Dublin Bus

SEPT 23 1989 · 08-01-2014 04:43PM

gramar wrote: »

Why do people shoot up or take drugs on public buses? I've no doubt that it goes on but I just don't get why buses or the dart or luas are the places of choice.

Live in the suburbs go into town to get your gear

get it into you as soon as possible on the way home

mickydoomsux · 08-01-2014 04:43PM

gramar wrote: »

Why do people shoot up or take drugs on public buses? I've no doubt that it goes on but I just don't get why buses or the dart or luas are the places of choice.

It's warm and out of the elements.

Plus they may have traveled to see their dealer and want to get high straight away once they get their stuff. Another handy use of the travel pass for them.

zl1whqvjs75cdy · 08-01-2014 04:44PM

Wouldn't be the most surprising thing in the world. Free bus passes are a total scourge.

darkpagandeath · 08-01-2014 04:47PM

Fake unless their taking 100s of ml of what ever and no needles... And that blood looks like the Halloween stuff... Real blood pools and congeals/dry's quite quickly and does not tend to stay bright florescent red... Not saying this does not happen on Public transport though..

anncoates · 08-01-2014 04:47PM

wexie wrote: »

cause there's no gards on them?

There's no way you could squander normal police resources in that capacity.

SimonQuinlank · 08-01-2014 04:48PM

They aren't the places of choice,incidents are few and far between.When it does happen its heavily reported and people who don't use public transport frequently use it as an easy excuse to criticise the services and their drivers etc.

Laneways and parks in and around the city centre seem to be the places frequented by addicts to shoot up,judging by the number of discarded syringes I've seen.Area around Christchurch and St.Audoens is particularly bad.

EyeSight · 08-01-2014 04:49PM

gramar wrote: »

Why do people shoot up or take drugs on public buses? I've no doubt that it goes on but I just don't get why buses or the dart or luas are the places of choice.

I've seen people piss on the dart. I've friends who claimed to have seen someone **** in a carriage once(something i've seen off Henry street).

Why would they wait for their travel to end? There's no consequence

poundapunnet · 08-01-2014 04:50PM

Haven't seen it myself but doesn't surprise me. The heroin problem in the capital is out of control, I have seen people buying/taking/being off their faces on it more times than I can count around Dublin. And I avoid the kip like the plague.

wexie · 08-01-2014 04:53PM

anncoates wrote: »

There's no way you could squander normal police resources in that capacity.

While I'm not sure I agree with you on the use of the term 'squander' in this context I agree with you that a permanent presence of ASG on the buses wouldn't be feasible.

As an aside I had meant to type 'guards' as in security.

eviltwin · 08-01-2014 04:55PM

Wasn't someone shot at on a Dublin bus late last year? Look the gardai can't deal with everything, given their resources I'm sure some addict is the least of their problems. It will take a very serious incident before something is done.

KungPao · 08-01-2014 04:56PM

gramar wrote: »

Why do people shoot up or take drugs on public buses? I've no doubt that it goes on but I just don't get why buses or the dart or luas are the places of choice.

My guess is they have just used their free pass to travel to a dealer to pick up some junk. Then on the way home they have a hit.

Or just because they can. Nobody to stop them realistically, and it's nice and warm and clean relative to a drug den.

The idiots who smoke just do it because they think they are great and so hard...'fck the rules, I'll do what I want' kind of mentality. I saw a waster actually get on the bus and casually walk upstairs with a lighting cig, not a bother on him.

Tiddlypeeps · 08-01-2014 04:56PM

SimonQuinlank wrote: »

They aren't the places of choice,incidents are few and far between.When it does happen its heavily reported and people who don't use public transport frequently use it as an easy excuse to criticise the services and their drivers etc.

Laneways and parks in and around the city centre seem to be the places frequented by addicts to shoot up,judging by the number of discarded syringes I've seen.Area around Christchurch and St.Audoens is particularly bad.

I agree shooting up isn't that common. I used to ride the 78/79 fairly regularly and only seen it happen a few times. Rolling joints, smoking joints/cigarettes and drinking was pretty much a constant tho, at all times of the day.

I know those routes are petty bad tho, and only a few others are as bad as it so I don't think it would be overly expensive to provide at least an infrequent security presence on them.

wexie · 08-01-2014 05:00PM

Tiddlypeeps wrote: »

I agree shooting up isn't that common. I used to ride the 78/79 fairly regularly and only seen it happen a few times.

Only seen it happen a few times......

I'm just going to let that sit there for a while........

Only a few times......

poundapunnet · 08-01-2014 05:01PM

eviltwin wrote: »

Wasn't someone shot at on a Dublin bus late last year? Look the gardai can't deal with everything, given their resources I'm sure some addict is the least of their problems. It will take a very serious incident before something is done.

