Gardai abuse of the rules of the road

tayto lover wrote: »

Exactly. The Garda should all be like Robocop and do everything by the book. No showing discretion at all, just book everyone who slips up, jaywalks, obstructs the footpath with their bins, everyone. We would have a lovely country then.

Totally. I advise the legalisation of bursting into someone's home and beating the **** out of them. Seeing as we are going with lunatic absolutes that could never happen.

One thing that I hate to see is the squad car parked directly outside the door of the shop/supermarket they are in. Either blocking pedestrians and/or motorists, when there is perfectly adequate space in a car park no more than 50 metres away.

Bannasidhe wrote: »

I object when I see (as I did last week) a guard sitting in her car in traffic (she was in the lane next to me for a good 10 minutes) chatting and then texting on her mobile and then pull someone over 5 minutes later for doing the same thing. The guard was using a mobile phone while driving - this is against the law. She was not responding to a call-out. Indeed, after she issued a penalty notice to the driver she stopped, the same guard had time to pop into Tesco for milk.

So, you were ten minutes in traffic beside her. Then she pulled someone for using the phone? How did you know why she pulled them?

You say after she issued the ticket she went on to Tesco. So, what did you do? Pull in and watch while she spoke to the driver? Then follow her to Tesco?

Smells like complete bullshít to me tbh.

Seen a garda smoking in a garda car driving through Tallaght last week!
Pretty sure there not allowed to smoke in the work car? (Correct me if i am wrong)

tayto lover wrote: »

My point is that Gardai sitting in a line of traffic for ages are not doing what is expected from them if they are supposed to be working elsewhere i.e. policing estates, drug surveillance, schools or in court. How would you feel if you were in court and the Garda did not turn up because he was on a call and then got stuck in traffic and the person you had up for assault was let off ? Or what if the Garda was on a specific job and it took longer than expected and while on his way to the other call he grabbed a coffee and sandwich by tipping up the bus-lane because he was starving having not eaten in ages. If he does not get a meal break because he is stuck on something else i would not be so narrow-minded to deprive him of something to eat.

...Tipping up the bus lane because he hadn't eaten in ages...seriously?! Why are the (non critical/emergency) duties of the gardai more important & cannot be completed within the realms of the laws than anyone else providing a service public or otherwise?

I believe there are employment laws in place, they are entitled to the same employment rights & conditions as the rest of us & are entitled to obey the same laws - end of.

tayto lover wrote: »

Oh did i miss something or is there actually something else you are not telling us ?

Well, you missed explaining my hypocrisy. Whenever you can, like. I even explained what hypocrisy meant.

We were discussing 'things that were unlikely to happen' like cops being robocop (as you mentioned) and cops bursting into a persons house and beating the **** out of him (as I mentioned). Try to follow along.

tayto lover wrote: »

Well you seem like a hypocrite to me with your little inuendos, i can follow that much lol.

You don't actually know what a hypocrite is then. Just checking.

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Two lanes of traffic - Guard was on my right, keeping pace as traffic moved - on her phone. I have a large 7 seater as it is the only way I can fit in my legally required child seats - so I can see right into the squad car.
Road lay-out changes to three lanes plus a cycle lane - one to turn left into Mahon Point, one to go straight ahead, one to turn right into B & Q.
I indicate to change into left lane to go to Tesco, car passes me already in left lane - driver on phone. Guard (who was still in right turn lane) flips on siren, crosses traffic - causing drivers to have to brake suddenly -and pulls in front of driver of car ahead of me. Rear of squad car is now blocking cycle lane. Guard goes to window of drivers car and announces loudly she is issuing a ticket for use of mobile phone while driving. Guard gets back into squad car and turns left into Mahon Point. 10 minutes later, same guard (and yes, I got a very good look at her) was in the self service queue buying milk (and a magazine).

I hate seeing public money going to waste as much as the next fella, but you seem to be just making a big deal out of that.

She is exempt from mobile phone driving law.

Other driver isn't.

She crosses lanes of traffic with sirens on.

She stops in cycle lane as that is where the other driver stopped.

Did she have a megaphone when announcing what she was issuing the ticket for? I don't know how someone could hear it from another car. Anyway, they were on the phone, so it must be for that.

Guard then goes for lunch.

She obviously wasn't abusing the bus lane thing and was sitting in traffic going for lunch. Then interuppted her lunch to stop a driver who was breaking the law. I still don't see the problem?

elviscostello wrote: »

I hate seeing public money going to waste as much as the next fella, but you seem to be just making a big deal out of that.

She is exempt from mobile phone driving law.

Other driver isn't.

She crosses lanes of traffic with sirens on.

She stops in cycle lane as that is where the other driver stopped.

Did she have a megaphone when announcing what she was issuing the ticket for? I don't know how someone could hear it from another car. Anyway, they were on the phone, so it must be for that.

Guard then goes for lunch.

She obviously wasn't abusing the bus lane thing and was sitting in traffic going for lunch. Then interuppted her lunch to stop a driver who was breaking the law. I still don't see the problem?

The other driver was not blocking the cycle lane. Squad car was because she blocked the dangerous miscreants car at a diagonal. The suddenness with which the Guard put on her siren and drove across traffic could have caused an accident. She did not wait - just went. Car she blocked had to jam on brakes as they had a green light so were moving at about 30 kmph ( estimate - no I did not see their speedometer!!), lucky for me I was already going very slowly to change lanes or I would have had to brake suddenly too.
Hot day - all car windows open. Guard not exactly quiet in her 'discussion' with driver - she may have been adopting a tactic of public humiliation as she admonished him in full sight and hearing of myself and cars in middle lane - lights are now red so we can all have a good rubber neck.

Guard acted without due care and attention to on coming traffic. Verbally shamed driver who was guilty of talking on phone while driving - something the guard herself had been doing less than a minute earlier. Or perhaps she realised she was in the wrong lane and the penalised driver gave her an excuse to just drive across the lanes? - just doing her duty!

tayto lover wrote: »

Or you with your innuendos, pot and kettle thing.

I asked you to point out where I was being hypocritical. You can't, mostly because you are profoundly stupid and said I was being so without actually knowing what it meant. You take on any halfwitted defence of the gardai, not because you think you're right, but because you don't want the gardai to be wrong. You're so infinitely stupid that if someone says 'I saw a garda speeding' in a forum, you ask for proof. It can't be provided, so it's just a conversational dead end, much like talking to you or trying to engage with you. You won't listen to people explain that they aren't talking about all gardai, you won't acknowledge that people have changed their minds, you won't answer direct questions.

You're a dead end of a poster. Completely worthless.

Here, I'm leaving the innuendo aside and telling you explicitly what I think.

jimdeans wrote: »

I was never a big fan of the gardai,a s they've always been either incompetent or rude when I've had to deal with them.

But now you can add patronising to the list. They seem to think that the problems in the post below exist because not many people know about them, so they need to tell us. They've also added in some safe sex advice, which is helpful.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056376905

It is good advice. Never underestimate people's ability to be stupid.