Any cops out there?

TheNog wrote: »

It is never a waste of resources but honestly public order incidents are cropping up everywhere that again we cannot be right there on scene.

Once again we cannot be everywhere at once. And why are you blaming all this on the Gardai? Due to incompetent parenting ( which you still haven't mentioned) and an even more incompetent HSE/Government we are trying to keep a lid on out of control kids/teenagers but it is ultimately the victims who pay with us stuck in the middle.

How you use those 20 is a Garda problem. And when there is repeat offence - a double decker bus being ambushed no less - occuring yards from the country's main thoroughfare and minutes from the country's main street and within clear view of that street, it is the Gardai's responsibility to make sure that does not happen. Not just arrest them afterwards, but prevent it beforehand - some foresight, some iniative, whether you have one or twenty officers.

That it has happened consistently for 12 months means that the Gardai should know what happens and prevent it. As I said, they know it happens, they know where it happens, they know why it happens and judging by the arrests, they know who is behind it. There is no need to be everywhere, be where you know there is a problem. I'm afraid the regularity that it happens nullifies the "we need a crystal ball" and "we can't be everywhere" or indeed, the premise of "we didn't know it was going to happen". Anyone getting the bus home knows it's going to happen again and it's going to happen at Hardwicke Street. Put someone there. How hard can that be to see that that would stop it dead?!

At half ten when the buses have gone past, those Gardai can go home safely like the fans or back to their station or wherever else you want them. From 9.55 to 10.30 (see there's even a timeframe), there is going to be a strong likelihood a public order problem on that corner and it is the Gardai's responsibility to prevent that. Not some no-go estate like it was in Limerick in 2006 where the Gardai did a very good job, not a million miles from a station, but off O'Connell Street.

They go to meet Shelbourne fans at the ground when they're playing, they wait for the buses carrying Rovers fans at Dorset St. Every time a Dublin side go to Dundalk, there's handbags outside the ground even though the police station is no more than 75m from the ground. It's so predictable, it's incredible and yet it seems the police treat each occurrence as a surprise. :mad:

Perhaps the guys in charge should let it happen and see the terror on the innocent faces, even board the bus and then be trapped inside it. Their perspective might change then. Or see how many faces you can recognise every week standing on the corner outside the Spar, waiting..even make a list and tick them off to make it exciting. Maybe we should make it a tourist nirvana - I know for sure I'm not likely to see it in many other cities.

But parenting is irrelevant It only comes into it when the Gardai don't do their job of prevention. I'll say it again - if the Gardai are there, these kids won't do anything regardless of having poor parents - which they do have. If they're not, then they will do as they please. At the moment and for the last 18 months, the Gardai have not been there. Maybe the only necessary way of stopping this is Dublin Bus intervening and objecting quite justifiably to their buses being used as cannon fodder costing them thousands and drivers going sick by cancelling the services.

I'm amazed they haven't yet.

Karlitosway1978 wrote: »

Still, I wish a couple of teenagers fighting was the most serious thing I had to deal with on a Friday night. :rolleyes:

Sums the obvious Gardai attitude up to it more than I ever could. Though I came close with indifference earlier.

You're right - it's all the parents' fault - we'll leave them be and sure if we've nothing else on at the time we might just go and see what's happening. Stupid to expect the Gardai to try protect people from them. That's not what the few Gardai and their other important things are for. Silly me.

Let's just give up and let them run riot.

TheNog wrote: »

You the getting the wrong impression here. We would prefer to have pro-active policing but we simply don;t have the resources or manpower to do that and that is why incidents you described are happening

The whole police force isn't necessary you know - just 2 or 3. :eek: Oh well, a saving grace for the kids and innocent people on the bus as well as the driver I'm sure is that the 20 police were patrolling somewhere in the city and that part was safe at least. Not much use to them, but I'm sure a comforting thought. Is the impression that you know there should be something stopping it and that you can't...or that there is no problem at all worthy of the effort? The impression I get both there and in this thread is the latter.

As I have said, there are some extremely good accounts of Gardai organisation in Dalymount, if perhaps ott, in Galway in particular every time we visit. When 100 ten year olds from Southill were lying in wait for Rovers fans in 2006 at a shopping centre throwing bricks and smashing Dublin registered cars, the Gardai were prepared, shepherded us out, and 3 riot police were enough to send them running. In Cork, they can be good and bad - although last time I am wondering why there was six Gardai minding a no entry sign. Were they expecting a zombie attack there or something? They are not a patch on the PSNI for whom the Brandywell in Derry and their thug stewards employed is a no-go zone :eek: I will praise them when they do well and criticise them when they do badly.

In Dundalk and on Dorset St they fail. In any job, if you fail at the same thing consistently over a long period, you are incompetent.

Imagine handling Germany v. Poland if Bertie had been successful with Euro2008. Especially that Polish people were supposedly asking random people if they were German in the street after the match.