The unacceptable governmental influence on our Gardai
In DDI we believe it is an important and key job of the Gardai, as peace officers, to maintain public order for the benefit of everyone; but this image from Wednesday’s water protest is very disturbing.
The people of Ireland have always been extremely cooperative in this common goal, but in recent years the government have been slowly and quietly changing our Gardai; changing them to deal with something that didn’t exist here.
Regular uniformed Gardai are perfectly capable of dealing with the rare incidents that happen in Ireland; extremely rare because we are in general a peaceful people. However sending in armed men dressed in black combat dress, with balaclavas to hide their identity is a dangerous new trend. A trend that belongs in every failed democracy, and is one of the first visible signs of a failing State; as history has shown.
Seeing this on our streets one’s immediate and unavoidable impression is that we are looking at an armed paramilitary group; and in this country, with it’s recent history in the north, that is an extremely intimidatory message to be putting out on our streets. One is forced to ask oneself… is this Belfast at war in the troubles, or is this peaceful Dublin in 2014 ?
We would like to know who in government is pushing this trend towards paramilitary style policing, as it seems to be designed to change the very attitude of those Gardai wearing the new black combat uniforms, caps and armour.
Video on the night of the water protest on December 10th highlighted this new psychological problem, when those in this new combat gear appeared to behave differently to normal Gardai, they were more aggressive, behaved in a more intimidating manner, and gave the impression that could do whatever they liked with impunity. The intent seems to be to intimidate the people, deliberately destroying the respect Irish people have always had for our peacekeepers. For instance these armed men have even been reported assisting at traffic stops; there is no reason for this.
The same “blackening”, paramilitarising and gradual arming of police has been happening in many countries over the last 10 years, and has coincided with a major change in the attitude by the wearers of these military cut uniforms. This new psychology and attitude is a consequence of the new mode of dress and the new training, it emboldens them and separates them from the people and the community both socially and mentally.
The police in the UK changed from white shirts to black, and then to black t-shirts and body armour, then to automatic rifles, all in a very short time, and the psychological change in the police has seen a marked negative change in their attitude to people. The way the police behaved at the Warwick University student sit in, physically attacking, gassing, tasering peaceful students. The incident highlights the new and very real psychological problem that has been trained into today’s police forces.
This agenda deliberately dehumanises police, which enables them to commit more inhumane and antisocial acts; and it needs to be highlighted, isolated and reversed.
Who in government is trying to change the Irish police’s psyche, and in turn the affect Irish people’s psyche, and what is their agenda? Who is trying to create a “them and us” situation; nurturing a feeling in the Gardai that “the people are the enemy” of the police?
We know it is not true. The Gardai are made up from the ranks of the people, they are our neighbours and their kids go to school with ours; unlike the politicians who are trying to manipulate them. This is not the decision of the rank and file, this is social engineering that starts in training, and this kind of government social engineering will be called out wherever it rears it’s head.
DDI will not allow Ireland to be changed into the kind of country that has intimidating armed police everywhere doing the government’s bidding and operating with impunity, no matter how much the government would like it to. We want Gardai who “uphold” the constitution and the Law equally and without favour. We do not want to see this political disease spread through our Gardai.
The first mass water protest is case in point. It took the Gardai and government by surprise. There were over 100,000 people at it and barely a Garda in sight on the day. It was fun, good humoured and not a single incident happened that needed the Gardai. You see people in general can police themselves.
Compare that to the same size protest on December 10th when the government had forewarning and instructed the Gardai to block streets, and had all the most intimidatory elements of the Gardai on the streets in large numbers, massed ranks, riot squad, and black clad armed paramilitaries.
And what happened, the public were inflamed and intimidated by this heavy handed presence on what would otherwise have been a fun day out; causing a few minor incidents, and some heavy handed action by those aforementioned Garda elements later than evening.
This phenomenon is visibly increasing in many countries worldwide and is endemic of governments that are becoming more and more dictatorial. Only this week we have seen the violence of UK, US and Italian police against a peaceful protests; and the Spanish government has signed new legislation to remove and limit people’s rights to protest, and gag them from even organising on pain of massive fines. It is noteworthy that the Irish government seems to be making noises in the same direction with recent legislation under the excuse of “terrorism”.
Government after government doesn’t seem to realise that they do not have the power to remove these natural rights from people, they were never given that authority, and it is a common theme throughout history that it is always the police that enable overbearing governments to enforce unlawful acts to remove people’s rights. This is a part of history the people and the Gardai must learn from and not repeat.
This trend is affecting many countries in Europe and the British Commonwealth. It is spreading like a disease and we would like to know who is infecting Ireland with this.
Things are bad enough as it is, after watching two plain clothes Gardai bundle a man and his bike into the back of a small van, and charge him, after he stopped them to have words with them for almost knocking him down. There needs to be accountability for these abuses of position.
We demand the Minister for justice make a statement on the increasing arming and militarisation of the Gardai and to stop this social engineering now. The people of this country like Ireland the way is was, we do not want to make the same mistakes of our neighbours and turn it into a police state, because this appears to be where the government wants to take us.
