Garda harassment

Erica246 wrote: »

This morning 2 gardai passed by in their van and saw me busy putting some things from the front seat to the back. They stopped the van and asked what I was doing there. They demanded to see my drivers license. Then they demanded to search me under some act for drugs. They had no suspicion of any drugs. I pointed out to them that my eyes are normal and I do not use anything of any kind. They were not deterred and told me that they would strip search me in the garda station if I would not co-operate to the search on the spot, and this would take longer. They stood on my clean clothes and when I tried to pick the clothes off the dirty side of the road he pushed me hard in the chest so I was hurled back up. I got my everything back dirty and have his foot print on my sock. I am very distressed by their actions.

OK...

If you have a problem with the actions of a member of an garda siochana then contact the garda ombudsman. Internet forums aren't going to fix your problem.

Erica246 wrote: »

This morning 2 gardai passed by in their van and saw me busy putting some things from the front seat to the back. They stopped the van and asked what I was doing there. They demanded to see my drivers license. Then they demanded to search me under some act for drugs. They had no suspicion of any drugs. I pointed out to them that my eyes are normal and I do not use anything of any kind. They were not deterred and told me that they would strip search me in the garda station if I would not co-operate to the search on the spot, and this would take longer. They stood on my clean clothes and when I tried to pick the clothes off the dirty side of the road he pushed me hard in the chest so I was hurled back up. I got my everything back dirty and have his foot print on my sock. I am very distressed by their actions.

take a photo of the sock,
go to the police station
make a complaint
may not achieve a lot , but there will be a record of it and you might save someone else from the "bravery"

Zambia wrote: »

How do you know what the garda was thinking.

Anyway what do you want ? What result are you looking for.

good to nip such carry on in the bud - it just makes it harder for all the decent ones

ain't so brave when up against someone who is not a girl in her car :

gctest50 wrote: »

take a photo of the sock,
go to the police station
make a complaint

Or if you're fit, take the sock.....

Originally Posted by gctest50
take a photo of the sock,
go to the police station
make a complaint

nutts_77 wrote: »

Or if you're fit, take the sock.....

she could drop it in a puddle and the it'd be no good

what next ? since its her star witness take it for fish n chips ?

gctest50 wrote: »

ain't so brave when up against someone who is not a girl in her car :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM3pWSodFso

what the actual **** is the point in posting this video? that is horrific, do you wish that on the gardai who allegedly stopped this girl, you make me ****ing sick

pah wrote: »

what the actual **** is the point in posting this video? that is horrific, do you wish that on the gardai who allegedly stopped this girl, you make me ****ing sick

no

you seemed to have missed this bit :

gctest50 wrote: »

....... it just makes it harder for all the decent ones
.........

if you look at the video - no-one comes to help

thats what'll happen here if (1) the OP's account is accurate enough (2) keep doing (1)

.

the dark phantom wrote: »

Did ye see the all the hassle on Oliver Plunkett St, Cork on Friday ? It was all over a 50 bag of Weed !!

And you would know this, how?

Erica246 wrote: »

This morning 2 gardai passed by in their van and saw me busy putting some things from the front seat to the back. They stopped the van and asked what I was doing there. They demanded to see my drivers license. Then they demanded to search me under some act for drugs. They had no suspicion of any drugs. I pointed out to them that my eyes are normal and I do not use anything of any kind. They were not deterred and told me that they would strip search me in the garda station if I would not co-operate to the search on the spot, and this would take longer. They stood on my clean clothes and when I tried to pick the clothes off the dirty side of the road he pushed me hard in the chest so I was hurled back up. I got my everything back dirty and have his foot print on my sock. I am very distressed by their actions.

Okay well firstly Welcome to boards.ie!
Next up & more Important is that I Hope you are doing okay right now; are feeling somewhat better and you are in a position to read clearly what I'm saying to you.
I don't think this is a case that should necessarily take up the time for GSOC just yet imo. This should reach the local Superintendent, maybe Chief Superintendent first but not straight to GSOC for the following...

~ You knew you were innocent. You knew you'd no drugs on your possession and had not taken any drugs/illegal substance at that point in time.

~ What I can see is seriously bad timing here. A presumably marked Garda car approach this unknown van with someone they don't recognise/know (presumably) inside; for what they would've seen as suddenly moving unknown items out of sight from the front of the van to the back.

~ I am glad they stopped. Glad they exercised their powers to question and search. As a GardaReserve I witnessed this a few times and seen varying responses from those being searched. They were only doing their job here though and were right in that taking you to the station to ensure you were not carrying/in possesion.

~ The dirty clothing - Listen, that would be important to you (& me), but at that time they were doing their job and something like that ain't going to deter them from their goal here.

~ It's the hurling you back upright is why I'd suggest you speak directly with the immediate superiors before GSOC and see what they have to say on that. It could prevent another more serious incident from occurring should that happen again, but with someone else who may not have their body in a position to take it. You decide after that how you wish to proceed with that imo.

