Gardai have no interest in helping people in council estates?

Celtickate

Just wondering. I live in a council house with my mother and sibling. Trouble making teenagers are always starting fires out in the fields in front of my house, throwing rocks at the windows, verbally abusing my mother, littering and so on.

Just last week, a group of teenage boys were messing around with fire matches and throwing rocks at my house. My mother called the police and they did nothing to help.

This kind of thing happens all the time, but most of the time the police don't even arrive.

Are they this useless with everyone? Or do they just think all council estate people are scumbags?

Eric Cartman

Celtickate wrote: »

Just wondering. I live in a council house with my mother and sibling. Trouble making teenagers are always starting fires out in the fields in front of my house, throwing rocks at the windows, verbally abusing my mother, littering and so on.

Just last week, a group of teenage boys were messing around with fire matches and throwing rocks at my house. My mother called the police and they did nothing to help.

This kind of thing happens all the time, but most of the time the police don't even arrive.

Are they this useless with everyone? Or do they just think all council estate people are scumbags?

incidents of anti-social behaviour are a lot more common in council estates. With kids theres not a lot can be done, as most of the time they are known to gardai and the parents just don't care. I don't think its so much that the gardai don't want to help, its just that little can be done, bringing the kid home in a squad car and having words with the parents will likely have little effect.

Once they are old enough to be dealt with properly by the courts , then you'll find the gardai will have a lot more interest in catching them.

triple nipple

Celtickate wrote:

do they just think all council estate people are scumbags?

Yup pretty much

anothernight

My experience with gardaí over the last few years has been very similar, not just in my estate but in the town I used to live. They didn't even come out when called for a burglary of a school located only down the road from them, yet they were regular customers in our local takeaway when I worked there. In one occasion we had a fairly nasty incident at my house and they implied they would come to help. They didn't. A few phone calls later they admitted that they weren't going to.

In our case, calling a local councillor made the police appear very quickly. For that last incident, the guards spent ages following up on the problem and making sure it wouldn't happen again. But that only happened after we called the councillor.

andekwarhola

If parents are abdicating responsibility, there isn't much the police can do until the kids are older.

The police tend to respond a bit quicker if you tell them you're afraid you're going to have to whack one of the kids with a baseball bat or hurley though.

Del2005

Celtickate wrote: »

Just wondering. I live in a council house with my mother and sibling. Trouble making teenagers are always starting fires out in the fields in front of my house, throwing rocks at the windows, verbally abusing my mother, littering and so on.

Just last week, a group of teenage boys were messing around with fire matches and throwing rocks at my house. My mother called the police and they did nothing to help.

This kind of thing happens all the time, but most of the time the police don't even arrive.

Are they this useless with everyone? Or do they just think all council estate people are scumbags?

The justice system is what's wrong. For the Gardai to arrest a group of kids they'd have to empty most stations of Gardai, there has to be 2 with each child in separate vehicles for each child. Them they take them back to the station and have to spend ages getting the waste of space parents down, all for the children to get let off!

TheAnalyst_

Unfortunately for you the police are not there to act as a security for a broken society. It's simply not possible for the 6-7 thousand cops on duty at any time to secure a country of 5 million.

BoJack Horseman

If you can specifically identify the perpetrators, ask a lawyer about filing a civil suit for damages.

It may not have to reach a court, and a legal letter might scare the parents into controlling their spawn.

Arkady

There's little point the cops wasting their time on something that will never ever be enforced by the courts. There is little no deterrent to most crime in this country. There are people walking around the streets with literally hundreds of serious convictions and have seen little or no prison time. I don't know why we even bother having a police force, it's just window dressing, and a taxi service to the useless/don't want to know courts.

drunkmonkey

Organise a meeting in your estate with the residents to tackle the issue, nothing the Garda will do but if you all get together you may come with a plan to influence the parents or encourage the kids to do something else.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

In the council estate that I come from, calling the Gardai was very much frowned upon. Even neighbours who were on the fence in the dispute would quite possibly turn against you very quickly. Some areas tend to police themselves, and the Gardai realise that their presence can inflame situations.

Eric Cartman

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy wrote: »

In the council estate that I come from, calling the Gardai was very much frowned upon. Even neighbours who were on the fence in the dispute would quite possibly turn against you very quickly. Some areas tend to police themselves, and the Gardai realise that their presence can inflame situations.

Theres also a lot of estates where any vehicle with blue lights on it showing up will be attacked by every urchin in sight, no garda wants either the hassle of that or having to fill out the forms afterwards.

b_mac2

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy wrote: »

In the council estate that I come from, calling the Gardai was very much frowned upon. Even neighbours who were on the fence in the dispute would quite possibly turn against you very quickly. Some areas tend to police themselves, and the Gardai realise that their presence can inflame situations.

Where you from the Falls Road or what?

