GRA in Broadside Against Victims of Gardai Corruption and Violence.

national | miscellaneous | news report

Tuesday May 14, 2002 17:38

by james - socialist alternative

antrophe at hotmail dot com

PJ Stone of The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has launched a broadside against those attacked when a peaceful protest was attacked when the Gardai erupted into a violent attack on protesters.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has criticised comments by the General Secretary of the Garda Representative Association.

PJ Stone said at the GRA annual conference that the vast majority of law-abiding citizens did not want an Ombudsman with the ability to investegate the Gardai independently. At present the Gardai investegate themselves. Speaking of the recent Gardai attack on a reclaim the streets protest Mr Stone said most complaints to the Garda Complaints Board were from people with subversive or criminal leanings.

He said the investigation into those disturbances would reveal another side of the story where property was damaged and Gardaí and civilians were attacked. Stone described how there was another side to the events of last monday, he claimed two cars had been attacked, one apparently set on fire and the other was apparently kicked with a baby inside. He also claimed a number of building fronts were vandalised by protesters. No evidence has been presented regards the vandalised buildings or burnt out cars, meanwhile through out the indymedia.ie website there is evidence of police brutality. On Burgh Quay, reclaim the streets activists used a smoke bomb in a piece of street theatre involving a car specifically bought for the purpose

The Acting Director of the Irish Council of Civil Liberties, Liam Herrick, said Mr Stone's comments highlight the need for a restoration of confidence in the force. The Garda Complaints Board has said that those who have made complaints regarding the events of Dame Street last monday definetly do not fit his description of subversives and criminals.

Mr Stone also strongly criticised the Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, for not accepting the word of the Garda Commissioner on prior knowledge of the Omagh bombing and on the disturbances in Dublin last week. He criticied the idea of an independent investigation, because such an investegation would be governed by the whim of the media, the whim of those involved.

Earlier, GRA President, Greg Fogarty, criticised the courts for being too lenient on criminals. He said that Gardaí were becoming more frustrated at the courts inability or unwillingness to see the full resources of the law, used to control law-breakers.

Mr Fogarty also called for mandatory minimum sentencing to be introduced and enforced. He said the courts must show more resolve in dealing with criminals.

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Comments (14 of 14)

Prey tell !

by LD

Tue May 14, 2002 18:08

Why did no camera capture the scene of this burning car?
And the only people involved in subversive activity are the guards themselves!

oh! oh!! oh!!!! I know the answer to this one!!!!!

by james

Tue May 14, 2002 18:10

Becauseit never happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

some context

by silo

Tue May 14, 2002 18:26

no car was burned, but a car was pushed onto the road and then subsequently had a smokebomb/flare thrown into it, which may have looked like there was a fire in it. this was a couple of hours prior to the dame street incidents, and, by most accounts, the car belonged to a group of protesters and was being used as a symbol.

This will be swept under the carpet if FF get an overall majority.

by Blisset

Tue May 14, 2002 18:29

Swept under the carpet?

by Phuq Hedd

Tue May 14, 2002 19:55

I don't think so. This is going to be a major headache for whatever party or parties obtain power. They're going to be in charge of the multi-million dollar lawsuits, the wrangling over the creation of democratic oversight of the criminals-in-blue and a very suspicious electorate. They'd better do a good job quickly and efficiently. I think most people have just about had it with Tribunals (apparently the Flood tribunal has cost 2million so far this year and hasn't sat once).

The Tribunals are not the problem

by hagi

Tue May 14, 2002 20:30

It's not the tribunals that we are sick of, it's the lack any political will to do anything about the various tribunal's findings. ie: bringing criminal proceedings against the politicians and business men like ray burke and tom bailey etc.

an other aspect....

by james redmond - SA

Tue May 14, 2002 21:19

ok, so the police force have been forced into something of a corner over this issue and have been looking for a way out, one way out was to scapegoat individual gaurds as been out of control, anyone who was ther on the day will have noticed that our friend robo cop was not the only baton weilding thug, there was others and they were not out of control but seemed to be co-ordinated among themselves as suggested by the badge removal. now ive just seen some smug cunt cop on the news attempting to find anotehr scapegoat, and that is the slate magazine. He was basically saying that all of us at RTS went there looking for a riot and instructions on how to start a riot had been spread all over the city by the Slate in there How To Smash Capitalism In Dublin This May Bankholiday feature. I mean it would be laughable if it wasnt so fucking tragic...