See what annoys me about this is I think there's an element of people being intimidated by junkies. I don't even have to open my mouth for it to be pretty obvious I'm a middle-class person, and if I stood in the middle of O'Connell street smoking a joint or drinking a can and taking a piss I doubt I'd be left to my own devices very long, and I'd probably quietly and politely do what I was told if approached by the gards.

But people are afraid of junkies, the gards don't seem to want the hassle of dealing with them (which I can understand tbh, it must get so frustrating), and even more, people who dress like or have the same accent as junkies get treated like scumbags automatically a lot of the time. I'd buy the garda resources thing if they didn't put so much time into hassling people over having a quiet doobie in the park or chasing people over car-tax or a million other crimes which don't have the social impact of threatening, violent or anti-social behaviour. It's priorities as much as resources.

Baneblade · 08-01-2014 05:02PM

if you want the driver to deal with it be prepared to give im a taser and allow him to have a stun first, throw off second approach.
no way id expect anyone to go toe to toe with someone who just shot up and had a blood filled syringe

there is more to that picture then just someone shooting up, just looking at the wall there would have been blood spraying everywhere where the hell were the sticking the needle their neck?? and its alot of blood loss for an iv injection

Knob Longman · 08-01-2014 05:06PM

Highflyer13 wrote: »

Only a couple of weeks ago a 7 yr old was pricked by a needle on the dart. Where the problem really lies is the rampant heroin epidemic in Dublin City. There's no denying it.

As long as the "grow houses" remain the Gardaí's top priority don't expect anything to be done about Heroin.. :rolleyes:

mickydoomsux · 08-01-2014 05:16PM

poundapunnet wrote: »

See what annoys me about this is I think there's an element of people being intimidated by junkies. I don't even have to open my mouth for it to be pretty obvious I'm a middle-class person, and if I stood in the middle of O'Connell street smoking a joint or drinking a can and taking a piss I doubt I'd be left to my own devices very long, and I'd probably quietly and politely do what I was told if approached by the gards.

But people are afraid of junkies, the gards don't seem to want the hassle of dealing with them (which I can understand tbh, it must get so frustrating), and even more, people who dress like or have the same accent as junkies get treated like scumbags automatically a lot of the time. I'd buy the garda resources thing if they didn't put so much time into hassling people over having a quiet doobie in the park or chasing people over car-tax or a million other crimes which don't have the social impact of threatening, violent or anti-social behaviour. It's priorities as much as resources.

I know a few Gardai and the reason they don't bother with Anto and his buddies is that it's a waste of time.

If you can get him to show up to court the judge will probably give him a suspended sentence if any at all because some social worker will swear on a stack of bibles that he's been trying his hardest to get off the junk so going to prison would be a huge set back and sure his ma is sick and he had a hard upbringing and someone looked at him funny when he was 13 and any other excuse that will play on upper middle-class guilt.

This is how people who are 20 have 50+ convictions and are still roaming the streets until they put someone in a coma or kill someone. The people i know on the force can pretty much tell you who is going to be put away for manslaughter/murder 5 years down the road.

Tiddlypeeps · 08-01-2014 05:20PM

wexie wrote: »

Only seen it happen a few times......

I'm just going to let that sit there for a while........

Only a few times......

I wasn't trying to underplay the seriousness of it. I was just agreeing with the other poster that I don't think it's your average junkies default location to do the deed. Otherwise we would see a lot more of it. I was just pointing out to them that it's not the only antisocial issue on Dublin bus that could benefit greatly from a little more security.

I don't really understand how the Luas can afford to have a fairly decent security presence on trams but Dublin bus can't afford any. Are the costs to operate really that much higher?

xzanti · 08-01-2014 05:23PM

To me it looks like some bored kids got hold of some dosing syringes from their Mothers medicine press, bit of red food colouring and off they went..

Of course I could be wrong.. maybe somebody did fill 3 syringes with their own blood for some dastardly purpose and ended up spraying them all over the wall of a bus.

Nowt as queer as folk.

poundapunnet · 08-01-2014 05:24PM

mickydoomsux wrote: »

I know a few Gardai and the reason they don't bother with Anto and his buddies is that it's a waste of time.

If you can get him to show up to court the judge will probably give him a suspended sentence if any at all because some social worker will swear on a stack of bibles that he's been trying his hardest to get off the junk so going to prison would be a huge set back and sure his ma is sick and he had a hard upbringing and someone looked at him funny when he was 13 and any other excuse that will play on upper middle-class guilt.

This is how people who are 20 have 50+ convictions and are still roaming the streets until they put someone in a coma or kill someone. The people i know on the force can pretty much tell you who is going to be put away for manslaughter/murder 5 years down the road.

