Hey Guards..Whats going on?

Degsy

With all due respect to members of AGS can i just ask why they seem to allow open and visible drug dealing to go on in certain areas of the City Centre?

In the last few months,numbers of drug users and dealers have exploded in certain areas of Dublin city centre with no consequence for the law,and indeed no sign of the law.

Open drug dealiong is now taking place at Tara St,Marlboro St,Eden Quay,O'Connell St,Nth Earl st and Abbey St to name but a few...thses areas are frequented by tourists and this is the height of our tourist season yet i have never seen a garda prescence on any occasion while this is going on.

What one does see howebver is members of AGS standing resoloutely outside the GPO..literally yards from heroin dealers,addicts and alcoholics plying thier trade in the streets.
Can somebody explain why this problemm isn't being adressed and why Dublin is in danger of losing its tourism as a result?

Again i have the utmost respect for members of the force but this issue will need to be tackled for the good of our city.

da__flash

Degsy wrote: »

With all due respect to members of AGS can i just ask why they seem to allow open and visible drug dealing to go on in certain areas of the City Centre?

In the last few months,numbers of drug users and dealers have exploded in certain areas of Dublin city centre with no consequence for the law,and indeed no sign of the law.

Open drug dealiong is now taking place at Tara St,Marlboro St,Eden Quay,O'Connell St,Nth Earl st and Abbey St to name but a few...thses areas are frequented by tourists and this is the height of our tourist season yet i have never seen a garda prescence on any occasion while this is going on.

What one does see howebver is members of AGS standing resoloutely outside the GPO..literally yards from heroin dealers,addicts and alcoholics plying thier trade in the streets.
Can somebody explain why this problemm isn't being adressed and why Dublin is in danger of losing its tourism as a result?

Again i have the utmost respect for members of the force but this issue will need to be tackled for the good of our city.

if you see something illegal takin place ring your local garda station and report it they dont have a crystal ball to see where all these things happening as they say you cant measure prevention

arybvtcw0eolkf

da__flash wrote: »

if you see something illegal takin place ring your local garda station and report it they dont have a crystal ball to see where all these things happening as they say you cant measure prevention

Come on now, thats a get out!..

The dogs on the streets now about the problems in the area's the OP mentioned;

Degsy wrote: »

Open drug dealiong is now taking place at Tara St,Marlboro St,Eden Quay,O'Connell St,Nth Earl st and Abbey St to name but a few...

Do guards need a phonecall to waken them up to the fact, or do they know it but are not allowed to work on their own initiative?.

Degsy

da__flash wrote: »

if you see something illegal takin place ring your local garda station and report it they dont have a crystal ball to see where all these things happening as they say you cant measure prevention

Maybe not a crystal ball but have any members of Store Street garda station ever walked down any of the streets sorrounding thier station,because if they have they must be able to see whats going on..everybody else can.

CrackisWhack

da__flash wrote: »

if you see something illegal takin place ring your local garda station and report it they dont have a crystal ball to see where all these things happening as they say you cant measure prevention

Total cop out, everyone in the city can see whats going on(I'm sure the Garda have been mad well aware of the issue), it's happening every day in full view of the public. I think it's incredible that it's allowed to go on!

There's more money to be made catching people on traffic offenses, but as the OP said tourism will suffer, a revenue which we really need at this moment in time.

kensey

Degsy wrote: »

Maybe not a crystal ball but have any members of Store Street garda station ever walked down any of the streets sorrounding thier station,because if they have they must be able to see whats going on..everybody else can.

Surprising as it may seem and all due respect when I say the obvious but gaugers tend to notice a Garda coming along their way. Very few would have the stupidity to conduct their business in plain view of a Garda. Like da flash said, if you do see something, make the call!

Horse_box

kensey wrote: »

Surprising as it may seem and all due respect when I say the obvious but gaugers tend to notice a Garda coming along their way. Very few would have the stupidity to conduct their business in plain view of a Garda.