~ I can see where they were coming from here, but also how you would feel aggrieved by their actions.
Hope you can see what I see from reading your post and try understand where they were coming from, since it hasn't been clearly mentioned above by others from my reading.

~ I can only hope you are okay, physically & hope you will speak with either the local Superintendent, maybe Chief Superintendent about this incident.

Their are ways of going about their job, and this could've been dealt with easier considering also they had the numbers and uniform behind them and you knew you'd done nothing wrong and had no illegal substance on you.

Hope you're okay,
kerry4sam

gctest50 wrote: »

and how does this make you feel ?

It makes me feel like your trying to take something completely out of context and irrelevant in order to support your own agenda. In doing so, diminishing your argument and making yourself look foolish.

Dr Turk Turkelton wrote: »

You don't see any harassment here?

Where exactly is the harassment?
This was presumably a lawful search and the op admits that she failed to co-operate.

The Gardai continuing with a lawful search and preventing the op from interfering with it doesn't amount to harassment.

gctest50 wrote: »

and how does this make you feel ?

You've posted a video of a man being beaten so violently he had to be put in a medically induced coma and then commented that this might happen to a garda who

ain't so brave when up against someone who is not a girl in her car

The guy in the video didn't even know that he attacked a cop????
I fail to see the relevance to the thread and it's so far off topic it can't be anything more than a complete troll.

As far as the recording the private conversation goes - that was in extremely bad taste and I am offended by it but you're comparing apples and oranges here when we're not even talking about fruit.

No reply from the OP either I see. If she's looking for advice on what to do about a genuine complaint and had to create a boards account to get that info you'd think she would have replied by now.

Dr Turk Turkelton wrote: »

He stood on her clothes on the side of the road before assaulting her and you can't see how this is harassment?
Keystone cops come to mind.

Harassment.

10.—(1) Any person who, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, by any means including by use of the telephone, harasses another by persistently following, watching, pestering, besetting or communicating with him or her, shall be guilty of an offence.

S 10 Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997

Harrassment is something that occurs on an ongoing basis.

Phoebas wrote: »

There is no allegation of assault in the op at all.
What we have here is the Gardai involved in a drugs search and the suspect was seen to be interfering with that search. For all the Gardai knew, the op may have been attempting to retrieve drugs from a pile of unsearched items or place drugs in a pile that was already searched.

The op admitted that she failed to cooperate so I suppose the Gardai would treat that response with some suspicion.

Why would an innocent person cooperate with some eejit guard on a power trip when they have done nothing wrong?
Another reason why I'm against the arming of guards except for the elite of the force-badly handled situations like this could escalate so easily.

Dr Turk Turkelton wrote: »

Why would an innocent person cooperate with some eejit guard on a power trip when they have done nothing wrong?

If the Garda are going to do a drugs search, they're going to do it whether you cooperate or not.
So if you want it to go smoothly then the smart move is to cooperate.

If you want to, you can fail to cooperate and make the whole experience more difficult. Some people like that - it gives them stuff to complain about.

desertcircus wrote: »

Or the Gardai could do their job properly and avoid being unpleasant for no good reason.

It would be good if everyone would be more pleasant, including fully cooperating with legal searches.

Being subject to a search is never going to be a pleasant experience and both sides have a responsibility to make it as easy as possible. The op admits that she did not.

desertcircus wrote: »

Or the Gardai could do their job properly and avoid being unpleasant for no good reason.

So you think a member of the gardai who thinks an offence has or was been commited weather they are right or wrong should when a person says I've Notting on me or in the car just leave it at that and say ok sorry?
No they will search the person and the car if the person stands back and says ok work away then everything will be finished in a few min of you start protesting and getting in the way then stuff like happend here will happen so IMO the op bears some responsibility right the Garda May have been wrong and she had been doing nottin wrong so why not just co operate
When I was younger I used to hang around with boy racers etc I was stoped and searched a good few times I always cooperated because I had Nottingham my car was fully taxed next and insured and I'd a full liecence other guys where the same but did not cooperate to well with gardai they ended up been pulled everyday I was hardly ever maybe a lesson in that

Chiparus wrote: »

As a matter of interest, would threatening to strip search someone be a a criminal offense?

Yes.

Is that ambiguous enough for you?

Chiparus wrote: »

As a matter of interest, would threatening to strip search someone be a a criminal offense?

If it's two male cops V one lady who is alone then that is out of order and would do nothing only provoke her natural defenses to defend herself.
The trouble with guards is they seem to be brain washed in training and they can NEVER admit they're wrong.
When they first approached the op and saw she was just moving some clothes they should of said'' sorry my mistake, have a nice day'' but they never can. They take it so personally,and at this point they need to find something wrong,they look for a problem where there is no problem,just to make themselves feel better. Basically it's an attempt to make themselves look right,when in fact they were wrong.

Zambia wrote: »

The op appears to not be that bothered?

She's busy rewashing her scanties