Police want to talk to you? What do you do?

What if its assault and your defence is self defence?

Mesrine65 wrote: »

If anything is to be garnered from this thread, it's that a large number of our populace have a wariness regarding An Garda Síochána & the way they conduct themselves.

If fairness there are some real rogues in the force that think nothing of lying in court and sticking people on false charges.

Its easy to say trust them and "if you've nothing to hide", until you have dealings with them and see what goes on, or land in front of them in the station.

VisibleGorilla wrote: »

The reason is there is NOTHING to be gained from speaking to them.

If you are innocent or guilty it doesn't really matter, speaking to them can be very bad for you, it only benefits the Gardai. Why do they do it in the first place? To gather evidence/force a confession.

Might be you can assist in the investigation of a crime ? help the victim of a crime. do you duty as a citizen.

Its people who refuse to speak when they can help that add to state the country and justice system is in.

By all means protect your self with legal representation but why stone wall an investigation if you can help.

In my own experience "No comment" is your best friend.

Was done for cultivation of cannabis/possession.
House was raided when I was in the pub.,getting phone calls from lad's from the estate saying gaff was getting turned over is how I found out.
Was rushing home to deal with it when I realised that spending the evening in the station answering questions with a few pints on board was not a good idea...

Got one of the lads to go around to the gaff to suss it out. (this lad ain't the sharpest knife) pulls into the drive, knocks on the door... Promptly dragged inside and is aggressively questioned about me and the plants. (knew all about it but wisely played dumb, not too hard in fairness) was threatened with arrest unless he rang me for them. So he did. Cop gets on the phone a second later "emigrate, ye know why we're here ye need to get home and talk to us" "I'm in the pub, not gonna happen tonight" we'll wait for ye" off ye go says I. (they waited 4 hours, while I got not so merrily elephants, bastards ate a packet of hob nobs on me too.)

Went to the station next day, fully expecting to be arrested on the spot. Had to make an appointment to be arrested a week later...

When arrested, the sergeant booking me in, STRONGLY suggested I talk to a solicitor in before questioning. I did.

Outlined my situation, I said I was going to be pleading guilty (was caught, no point dragging it out) was advised to be careful during interview as they'd try trip me up, if unsure of any line of questioning the to say "No comment" as when it comes to court the judge has to disregard the that and can't infer guilt for not answering.

Come interview, I gave all info, where I got everything, the whole process. Got to what, were you going to do with it? Smoke it. Is that not an awful lot for one person? Not really, I'd give a bit away,. So sell it? No. I put to you that you intended to Supply cannabis. No comment. Did you intend to sell cannabis? No comment. I put to you that by giving cannabis to your friends, that this is suppling cannabis, would you agree? No comment.

Interview continued along a different line which I answered, then returned to the above theme, but worded different, trying to a catch me out. A few more no comments and the interview ended, they knew they weren't gonna catch me out.

Anyway, those few "no comments“ were the difference between being charged with possession or possession with intent to supply, which would have been a lot worse for me.

End result was a years probation as opposed to a possible 18 month sentence (which in all likelihood would have been suspended, but a custodial sentence is still collecting custodial)

In hindsight, had I just began with "No comment" I wouldn't have been almost tripped up but it's all good in the end.

ALWAYS SEEK LEGAL ADVICE BEFOREHAND, IF IN DOUBT "NO COMMENT" IS YOUR FRIEND.


(sorry bout the essay)

LDN_Irish wrote: »

I was assaulted on a campsite (not travellers. Holiday style camping) by a man of around 50 when I was 15 and drunk. Turns out he was married to a police officer. He was annoyed because he alleged we woke him up and when he started shouting at me I told him to **** off so he punched me in the head. I punched him back and as I was walking away his friends who were woken by the commotion ran out and attempted to detain me so I tried to fight them off. I did a lot of shouting during the incident* and fell in to a table knocking it over**. They overpowered me and the police were called. While they had me detained I was verbally abusive towards them*** because one of them was bending my thumb backwards to intentionally cause me pain. Police came and arrested me. The original attacker admitted to police that he hit me first before any physical contact, they didn't arrest him. I told police he'd hit me first and should be arrested and they told ,e to shut up.

Long story short, the next day I'm in questioning with my solicitor and submit a statement outlining the above but with the parts I've asterisked not included. I then answered any questions that had already been answered in my statement and "no commented" the rest. The reasons being that:

*potentially disturbing the peace
**potentially criminal damage
***potentially all kinds of charges depending on what I said.

It doesn't matter that a court wouldn't convict on those charges because they all stemmed from someone else's criminality and was in the course of a reasonable defense of myself. The police will still try to stick charges on you and possibly put pressure on to agree to a caution if you give them anything to work with.

Months later at dinner with my family my dad gets a phone call. The CPS, all charges dropped and would I like to still press charges against the man. No says I, like a ****ing muppet. I should have had him convicted.

so your 15 years old drunk and waking up people on a camp site ? argument ensues police are called and a group of adults stop you leaving upon which point you become violent and aggressive.
the adult told the truth and the police arrested the violent drunk aggressive 15 year old . you submit a statement that is full of lies and refuse to answer any other questions.
police investigate and get the whole story presumably from the original man and friends who were willing to speak to them .
out come is no charges and you are offered to opportunity to get your justice but you turned that down.

seems like you were well done by the police despite being in the wrong and refusing to cooperate