Isn't that the point though. If there was Garda presence in these areas mentioned there would be less of this sort of thing going on in broad daylight in front of tourists

Tordelback

Degsy wrote: »

i have never seen a garda prescence on any occasion while this is going on.

Hmmm, why would that be, I wonder?

It's true though, there's some shockingly blatant stuff going on in Dublin city centre. I took the kids on the Luas to the washed-out French festival in the Docklands a few weekends back, and as we sat waiting for the lights on Lower Abbey Street we watched a dealer 'serve' a genuine queue of people in one of the southern archways, before being treated to two lads cheerily exchanging a wrap of something for a fistful of notes at the Collins Barracks stop. It's not like they live a particularly sheltered life in Tallaght, since we live across the road from a brothel, but it still took me aback to have them exposed to this on a Saturday lunchtime in July.

seamus

I imagine much of the problem is down to resources and the speed of our court system.

So you arrest a handful of junkies on Eden Quay today. What happens? The Gardai involved are tied up for a few hours while they do paperwork, ask questions and the junkie ends up in front of a judge the next day. He gets a court date, the junkie goes free, goes back to Eden Quay and the merry dance happens all over again.
All the while, these Gardai have been removed from otherwise patrolling the streets

2 years later said junkie ends up in front of a judge for the original offence two years ago, whines about his hard life and he gets 2 months suspended. In the meantime he's been arrested 360 times and consumed a full 75 days of Garda time, which is actually 8 months of a single Garda's time, if he dealt with this junkie day in and day out.

On the other hand, if you accept that there will always be junkies until the legislators and the court system get their fingers out of their fat asses, then it makes more sense to herd the junkies into one place, and leave them alone unless they start hassling the general public.

The areas mentioned are a complete disgrace, I've no idea what tourists think, but at the same time I've never once had any hassle walking in these areas - I have to go through them to go shopping from work, or to get a bus on the odd day I'm doing that. There's an unspoken agreement between the scum and the Gardai that so long as they keep to themselves, they'll be allowed to continue doing so.

CrackisWhack

kensey wrote: »

Surprising as it may seem and all due respect when I say the obvious but gaugers tend to notice a Garda coming along their way. Very few would have the stupidity to conduct their business in plain view of a Garda. Like da flash said, if you do see something, make the call!

Plain clothes Garda?;)

Degsy

kensey wrote: »

Surprising as it may seem and all due respect when I say the obvious but gaugers tend to notice a Garda coming along their way. Very few would have the stupidity to conduct their business in plain view of a Garda. Like da flash said, if you do see something, make the call!

Firstly do plain clothes guards exist at all and secondly these scumbags are waaay to whacked out to notice anybody approaching.
the way they publicly conduct thier business would tend to imply they've nothing to fear from the guards at all,they dont bother to keep watch while they're doing thier business.

Can anybody from Store St clarify the situation?

Degsy

seamus wrote: »

There's an unspoken agreement between the scum and the Gardai that so long as they keep to themselves, they'll be allowed to continue doing so.

So the guards turn a blind eye to open heroin dealing as long as they "keep to themselves"?

I was under the impression that posession for sale or supply was an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act whether you keep to yourself or not.

As for the assertation that the junkies doent cause any "hassle" can i ask how exactly they fund thier habit,given that most of them dont have 9-5 jobs..perhaps its NOT them that are stealing from tourists,parked cars,shops,busineses,passers-by and any other crime of oppurtunity but do you know,it just well might be.

Finnbar01

If the gardaí arrest the junkies and relieve them of their stash what good will that do? How many crimes have being committed to get the money to buy the heroin in the first place? As soon as they’re back on the streets, they’ll commit more crimes to buy the heroin confiscated by the gardaí. This is the mess we find ourselves in because drugs are prohibited. Legalise it.

seamus

Degsy wrote: »

So the guards turn a blind eye to open heroin dealing as long as they "keep to themselves"?

I don't know, I doubt that they won't arrest someone dealing right in front of them, but at the same time if they were to search every junkie they saw, they'd be doing nothing else.