The question we ask the the people is: “Would you like your police to evolve into something like this (picture below) ? Because this is where all the indicators are telling us we are being led if we don’t stop it. Only a government that is corrupt needs to militarise a police force, as it has good reason to fear the public.
We would hope that the good men and women of the Gardai would not follow unlawful orders and when the day comes that an illegal and corrupt government needs to be arrested they will do their duty to the people.
If you would like to know more about how apparent positions of authority and different uniforms can affect the way normal human beings behave please watch the Stanford Experiment
17 Comments
tony jenkins
If this is so.it is disgraceful.this will bring violence to our peaceful country.violence brings violence
The first public meeting I ever attented was last wedsday in Dublin.I met some lovely people.and they all complained about the garda.saying they felt intimadated by their behaviour .military style not on for our country.why?????..
des
the rich mans militia thats what the gardai are
Jim Morrissey
Excellent article highlighting an issue that needs tackling from a community & political level. Who are the civil servants, politicians driving this unwelcome change? Stop & reverse what your doing please. We expect to be treated as fellow citizens by all dept. of the police, and not feeling threatened by a macho paramilitary wing. This is not Mexico.
allawerdisueSue
Ultimately, the gards are citizens like the rest of us who live amongst us in the community. They have personal links with their neighbours. Each garda on his/her own may feel worried about their job and all the usual pressures of having to follow orders from higher ups. Each one will keep his/her thoughts to themselves unless emboldened by numbers the same way the citizens of this country have been emboldened by the numbers protesting. Appealing to them as human beings and citizens will make them feel included in the process of change rather than alienated as is happening currently. It is very dangerous to demonize them. The government is demonizing both the protestors and by sending the gards full force and armed to the teeth demonizing the gards in the eyes of the protestors. We should not fall into this trap. I believe we should appeal directly to serving gards who live amongst us and ask the to be on our side.
Gerard
Not these new cops, they are young and without families, live separate from the rest of society, I think they are called the army and now garda. What is oming in the next few years will change the world we live in forever. It fist started with the begining of WW1…The internet has allowed the common people to seek and find the truth. We have always been salves, now we are becoming aware of our slavers.
dinglesprout
This was foreseeable. With resources getting more and more scarce the elites need to consolidate their position and wealth. Hence the current transfer of wealth from the poor to the wealthy by socilaising privated debts. They must also gain control of vital resources–like water. The danger is that all of this might finally lead to Marx’s popular uprising. So, arm the security forces and alienate them from the people. Don’t be surprised if the security forces are privatised some time. They already pay for garda escorts on the shell and water meter protests.
Given the commonality of simillar experiences with other nations it is difficult not to suspect a wider agenda here.
If I remember rightly, no revolution has ever succeeded without the aid of the security forces.
Joe Finnegan
absolutely shocking that they havent resources to police country properly yet have no problem circling the wagons for anti water protests….a move by the Government to portray to the smug stay at homers that its only troulbe makers that go on such protests…I drove over 30 miles home from my Christmas work party at 2am on Friday night last 12th December…drove around 6 miles of dual carriage way…drove through Athlone…and home 20 Miles from Athlone and never seen a Garda car or indeed a garda….anyway…thats another issue but one wont see them where they should be…its nice and popular then to come out all “look at us” when a water protest is on…..
Hugh O’Neill
A leaf out of the Obama playbook! When he was first running for President, a Tea Party member at an Obama rally, carrying a sign against his policies, a police officer told him he was not allowed to display the sign. The protester said “This is America, I have a right to free speech” to which the cop replied “Not anymore you don’t” No matter what you guys in Ireland think,the Tea Party here has the same goals as you in DDI and that is for a smaller, leaner, less corrupt Government, accountable to the people who elect them and although we may be on the opposite side of the aisle to you, we will hold our parties politicians to the same standard that we hold the opposition
Roy Jenkins
I have no political agendas nor do I support any political party. I have not seen any party perform their jobs very well in or out of Government. There is never any common sense applied to any problem. The whole political and judicial system was a hand me down from the British empire days and from what I can see the people who took over just carried on the tradition of lining their own pockets and just got better at it in the last few decades, We currently have a Taoiseach who packed in his position as a teacher after many years not teaching. He was a teacher for 4 years and then miraculously got the position of school principal. Now here is the juicy bit. He gets a €100,000 lump sum (which he has deferred until he retires from politics) and a €30,000 per year pension payment. He also gets a TDs pension and a ministers pension. He will also be entitled to a car and garda driver and a personal assistant for the rest of his days. There lies the problem with Irish politics. The politicians think this is fair and just to receive all of these pensions and perks while the rest of society struggle to even get one pension after 40 years hard slog. Its an old and outdated system that needs a radical overhaul from the top down. This link outlines the politicians pensions compared to a public sector employee.
http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-cost-td-ministers-pension-811180-Mar2013/
The banking crisis was firmly placed on the shoulders of the citizens of this country by a Government who abused their mandate by paying out to unsecured bondholders. WHY would they do this?. WHY is Ireland paying 42% of europe’s banking debt? WHY are the Irish people literally being robbed by the so called elected representatives who are supposed to be protecting and looking after this country and its citizens.
