The Hands of the Gardai are tied

drserious4

Interesting point made in the Irish Independent today. A garda stated that there is no way the type of forceful policing he was able to engage in at the start of his career would be acceptable now and this is known to criminals.

People who don't mind causing trouble are not afraid to get in the face of the Gardai, shout abuse and act violently.

Meanwhile they ensure that the whole engagement is recorded and then sue the Guard and get free legal aid if there is any kind of physical pushback at all.

Sadly, the Gardai cannot have a realistic expectation that the powers that be will take their side in such an incident (just look at the recent story of the fatal chase in Dublin).

For this reason, I believe Gardai, for their own preservation, avoid confrontation as much as they can, to the detriment of our streets. Hard to blame them but it's a sad state of affairs.

Politicians need to lead and should announce publicly that they support the Gardai and there will no longer be any tolerance for those with multiple convictions.

They should state that there is too much lawlessness and too little personal responsibility and that those who won't act in the best interests of their fellow citizens will no longer get the benefit of the doubt from the courts.

That would be a start but I can't see it happening. Our politicians are spineless and the NGOs wouldn't like it.

blackbox

Politicians making announcements is irrelevant. Their role is to enact legislation.

The role of the courts is to interpret the legislation.

The role of the gardai is to enforce the legislation.

Strumms

Don’t have the jail spaces to make the law an effective deterrent ….

figures from the Irish Prison Service show there were 7,055 committals to prison in 2022, an increase of 919 (15%) on 2021 figures….

so many more people here now to ensure that number will be likely trending upwards..

yet we don’t have the prison spaces.

lawrencesummers

The problem with the Gardai is that they are a political force, and act on the whims and directions of under qualified spoofers who occupy political positions at any given time.

They operate a status quo where the managers within the “force” will never criticize the politicians and the politicians will never tell the garda that they need to take the finger out and they all take home big paychecks to big houses.

Its policing by optics, its carefully coordinated media driven national slow down days, its PR published figures of drink drivers caught at Christmas.

The negative stuff like unanswered calls and deleted tickets only becomes public when a whistleblower has the courage to stand up. This information should always be publicly available

The gardai need to be separated from the government, their management needs to be held to account at mandatory oireacthas style publicly available questioning by those politicians in power and in opposition.

Currently the focus of the gardai is whatever the politicians feel it should be, the current flavour of the month is probably drop everything and be visible in dublin city, and here is €10 mil in overtime to smooth that over, to hell with whatever else you were doing, just get out there because votes and ministerial pensions are at stake.

James Bond Junior

The Gardai aren't afraid to be forceful, they're afraid of GSOC and being guilty until proven innocent.

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/garda-to-face-criminal-prosecution-over-fatal-crash-following-n7-chase-1473785.html

suvigirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120913602#Comment_120913602

Like an oireachtas committee on justice and equality?

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120913513#Comment_120913513

Committed but left out after a few days, box ticking.

tom1ie

There’s also the role of the judiciary with lenient sentencing- letting the scrotes back on the streets, which suits the solicitors and barristers who know said scrote will act up again and the solicitor will get the call to represent again (and get paid for their time).

It’s a financial merry go round in the courts- no wonder the guards are demoralised.

lawrencesummers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120913621#Comment_120913621

No Like a proper committee that has access to up to date detailed data on crime, arrests, policing statistics, sets targets on crime, follows budgets, and ensures answer are given when questions are asked.

What exists currently is a kitten being patted on the head.

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120913863#Comment_120913863

The target for crime should be set at zero. Do you want to set it higher than zero?

lawrencesummers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120913918#Comment_120913918

Do you want it to be realistic?

Ah here lads can ye use the threads already open on topics like this rather than flooding the place with threads that effectively follow the same basic premise

OP, do not open another thread about this topic or any similar in AH again please

thanks

Waylon Red Samaritan