating their own **** inches from your face and coming up short.

In my opinion rape, murder, assault and child abuse are much, much worse sights than someone eating shit. It's just shit. Maybe I'm just not as squeamish about it as some people, but how is shit worse than watching the horrendous physical and mental after effects one person can inflict on an innocent victim?

And yes, Gardaí can expect to come across violent incidents in the course of their work. They are also fully prepared to deal frequently with people who have mental illnesses, as I'm sure this man did, people who exhibit extreme behaviour of all kinds.

ohnonotgmail

ScumLord wrote: »

Like I said earlier in the thread, the cells in garda barracks are covered in **** all the time. The walls, the floors, the beds. Seeing **** is nothing new to a guard. They deal with a lot of inebriated people, people out of it are going to be puking and ****ing all over the place. Seeing someone eating that **** isn't nice, but it's not €35,000 worse.

and if you cant see the difference between **** on a wall and somebody eating the stuff then there is really not much more i can say to you.

maudgonner

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

and if you cant see the difference between **** on a wall and somebody eating the stuff then there is really not much more i can say to you.

Where did ScumLord say there was no difference between those two things? That is absolutely not what he/she said.

Little CuChulainn

maudgonner wrote: »

They are also fully prepared to deal frequently with people who have mental illnesses, as I'm sure this man did, people who exhibit extreme behaviour of all kinds.

What makes you think that?

maudgonner

Little CuChulainn wrote: »

What makes you think that?

Maybe 'fully prepared' was a bad choice of words. What I meant is that the Gardaí know they will frequently be dealing with people who have mental illnesses and exhibit extreme behaviour. It does not come as a surprise to them, it's part of the job. Whether the system trains them properly for the situation, that's a whole other issue.

diomed

I worked with a number of ar5eholes. Nothing could compensate me.

Little CuChulainn

maudgonner wrote: »

Maybe 'fully prepared' was a bad choice of words. What I meant is that the Gardaí know they will frequently be dealing with people who have mental illnesses and exhibit extreme behaviour. It does not come as a surprise to them, it's part of the job. Whether the system trains them properly for the situation, that's a whole other issue.

Not really. The employer has to take the responsibility for it's failures to train or prepare it's employees. A fireman expects to deal with fires but if the employer doesn't train and equip them properly for fighting fires then you don't just tell them "Tough luck, you should have expected it."

maudgonner

Little CuChulainn wrote: »

Not really. The employer has to take the responsibility for it's failures to train or prepare it's employees. A fireman expects to deal with fires but if the employer doesn't train and equip them properly for fighting fires then you don't just tell them "Tough luck, you should have expected it."

As far as I'm aware the case in no way questioned how effectively she handled the man. The issue was her personal reaction to the situation.

Gardaí should be trained in how to treat people with mental health problems, how to deal with them in a way that manages the situation in the best way possible. How the Garda processes their own emotions is down to themselves to a large degree. I've already stated that I think a counselling service should be provided for members of the force who go through traumatic situations. I don't feel they should be substantially financially rewarded for an experience that is not life-changing by most peoples estimations.

mittimitti

can I get free money for watching 2 girls 1 cup

ohnonotgmail

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

I never said these things were not offensive. dont put words in my mouth.

Like i said, they expect to come across these things as part of their work. ****-eating, not so much.

My mother worked as a cleaner in an old folks home. Came across **** eating patients on more than one occasion. She would be embarrassed to claim some kind of compensation for that.

Little CuChulainn

maudgonner wrote: »

. I've already stated that I think a counselling service should be provided for members of the force who go through traumatic situations. I don't feel they should be substantially financially rewarded for an experience that is not life-changing by most peoples estimations.

You're missing the point though. Counselling should be provided but it isn't. If it was then it would probably limit the number of claims relating to ptsd. But it isn't. In fact it's quite the opposite. Not only can such a complaint be detrimental to a career but the sheer red tape involved in getting it recognised or getting time to treat it is traumatic in itself. So yes, counselling should be provided and claims should be limited to really traumatic stuff. But it isn't. And until the employer, i.e. the State, provides proper access to counselling services and mandates their use they will have to continue to pay for their failure in not doing so.

maudgonner

Little CuChulainn wrote: »

You're missing the point though. Counselling should be provided but it isn't. If it was then it would probably limit the number of claims relating to ptsd. But it isn't. In fact it's quite the opposite. Not only can such a complaint be detrimental to a career but the sheer red tape involved in getting it recognised or getting time to treat it is traumatic in itself. So yes, counselling should be provided and claims should be limited to really traumatic stuff. But it isn't. And until the employer, i.e. the State, provides proper access to counselling services and mandates their use they will have to continue to pay for their failure in not doing so.