As for the assertation that the junkies doent cause any "hassle" can i ask how exactly they fund thier habit,given that most of them dont have 9-5 jobs.

Dole scams, whatever else. What I mean is that they're allowed to congregate so long as they don't cause any hassle while they're there. I would have no problem walking down the boardwalk at Eden quay. Not the nicest walk in the world, but I could be fairly certain that none of them will give me any hassle, because the Gardai are everywhere.

We know that they're junkies and they're shooting up and dealing in plain sight, but presumably not when there are big yellow reflective jackets around.
So what do you propose the Gardai do?

Search them constantly? That would be a complete waste of Garda time - they'd be arrested and back on the street scoring more junk in a matter of hours

Keep Gardai posted at these areas constantly? Would just move the problem on.

Plain-clothes? Again, same problem. Wasting Garda time to get minor sentences handed out. *And* they'd just move on again.

The problem is as I've pointed out above - our court system has no urgency about this. Court dates take months or years to come up, and when they do, the junkies get a slap on the wrists and sent on their way. They should be in front of a judge the next day and locked up for a minimum of 12 months for a first offence. But the Gardai can only work with the system they've been given, they don't have the power to change it.

da__flash

It isnt really a cop out its reality to be honest, how many of these people are in dublin city centre at one time vs the number of gardai at one time vs the number of other calls to be done..

so we ll go with the options laid out plain clothes are deployed to walk up and down to prevent this sort of thing going on now plain clothes are usually detictives so this takes them away from other work which is possibly of a higher priority, then you deploy more uniformed garda to the area this just moves the people on to another area where the circle starts again of deals going down in plain sight, all the while gardai have to deal with calls from dublin city centre as store st is the busiest station in the country. Also you have to take into account the lack of resources which they face and so on. At the end of the day there is always going to be junkies there and you cant stop every thing that happens yes it maybe upseting to see but thats the world we live in today. The gardai cant be everywhere all the time its as simple as that all you can do is make the call and if you feel the service isnt up to standard the write a letter to the local super and convey your feelings, this is not an attack on a poster just my 2cents :cool:

Tordelback

It's one hell of a dole scam that'll keep you in smack.

arybvtcw0eolkf

How would member's feel if the city deployed security, similar to the big burly lads on the DART to cleanse these area's of the scourge?.

I know its just moving the problem along to other area's, but disparsing them might be a good start.

'da__flash', I know you probably bang your head off the wall whenever members of the public make suggestions as to how you should do your job. As a member of the Defence Forces I get the same malarky all the time.

But ordinary people look to you as their first and last line of defence & don't see the bigger picture, ie the justice system grind to a halt.

Someone posted a thread not so long ago about member's of AGS slouching outside the GPO and almost immediately it seemed like regular's here closed ranks and shot the OP of that thread down, eventually of course it was closed. But it appeared as though members posting on this forum failed to see the frustration felt by the public when they see AGS slouching about while they (public) feel they've lost the city to crime!.

Degsy

seamus wrote: »

I don't know, I doubt that they won't arrest someone dealing right in front of them, but at the same time if they were to search every junkie they saw, they'd be doing nothing else.
Dole scams, whatever else. What I mean is that they're allowed to congregate so long as they don't cause any hassle while they're there. I would have no problem walking down the boardwalk at Eden quay. Not the nicest walk in the world, but I could be fairly certain that none of them will give me any hassle, because the Gardai are everywhere.

We know that they're junkies and they're shooting up and dealing in plain sight, but presumably not when there are big yellow reflective jackets around.
So what do you propose the Gardai do?

Search them constantly? That would be a complete waste of Garda time - they'd be arrested and back on the street scoring more junk in a matter of hours

Keep Gardai posted at these areas constantly? Would just move the problem on.

Plain-clothes? Again, same problem. Wasting Garda time to get minor sentences handed out. *And* they'd just move on again.

The problem is as I've pointed out above - our court system has no urgency about this. Court dates take months or years to come up, and when they do, the junkies get a slap on the wrists and sent on their way. They should be in front of a judge the next day and locked up for a minimum of 12 months for a first offence. But the Gardai can only work with the system they've been given, they don't have the power to change it.