Yeah that's what I meant about the hassle and frustration of it, I don't blame the gards for getting fed up with it, but it's still their fcuking job. Low level stuff like shooting up in public, the robbing on a bus someone described above, seriously aggressive begging from junkies is let happen. My middle class guilt stops at the point where my middle class self can't walk down a street without being hassled.

There's very big issues underlying the heroin problem in Dublin which are almost impossible to properly address by now. However, just because you can't fix the cause of something, or because the people caught up in it are seen to have some kind of diminished responsibility for having gotten caught up in it doesn't mean the manifestations of the problem should be given special treatment, when the gards are so enthusiastic about going after grow houses, cannabis users, people with no NCT, etc. I do see how it's pointless sending a drug addict to jail, but there do have to be consequences. Like has been suggested, take their bus passes off them for a start.

wexie · 08-01-2014 05:27PM

Tiddlypeeps wrote: »

I wasn't trying to underplay the seriousness of it. I was just agreeing with the other poster that I don't think it's your average junkies default location to do the deed. Otherwise we would see a lot more of it. I was just pointing out to them that it's not the only antisocial issue on Dublin bus that could benefit greatly from a little more security.

I don't really understand how the Luas can afford to have a fairly decent security presence on trams but Dublin bus can't afford any. Are the costs to operate really that much higher?

Don't get me wrong, wasn't getting at you

just pointing out that to me (and a lot of others it would seem) even just the once would be too many.

With regards to the LUAS I suppose they are pretty confined insofar that there are very few trams/stations compared to the amount of buses/busstops?

end of the road · 08-01-2014 05:34PM

LexieOnRale wrote: »

So what, they'd leave someone there with a syringe in their arm, with ordinary decent people sitting witnessing the entire thing??

what choice do they have? if they say anything they will end up being roared at by the junky all through the journey, which will cause even more disruption and panic for some passengers, if they intervene they could have the syringe stuck in them

qo2cj1dsne8y4k · 08-01-2014 05:36PM

I think it's disgusting that on public transport that troublemakers use for free and decent people pay for, you're expected to put up with drug use, or threats, or verbal abuse, because its nobody's job to actually make sure they're not causing trouble

mickydoomsux · 08-01-2014 05:39PM

poundapunnet wrote: »

Like has been suggested, take their bus passes off them for a start.

They'll apply to the Department of Social Protection (an ironic name if i ever saw one, most of what they do has a negative effect on society as a whole) and get a new one.

poundapunnet · 08-01-2014 05:40PM

mickydoomsux wrote: »

They'll apply to the Department of Social Protection (an ironic name if i ever saw one, most of what they do has a negative effect on society as a whole) and get a new one.

I was thinking more of a ban against them holding one than just taking the piece of paper off them :P

end of the road · 08-01-2014 05:41PM

LexieOnRale wrote: »

I would suggest they also think of their passengers, and maybe some vulnerable passengers (like the kids that were mugged in a post above) and either call the guards straight away, or drop them off outside the nearest Garda station, like they did with the lady and the crying baby.

many will call the guards, but many times the guards are busy, many routes won't have a station on them so to take somebody to one would mean a detour which isn't going to happen.

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Why are they even letting those scrotes onto the bus?

nobody to stop them, the drivers job is to drive the bus, they have enough to be doing driving the bus then getting into a shouting match with some little scrote, really conductors should have never been taken off the busses but when it comes to cost nothing else matters it seems, the driver is expected to both drive the bus and baby cit everyone all at the same time

wexie · 08-01-2014 05:41PM

LexieOnRale wrote: »

I think it's disgusting that on public transport that troublemakers use for free and decent people pay for, you're expected to put up with drug use, or threats, or verbal abuse, because its nobody's job to actually make sure they're not causing trouble

Oh I think most people here agree with you, I sure do.
I just don't think we can blame the bus drivers.

The company...sure...but they'll just say they haven't the money because not enough people are using the service, the gards aren't responding to incidents, etc. etc. etc.

Then there's the politicians trying to convince us we all need to get out of the car to free of congestion in the city....etc. etc. etc.

end of the road · 08-01-2014 05:51PM

EyeSight wrote: »

No surprise. Didn't a kid sit on a syringe last month on the DART?
Junkies and scumbags live under an amnesty as far as the law in Dublin is concerned. I rarely see the guards do anything with them, and when they do, the courts leave them go with a warning.

I don't take "lack of resources" as an excuse. Every bank holiday weekend there is a large crackdown on drivers, why can't we do the same every few weeks or months with junkies and scumbags?

lack of resources is an excuse

qo2cj1dsne8y4k · 08-01-2014 05:52PM

Well you'd wonder why they charge for a service that they can't run properly

Tasden · 08-01-2014 06:02PM

LexieOnRale wrote: »

Well you'd wonder why they charge for a service that they can't run properly

The bus service you mean?

Dublin Bus

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