I'm really not missing the point, thanks.

Taking compensation claims about relatively trivial situations like this does nothing to help bring about a counselling service for the Gardaí. It simply gives people the idea that they're all cry-babies who are looking for a payout at the slightest excuse. And any Garda who does seek help for PTSD in the future will have people questioning whether there's anything genuine behind it or whether they're just looking for money.

Gardaí have to face horrific sights and situations all the time. Genuine cases deserve all the support they can get. This case does nothing but damage to their cause.

I'd love to know how much was paid in legal fees. Because if you put 'Garda Compensation Scheme' into Google all of the top results are for lawyers. The entire system of compensation in Ireland is horrendously flawed, this case is just a symptom of that.

wexandproud

maudgonner wrote: »

Really? Cases of brutal rape, assault, child molestation, murder - these are less offensive to you than somebody eating shit?

You have very different standards of outrage than I do, I guess.

I have a cousin who is a Garda. She described a rape case to me that she investigated. It was horrific, and something I would never have wanted to witness. She dealt with it, it's part of her job.

rape , assault , and child molestation are terrible crimes but the guards don't usually witness them , they usually just hear statements about them and indeed that could be very upsetting to some more so than others . We are all on here discussing what happened but none of us actually witnessed the event , we are just talking about it
I would say that no body on here could be 100% sure how they would react or what affect it could have to actually see someone with mental 'issues ' eating their own krap .

RustyNut

Little CuChulainn wrote: »

That doesn't really explain how approximately 1000 Gardaí are injured in the course of duty every year. What do you think causes that? Bad chairs in the station? Paper cuts?

It would seem so.

stoplooklisten

RustyNut wrote: »

It would seem so.

it pays more to fall off a chair :pac:

maudgonner

wexandproud wrote: »

rape , assault , and child molestation are terrible crimes but the guards don't usually witness them , they usually just hear statements about them and indeed that could be very upsetting to some more so than others .

With respect, that seems like minimising what Gardaí go through when dealing with serious crimes. They may not witness the crime happening, but they normally witness the aftermath, often the immediate aftermath. They have to deal with traumatised victims, sometimes victims who have suffered serious physical damage. Gardaí do much more than taking statements, or hearing statements after the fact. They're frequently first on the scene, and have to see situations at their very worst. They have to arrest perpetrators who are violent, angry and volatile. They deal with people on the worst day of their lives.

Those Gardaí absolutely deserve our respect and support. I hate to see anything damage the chances of them getting that respect.

wexandproud

maudgonner wrote: »

With respect, that seems like minimising what Gardaí go through when dealing with serious crimes. They may not witness the crime happening, but they normally witness the aftermath, often the immediate aftermath. They have to deal with traumatised victims, sometimes victims who have suffered serious physical damage. Gardaí do much more than taking statements, or hearing statements after the fact. They're frequently first on the scene, and have to see situations at their very worst. They have to arrest perpetrators who are violent, angry and volatile. They deal with people on the worst day of their lives.

Those Gardaí absolutely deserve our respect and support. I hate to see anything damage the chances of them getting that respect.

i am in no way minimising what the guards go trough , and i have a lot of respects for the guards . I was replying to your post that mentioned those crimes I was making the point that different people react or are affected differently in situations and none of know how it would affect us

SILVAMAN

SafeSurfer wrote: »

A Garda has been awarded €35k compensation for post traumatic stress disorder for seeing a prisoner who had smeared his face with his own excrement.

Is this justified and deserving or another example of people with a sense of entitlement looking for easy money from the state.
For the record I think it is ridiculous. If you become a Garda, you expect to come across some distressing situations, road traffic accidents, etc. Its the nature of the job.

http://www.thejournal.ie/garda-civil-court-case-win-2648263-Mar2016/

Reading the report in the link, I guess it's fair to conclude that there seems to be a cynical abuse of the system to grease palms all round.
If I had my way they'd only be greased with excrement.

Cupcake_Crisis

PandaPoo wrote: »

I was showing my husband the porn that has the big fat women slapping their fat off men. The results were just women shoving butternut squash in places it shouldn't go!

Well..... that escalated quickly...

Stigura

Whole story stinks. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Potential-Monke

Maybe if the state provided free counselling services to Gardaí, this would never have happened...

ShoulderChip

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

But it was a female Garda, and she thought that he was going to spit the excrement at her!

pretty sexist comment!

B.A._Baracus

It is crazy alright.
As another person said if crap was thrown at her then ok, that's something you could begin to understand. But watching some prisoner wipe crap on himself? You'd have to figure a garda has seen worse.