Criminalising satire is a tactic associated with tottering authoritarian Regimes

Tue May 14, 2002 21:47

Criminalising satire is a tactic associated with tottering authoritarian Regimes - you cannot criticise us because we are always right - anyone who complains about us is a criminal or a subversive - anyone who asks anyone other than us questions about us and our regime is providing support for criminals and subversives - wow - are the Irish Guards a Stalinist organisation?

Seriously though, It might be a thought to just go ahead and set up an independent investigation into the whole shebang, or at least invite someone to compile an independent report on the incident taking into account the context of Burlington/Anti War/last years RTS and other incidents where arrests and the public order act and heavy tactics have been used. Various independent bodies in the North did this kind of thing in the past in regard to a number of controversial incidents.

I agree with the post above this that a process of demonisation and scapegoating has been used as a damage limitation excercise of last resort. 'Someone got carried away, lost the run of themselves, ah shur they're only young, they were provoked' etc. John O'D is even repeating these phrases now. There is obviously an attempt to write the whole incident off as a one off abberation on the part of a couple of people.

Who could be invited to review the material?

by C.

Tue May 14, 2002 22:13

Given the wealth of evidence, it shouldn't be that difficult to supply enough material and witnesses for an investigation.

Who could be invited to conduct this?

What would the impact be on civil cases?

Anybody know of the laws elsewhere re CCTV?

Reclaim the Investigation - let's not wait for the deal to be hammered out.

Re. Above

by luther irish

Tue May 14, 2002 22:29

Who - Ivana Batchik from TCD / ICCL / Ammnesty / those kind of people

Civil cases - don't know.

CCTV - I think that if the video footage is held on a hard disc rather than on tapes the Data Protection act could be used to access it. IE - You are storing info about me in a database and I am entitled to a copy. This works in UK but I don't know if it does here.

Hmmm...

by james - SA

Tue May 14, 2002 22:31

I dont think any investegation will ever change the inherant nature of the police as a bulwark between us, the state and capital. However if people want to try pull together a investegation, maybe amnesty or the cirish council of civil liberties might be interested? On a more practical idea, if a mock trial/stunt was held using REAL evidence collected from this site and else where it might be a useful means to highlight the absurdity of expecting the cops to investegate themselves, it might be a good way of countering the bull shit theyre coming out with now. But on a more serious note, didnt harney fuck up Haugheys trial by making comments to the media about his guilt?

About reclaiming the investigation

Tue May 14, 2002 23:52

I don't think the guards / whoever want to set a precedent that the ICCL investigate garda complaints. If we wanted someone it should be international. South African? (mad thought - Ulster Unionist?).

On the legal - yes, that why I asked about the civil cases. I wouldn't like to mess up other legal actions.

CCTV - I doubt this went digital, maybe a civil action could request this as evidence? Just to stop accidental wiping you know.

On a screening / investigation - yeah cool idea. If we don't get people objecting then go for it - let the people decide (ship it down the country so everybody gets a look).

2 days to reverse slide to police state

by patrick mac donagh

Wed May 15, 2002 02:21

mohock at eircom dot net

Do'nt complain after the election. Now is the time to get every person to the Polls and vote FF out.Any other party except the PD's might do in the short term. Get Mary Robinson to head up the investigation.What hap[pened was an abuse of human rights,wasn't it?

Getting CCTV pictures

by geoff

Wed May 15, 2002 05:25

Having tried to get CCTV coverage before, I contacted the Data Protection Commissioner. The problem is that a person can only access the footage if they are the only ones on it, therefore they may not release crowd shots to individuals but if anyone is making a complaint against the guards or defending a legal charge they may get access. Contact the Data Protection Commissioners in the Irish Life centre to find out more.
By the way well done to all organisers, partygoers and the IMC sorry to have missed it.

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GRA in Broadside Against Victims of Gardai Corruption and Violence.

Comments (14 of 14)