How much faith do you have in An Garda Siochana as law enforcement officials?

the majority of people never have any real dealings with AGS , being stopped at a checkpoint etc isnt really any sort of dealings with them

I had someone buy a house beside me twenty years ago when i was living elsewhere , he was a neighbour from hell but very well connected with high up members of the force , he assaulted me on my own property in 2005 , i was left with a pretty bad black eye , had to get my eye socket checked in the mater hospital eye department , i merely wrestled him to the ground and told him to get off my property

my house was searched two days later , local seargeant arrived with a warrant , claiming he believed i had a stun gun as the neighbour accused me of using it on him

both of us were summonsed for assaulting each other but i was also summonsed for harassing the guys wife , she claimed i regularly followed her from the local village in my car , we lived beside each other so took the same route regularly , that was thrown out of court by the judge but that the guards brought me to court over it , showed how willing they were to work for this guy , anyway , i was in my twenties at the time and a bit wet behind the ears in the way of court , had a local bumpkin solicitor who was only good for basic stuff , barrister was a wet week in the job and a waste of space , judge is now retired but was a notorious nutjob who made the national media once for having during a court sitting dealing with a breaking and entering , claimed he would blow the head off anyone who ever trespassed on his property

the same dingbat convicted me of assault for defending myself against a trespasser who assaulted me , i was so shocked , i didnt have the sense to appeal , i paid a hefty enough fine and the conviction was struck out at a follow up hearing four months later , i dont have a record though if i ever found myself before the courts again , this would come into play which is indeed regrettable

now you might say that was more the judges wrongdoing than AGS but six years later in 2011 , i was arrested for allegedly making a slit throat gesture in the local town against the same neighbour , i didnt even see the guy but apparently we were in a shop together at the same time and the guards looked at the CCTV , new seargent phoned me and asked me about it , i told him i didnt see the neighbour , he phoned me back a week later and said if i didnt volunteer myself for arrest within a few days in the local station , hed come out and arrest me , this time i employed a proper criminal solicitor and was prepared , while i spent four hours in a cell in between being interviewed twice , i picked a nice spot on the wall and refused to answer a single question during interview bar confirming my name , no way was i playing ball with such a farce , got a call six weeks later to say no further action would be taken , i also made sure on the advice of my solicitor not to consent to having my prints taken as if i did , they could be kept in file permanently , this didnt mean i physically resisted when they were being taken , it just meant the record showed i didnt provide consent , the seargeant then had to request permission from up the line to force me to provide them , that took a few hours , the prints had to be subsequently destroyed once it was established that the DPP would not proceed with any action


the local guards were simply doing chores for my neighbour on the orders of those higher up the food chain , nothing serious enough to warrant making official complaints on my part , my solicitor assured me if i did make a complaint , that nothing would come of it , made me realise how riven with politics the institution is however , how willing guards are to act often depends both on who is doing the complaining and who is being complained about

PS , i had two uncles who served in the guards , one was a rank and file in dublin , the other an inspector in dublin

KaneToad wrote: »

The job is tough, like many other jobs. But they are neither under funded nor understaffed.

you will never hear any sector of the public sector claim that they are sufficiently funded or sufficiently staffed , when Liam Doran was the head union chief for the Nurses , he was forever asking for more of both and pleading poverty on behalf of those he represented

he had his own dressing room in RTE which also helped