A viewpoint of a fed up Garda...

[fluffybiscuits]

Found this floating about on the twitteverse. We often give the fuzz a hard time (and deservedly so) but this is from someone at the end of the ladder like ourselves. I will leave it for your own reading leisure...
http://www.sundayworld.com/columnist...rish-crime.php

I took children into care from homes where maggots infested the kitchen sink. Infants doused in their own vomit and faeces, gaunt and thin from malnutrition, their junkie parents obsessed only with their next fix. I felt deep sadness for a little boy who watched his own mother cut her wrists in front of him. He cried and screamed "I love you mammy" as I walked him to the patrol van and took him to a better home.

[Saoirse go Deo]

My heart bleeds for him...

Too many of them are power hungry gobsh!tes who try to be intimidating (mostly fail) and spend too much of their time brutalizing/harassing demonstrators.

[Sam Lord]

No appeal for a more just society. No call for an end to social deprivation.

More money for the cops and for policing is the solution.

And if I read one more person describe kids from deprived working class areas as 'feral' I may just stop reading entirely

[Kev Bar]

No appeal for a more just society. No call for an end to social deprivation.

More money for the cops and for policing is the solution.

And if I read one more person describe kids from deprived working class areas as 'feral' I may just stop reading entirely

Primordial and Feral.

Why don't you just twist Simon and scream at the universe: "Don't call me ...al"

[Seán Ryan]

He's most probably a better writer than he was a shade. That's what they call the gardaí in Limerick, the "shades." The melodrama just drips off the page, leaving lard stains everywhere. A real Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, a street cop, in Limerick. A pig in blue, brass buttons and a taste for finery, finer than he has, better than he is.

Gardaí are arresting criminals close to the end of their shifts but are not allowed to investigate the crimes further because certain Superintendents will not allow them claim overtime.

Doesn't sound like a budget issue does it? Sounds like Niall doesn't like some superintendents. Should be easy enough to narrow down... Even for Henry st. gardaí. Besides, as everyone knows, when a uniform arrests you, that is both the beginning and the end of the investigation. Go see them in court some time if you don't believe me.

As a person who was interned in Limerick for well over half of my life, mostly in Moyross and Ballynanty, I know Niall is full of shít. The gardaí don't like to hang out in places like Moyross. Sure they'll show up when the cameras are there after a couple of kids are set on fire. But it has to be something special like that. Other than that, if you dial for emergency services from Moyross, you'd better be prepared to wait a couple of hours. Just tell the armed scumbags kicking down your door that the shades have been delayed, they'll understand (having been in this situation, I can reveal that the writing about it and the retelling of it are way more fun than the experience itself). You fix your own problems in Moyross and crybabies like Niall don't play any part, other than to complicate it and look for credit for a job that's not been done.

There are surely some good and decent gardaí in Limerick, I've met quite a few of them. I've seen some of them risk everything to save others. All Niall requires is his arse pocket padded and some love. He mustn't have been up to much if the local drug lords didn't bother helping him out.

One of two things will happen. Either the story will die like flatulence in a tornado or Niall will have pissed off the powerful and cushdy garda elites in Limerick and they'll see that he's painted for the gimp that he is.

[culmore]

sounds very bad if we have Gardai arresting people at the end of their shifts to make overtime, is there another Donegal out there. This ex Garda and reporter may have done more damage to his ex colleagues that he intended but then you never know with these reporters and their Headlines.

[Baron von Biffo]

sounds very bad if we have Gardai arresting people at the end of their shifts to make overtime, is there another Donegal out there. This ex Garda and reporter may have done more damage to his ex colleagues that he intended but then you never know with these reporters and their Headlines.

Much better if the Commissioner orders that no arrests be made within 3 hours of the end of a shift.

[Seán Ryan]

Niall was on Newstalk this afternoon.
http://www.newstalk.ie/2012/programm...da-speaks-out/

He's not happy with Topaz and buying Shell fuel for police cars, not because Shell are scum mind you, but because the Topaz cards are allegedly out of credit a lot of the time.

He doesn't like management, that's for sure...

I wonder if he's the Niall O'Connor referred to in this? (Though in fairness to him, I've heard from another source that there were two Niall O'Connors stationed at Henry st and that this particular Niall isn't the chap currently under the microscope.)
http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/lo...-arm-1-4036016

Moral is at an all time low. I'd agree with him on that. He also claims that there is no support for gardaí under investigation, that they're essentially left hang out to dry. I know that he's very wrong on this. Gardaí are most usually, when being investigated by the garda ombudsman, investigated by a fellow garda inspector. Very few are ever disciplined and very few investigations result in a court case. I've first hand experience of this miserable experience. The whole system clicks in to support its own. For example, a few years ago, I was involved with the attempted prosecution of a sergeant from the Bridewell station. We had concrete evidence, that the sergeant had assaulted a prisoner and the evidence was corroborated by an independent witness. The case was sent to the Bridewell court and after some very ugly footwork by the judge who was supposed to move the case, he threw it out. In another instance, of assault, theft and false arrest - all on video, the garda's own prosecution against her victims, went forward, despite the fact that the ombudsman had accepted that there was a matter to investigate. The prosecution of the garda's victims died immediately after she gave evidence, with the defence not needing to utter a word... The ombudsman's investigation died after it was handed over to a garda inspector to investigate.

I could go on and on...