Smiley11

OP are ye willing to point the finger & point out the trouble makers to the guards as well as go to court having made an official complaint? That's what you have to be willing to do & all these youths will get is a slap on the wrist...& that's even if it goes to court. Otherwise they're entitled to a caution if they're under 18. From what I can see, all the guards can do in this instance is drive in & ask them to move on. No doubt they'd return if they're the thugs you describe.

We had this same issue & had a very frank discussion with the guards & their hands are tied by our useless justice system. I certainly wasn't going to point them out at the risk of repercussions to my family or home. Back when we were kids, we'd have gotten a clip from the guards & that would generally be the end of it. They certainly can't do that these days so you have to be willing to go the whole hog & even at that its a massive waste of your time & theirs.

mefynn

Hi we had problems like this, troublemakers werent even from the estate, so we called a public meeting for all residents with the head Garda Liason Officer and The Liason Officer for the area and the council, the Liason Guards were unaware of the calls going in and no action taken because the calls werent logged, so contact the Liason officer and Council and get moving that way, its amazing the results and we now have contacts immediately if there is a renewal of trouble, the Liason Officer will help and tell you how to call the meeting without being identified, hope this helps

Dyr

Gardai tend to have different tolerances for anti social behaviour depending on the area.

Tigger

b_mac2 wrote: »

Where you from the Falls Road or what?

The Gaurds are seldom seen on the falls road

Tigger

Back in the day sf were very into policing estates

Dr_Kolossus

Hope not getting too off topic. I bought in 2006 in what is a bit of an undesirable part of Dublin. Out of there now thank god. Long story short, terminally sick husband next door.6 or 7 kids and mum. 2nd eldest kid (19 or 20 yr old)was a little sh1t to put it very mildly. Physically abusing sick dad, mum and kids.

We could hear everything in our house. The mum was in our house several times scared, crying etc..she/we called the guards several times voicing concerns for the very young kids. To put it mildly, the guards could not give a sh1t. They couldn't wait to get out of there. I had to say to them that next time I felt that a young child was in danger I would have to take matters into my own hands as they were washing their hands, that i couldn't stand by if i thought a child was in danger. Then they get pi$$ed at me. This is a domestic problem, we can't do anything. Well, lost all respect lost for guards, and to put it mildly gave them a piece of my mind

I Didn't ever actually assault the scumbag but got him on his own one day an gave him a bit of a fright. The mum had to get a barring order

Seemed to calm down a bit next door and we moved shortly after, but still worried for the family, but what can you do?

drunkmonkey

Would you be arsed going near a bunch of teens with camera phones if you were a Garda?
Their hands are literally tied in fairness to them.

OK OP,
Normally I wouldn't put as much personal stuff on here, BUT

Its obvious from my post history what i do!
But I'm also a child of a one parent family and grew up in council estates.

The problem is, if you want one person prosecuted for a single offence, then the gardai need witnesses, you need someone to tell the judge that they saw the offender do the unlawfull offence.
This is a problem in estates, neighbours don't want to go against neighbours.
If this is a problem where you are from, then what you need are beat gardai. Unfortunately they are very short, because the numbers are not there anymore. The best thing you can do is set up a neighbourhood watch scheme and get your local community guard involved. .

the_syco

Celtickate wrote: »

Just last week, a group of teenage boys were messing around with fire matches and throwing rocks at my house. My mother called the police and they did nothing to help.

Did you tell them that you were ringing the police? If not, then don't. Just hope they'll find someone else to harass. Until the kid hits 18, there's not much the Garda can do, especially if their parent gives them a alibi.

FortySeven

Had the same on a bad estate. No garda response to complaints. Gangs of feral youths running riot. I stood up to them for a while. We had a residents group, liaison officers etc but nothing was ever done. Scumbags have to live somewhere and they will bring an area down quickly as the decent people move and then they just annoy each other and the garda leave them to it until it impacts on outside the area.

Get a couple of hoodies acting suspiciously in an affluent area and watch the rapid response. Policing works as well as it can. If you live in a shot hole. Move. It is just the way of the world.

johnnyskeleton

Celtickate wrote: »

Just last week, a group of teenage boys were messing around with fire matches and throwing rocks at my house. My mother called the police and they did nothing to help.

If the police called around to her house, would she help them? Unfortunately, in the 70s and 80s there was a sense of f the gardai in some of the new council estates and other non council areas. People were happy to tolerate low level misbehaviour and enjoyed being able to stick it to the man. Now, that minor anti social behaviour has resulted in subsequent generations running wild and when the people who told the gardi to f off 30 years ago want the gardai to help, they are finding them less than forthcoming.

Theres only so much the gardai can do and people have to look after their own kids and own community first. Not saying thats true of your mother, but it seems to be what has happened with some of the council estates. Others never had that and have strong communities and rhe gardai are only too happy to help there.