Answer: Because europe told them too.
For many years there has been a percentage of money paid through taxation that was supposed to go towards the upkeep and maintenance of the water supply system. There was also a levy added onto the motor tax in order to help supply extra funds for the same use. Where has all this money gone. Why is our water system in such a dire state, Why did the present Government decide we needed to spend billions of euro to set up a company and install water meters then charge the public again for a service they already pay for. Surely all this money could have been put to better use, like relaying pipeline and upgrading the current water service. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to see there is a major mess up here. All of a sudden the powers that be need billions of euro to fix this system. Why don’t they just use the taxes they already get and spend the next 20 years fixing it. Yes actually spend tax revenue on what it is supposed to be spent on.No one is in any rush and lets be honest this is Ireland and we won’t run out of water. This is not about water though this is about keeping our european leaders happy that we are paying for all their mistakes.
I am not paying. Simple as that. I don’t agree with slating the Gardai. They are understaffed and under resourced. If they were not at some of these protests at water metre installation sites I have no doubt that some of these workers would have been physically assaulted. The same with the big protests in town. They have a duty to maintain public order, If they had not been out in force the other day I would imagine a fringe element would have changed the course of events on the day. Saying all that I do not agree with some of the heavy handed and intimidatory tactics employed by some of the Gardai. I know a few who actually attended the march and would much rather not have to deal with some of the events that have transpired of date. They are after all men and women doing a job that is not always easy to do at times. There is good and bad on both sides. Personally they can stick as many metres as they like outside my house as it won’t affect me. As I stated I will not be paying anyway. Thats going to be the real protest, Non payment.
Concerned citizen
This is most certainly so and I totally agree with the author. I will attempt to answer at least part of the question you have raised. Rossport can most definitely be pointed to as a somewhat low key dry run in terms of “pay for policing” or “Gardaí for hire”. However the active change in ideology and the shift from the notion of “guardian of the peace” with the consent of the people that was implemented at the foundation of this state for sound historical reasons for example the RIC, to a more militarised model whereby “police with force” against the consent of the people, came about when Michael McDowell was minister for justice. Furthermore it was after the large intake of new Gardaí while he was minister that the uniform and attitude change occurred. The new Gardaí where arrogant, aggressive and down right impudent, with little if any knowledge of the law. I had one garda tell me he was the law when I informed him his actions where in breach of the law. Minister McDowell in the Daíl frequently referred to the Gardaí or Garda Siochana as police and a police force and consistently pushed and aimed for the arming and militarisation of the Gardai and “turn it into a modern police force”. There would also be EU input as there where very worrying articles in both Lisbon and Nice regarding Policing and intra EU cooperation on policing. It was also McDowell who started the attack and attempted criminalisation of licensed firearms holders, that was finished and completed by Dermot Ahern with the State abrogating the right to access your medical records if you signed the licensing form. Standard tactics of the Facists disarm the citizens and at the same time militarise and arm the police force as now only criminals have guns.
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Joe
The British and the Americans(and many more countries) are sending their police forces to Israel for training to teach them that the people are the enemy and how to use their inhuman tactics they have been using on the Palestinians. We need to know if the Gardai have been sent to Israel for similar training
Admin D
Well we know UK police have been here training ours, I by extension the methods they learned in Israel would come with them I suppose, no?
Diarmaid O’Riordan
Them Guards are the ERU, Emergency response unit or a leased in the ERU uniform…. they are not supposed to be on the street unless there is an emergency obviously, I don’t see a peaceful protest as an emergency, do you?
Admin D
And who are these men, are they members of the Gardai or are they from other EU countries?
Truthseeker
This is all by design, the government wants to provoke unrest at the protests, they want the Irish people to become violent and then they have their excuse to ban protests and resistance to any government legislation, they will then have a free run at controlling the Irish people, don,t fall for their trap, even some of the security forces know this is happening, if the guards can,t handle the protest they will bring in the army, this is well beyond any Irish decision, the Irish politicions are only puppets to a bigger international agenda, the Irish people must unite and stay united against this tyrant government and that includes the Garda and the Irish Army, take a look around the world this is happening at a global scale, the New Order Plans are well behind times and they are being exposed at an alarming rate so they must act fast and with force which will expose then even more, the international community is awaking to the criminals running our beautiful, we will win only through unity and peace, they will win the violent path if takin. They are masters at violence.
Ten years ago they were putting meter boxes in the ground in Ireland, why is being brough in now at this crucial time of exposure, expect this to get worse before it gets better, we must unite and we will win.
LOVE
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John Tyler (@Happytheleaf)
The simply truth is since the establishment of the EEC now known as the E.U. Democracy has been very subtly under attack, and following on it’s current course and plan a dictatorial and totalitarian E.U. commission is just a small step away from what it is right now. Member states Governing bodies are fully aware that resistance is certainly coming forth to this hence military style policing and state of emergency style legislation, because mainstream politicians are not representing those who elected them. The federalization of Europe to the detriment of sovereign nations, who make it up, and whose rights within their countries constitutions are being bit by bit removed and or superseded by appointed as opposed to elected commissioners is at the essence and center of the death of the democratic process which is now little more that lip service.