I agree with little Nially on some points. The justice system is a joke. Legal aid needs some looking at too. However, to point to members of the force as being innocents floating on the foam of this madness, is itself madness. Then again, Niall had to repeat Leaving Certificate mathematics to get into the force... Doesn't say much for the state of journalism in Ireland when a journalist couldn't qualify to join the force...

[fluffybiscuits]

Niall was on Newstalk this afternoon.
http://www.newstalk.ie/2012/programm...da-speaks-out/

He's not happy with Topaz and buying Shell fuel for police cars, not because Shell are scum mind you, but because the Topaz cards are allegedly out of credit a lot of the time.

He doesn't like management, that's for sure...

I wonder if he's the Niall O'Connor referred to in this? (Though in fairness to him, I've heard from another source that there were two Niall O'Connors stationed at Henry st and that this particular Niall isn't the chap currently under the microscope.)
http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/lo...-arm-1-4036016

Moral is at an all time low. I'd agree with him on that. He also claims that there is no support for gardaí under investigation, that they're essentially left hang out to dry. I know that he's very wrong on this. Gardaí are most usually, when being investigated by the garda ombudsman, investigated by a fellow garda inspector. Very few are ever disciplined and very few investigations result in a court case. I've first hand experience of this miserable experience. The whole system clicks in to support its own. For example, a few years ago, I was involved with the attempted prosecution of a sergeant from the Bridewell station. We had concrete evidence, that the sergeant had assaulted a prisoner and the evidence was corroborated by an independent witness. The case was sent to the Bridewell court and after some very ugly footwork by the judge who was supposed to move the case, he threw it out. In another instance, of assault, theft and false arrest - all on video, the garda's own prosecution against her victims, went forward, despite the fact that the ombudsman had accepted that there was a matter to investigate. The prosecution of the garda's victims died immediately after she gave evidence, with the defence not needing to utter a word... The ombudsman's investigation died after it was handed over to a garda inspector to investigate.

I could go on and on...

I agree with little Nially on some points. The justice system is a joke. Legal aid needs some looking at too. However, to point to members of the force as being innocents floating on the foam of this madness, is itself madness. Then again, Niall had to repeat Leaving Certificate mathematics to get into the force... Doesn't say much for the state of journalism in Ireland when a journalist couldn't qualify to join the force...

Impartiality is a huge issue for a lot of people contesting the issues of the gardai cases. Your points spurred me on to do a little bit more research and this cracking article from the Village magazine popped up and describes the slick PR machine that the gardai used when they were trying to overcome the issues posed by the rape tape fiasco that came up in the Shell to Sea campaign (http://www.villagemagazine.ie/index....ardaombudsman/). Read the following excerpt from the article. It discusses the evidence of the rape tape and the alleged threat of jail for failure of the tape to be handed over.

Jerrieann Sullivan was forced to hire a solicitor. She says that he was, in turn, threatened by GSOC “with a fine or imprisonment for not handing over the camera”. A statement from seven academics – Sullivan’s course directors at NUI Maynooth – describes GSOC’s attitude to Sullivan and the other woman (who has managed to remain anonymous) as “consistently hostile, recalling past treatment of the victims of sexual violence”.

Nine days after the story broke in April, the older file , containing the recording of the research interview, was deleted from the camera in the academics’ presence, and the camera given to GSOC. The possible motives behind GSOC’s approach became clearer when the Interim Report appeared. The deletion of the older file was cleverly exploited to give the false impression that the recording of the rape comments had been “tampered with”.

[Seán Ryan]

William Hederman is a superb journalist and activist. You'll find a load of stuff from him here.

You can find my own take on the GSOC here.

I really wanted to go into the rape tape stuff in my own piece about the ombudsman. However, it would have made it look like it was hard to find examples of misconduct, when the very opposite is true. That and the fact that there were lots of folks much closer on the ground to the issue itself, like William, ensured that the subject would get a much better airing than I could have given it.

On the one hand, corrupt gardaí are pretty much untouchable. On the other, I'm inspired by the amount and quality of folks out there, that manage to hold the line without any ulterior motives, other than to see fair play and justice.

[Baron von Biffo]

Impartiality is a huge issue for a lot of people contesting the issues of the gardai cases. Your points spurred me on to do a little bit more research and this cracking article from the Village magazine popped up and describes the slick PR machine that the gardai used when they were trying to overcome the issues posed by the rape tape fiasco that came up in the Shell to Sea campaign (http://www.villagemagazine.ie/index....ardaombudsman/). Read the following excerpt from the article. It discusses the evidence of the rape tape and the alleged threat of jail for failure of the tape to be handed over.

That article is like a bad smell. It wafted in through the cracks here before.

http://www.politicalworld.org/showpo...&postcount=127

[fluffybiscuits]

William Hederman is a superb journalist and activist. You'll find a load of stuff from him here.

You can find my own take on the GSOC here.

I really wanted to go into the rape tape stuff in my own piece about the ombudsman. However, it would have made it look like it was hard to find examples of misconduct, when the very opposite is true. That and the fact that there were lots of folks much closer on the ground to the issue itself, like William, ensured that the subject would get a much better airing than I could have given it.

On the one hand, corrupt gardaí are pretty much untouchable. On the other, I'm inspired by the amount and quality of folks out there, that manage to hold the line without any ulterior motives, other than to see fair play and justice.

Just read your piece http://roaringandshouting.wordpress....ion-paint-job/ on the cost of the investigations. €8m per conviction is a hell of a lot of money and where is this money being spent? Anecdotally there is a quite a substantial amount of evidence to show that there is a good deal of collusion within gardai, to what extent is the question.