Garda Mayday press conference

by Jon Wilde Wed Jun 05, 2002 10:51 Arkaos at subdimension dot com

T'would be nice if someone could get a recording of this and post it here.

by Aidan Wed Jun 05, 2002 11:33 aidanobrien at esatclear dot ie

I've called the press office and let them know I'll be going, anyone want to join me, as a photographer, or summit?

Aidan

by Daithi Wed Jun 05, 2002 14:54 macsithd at tcd dot ie

I'll be making an audio recording and (subject to no technical difficulties) I'll have an MP3-format audio file available on the newswire this evening.

by C. Wed Jun 05, 2002 23:15

Do you have a quick text summary if the audio is not available?

by nobody in particular Thu Jun 06, 2002 02:51

The Garda Complaints Board have appointed an ex-Garda to head the investigation. He's supposedly 'independent'. Yes, he might no longer be a part of the force, but do they honestly expect us to believe he'll be completely impartial to his ex-buddies? Or just impartial full stop? Any Garda (ex or current) will always put his weight behind the forces of 'law and order', and no doubt you can expect use of the phrase 'justifiable force in the circumstances' to be peppered throughout his final report whenever it materialises.

Does anyone know what the scope of the investigation is? By that I mean, does the ex-Garda have the authority to collect statements from witnesses? Is he allowed to hear evidence that has not been presented to the Garda already? If he hears someone say for example "yes I threw a can of beer, but then the Garda batoned 20 people around me for no reason", can the remark be used as evidence in court against a protestor? Would the publication of the report before people's court cases prejudice the outcome?

Another thing of course is that many people will not come forward for fear of further surveillance and/or harassment by the police (see Oly's photo of the Garda van hanging around outside his house for no apparent reason, I dont have the article ID reference/URL handy, if anyone does please post it; also recall RTE being 'raided' for Clare Connolly's footage). The special branch were also filming the post-RTS march on the Thursday, collecting juicy facial shots (oo-er missus) of suspects. It's hard to say whether it would be advisable or not to co-operate with the inquiry.

[semi-humourous sectarian counterproductive remark approaching rapidly, please ignore/switch off now if offended] Of course, we could just blame everything on the leaders of the whole thing, namely GR/SWP, Joe Carolan, Nora Geraghty, Grace Lally, etc. After all, they organised the whole thing didnt they? Just give the inquiry their phone number and email address.. ho ho ho...

by Marcus - theirishcrimes Thu Jun 06, 2002 12:20 marcus at theirishcrimes dot com

I need some help developing my site www.theirishcrimes.com if anyone has any political issues that they want to rant about,

I have videos of the protest hosted on the site at www.theirishcrimes.com/gardai/dublinvids.html

by Daithi Thu Jun 06, 2002 23:51

http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=6261 (Text)

http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=6266 (Audio)