Okay,let me change tack a little bit.
What about the considerable number of drug users and/or pushers who have children with them at the time,often in buggies?

Should they be similarly ignored while thier parents ply thier trade?

This isnt just a probelm of these people only harming themselves..they seem to have no trouble procreating and subjecting their children to the horroros of thier onw lives..and once again who ends up paying for it?

here's a pic taken a few days ago

seamus

Answer my questions though. What's your solution?

Degsy

seamus wrote: »

Answer my questions though. What's your solution?

Zero tolerance..
Dont let them congregate in groups
Dont let them deal in public
Dont release them on bail when they have 50+ convictions
Dont turn a blind eye to open drug dealing
DO move them on
DO confiscate thier drugs
DO arrest them for possesion
DO search them whenever you see them acting suspiciously
DO leave the safety of the GPO and take a wander up the quays and boardwalk and sorrounding area.
DO hassle them into leaving the area
DO take thier children into care

I'm not unaware that this would be a major undertaking but its necessary to stop the probelm spiraling even more out of control and driving other social probelms through the roof to say nothing of lost revenue from tourists and local business.

Its our city..not the junkies'

silverharp

one thought came to mind, a couple of weeks back I saw a junkie shooting up in a door way beside the sushi bar off Grafton street. There was a garda outside mcDonalds, he seemed to have his hands full with a drunk so didnt bother him nor did I know if I should have. Anyway contrast that with the regular posts that appear on Boards from people that were stopped and searched at a music festival and now have an appointment with a judge and all the hassle and problems that follow.
There appears to be a very arbitrary application of the law in relation to drugs?

Degsy

silverharp wrote: »

people that were stopped and searched at a music festival and now have an appointment with a judge and all the hassle and problems that follow.
There appears to be a very arbitrary application of the law in relation to drugs?

I think we all know somebody its happened to and generally they arent career criminals or anti-social nuisances..why should they have to face a criminal convistion for possesion of cannabis when heroin dealers can ply thier trade opnely and in broad daylight?

MagicSean

Gardaí can only do their job with the help of the people. If you see this dealing going on ring the gardaí with a description of the dealer. Patrolling the area will only move the dealing to another spot. And it's not as if they can search everyone who goes in and out of a street. The law requires them to have grounds to search people for drugs. "Everyone knows" is not sufficient grounds.

seawolf145

Degsy wrote: »

Zero tolerance..
Dont let them congregate in groups
Dont let them deal in public
Dont release them on bail when they have 50+ convictions
Dont turn a blind eye to open drug dealing
DO move them on
DO confiscate thier drugs
DO arrest them for possesion
DO search them whenever you see them acting suspiciously
DO leave the safety of the GPO and take a wander up the quays and boardwalk and sorrounding area.
DO hassle them into leaving the area
DO take thier children into care

I'm not unaware that this would be a major undertaking but its necessary to stop the probelm spiraling even more out of control and driving other social probelms through the roof to say nothing of lost revenue from tourists and local business.

Its our city..not the junkies'

Thats probably a great solution untill it happens to someone in your own family!!!!

Drake66

Niko Gentle Handlebar wrote: »

How would member's feel if the city deployed security, similar to the big burly lads on the DART to cleanse these area's of the scourge?.

I know its just moving the problem along to other area's, but disparsing them might be a good start.

Madness . How would having groups of rent-a-cops, untrained in criminal law, patrolling public streets improve anything. Let the Gardai deal with criminals; that is what they are trained to do. Lobbying the government to increase Garda numbers would be a more logical suggestion.

Degsy

seawolf145 wrote: »

Thats probably a great solution untill it happens to someone in your own family!!!!

I'm suggesting that they get hassled when they're hanging round untill eventually they get sick of it and bugger off somewhere else.

I'm not suggesting they get tasered and thrown in the liffey..although that idea has some merit.;)

Eru

A lot of those suggestions are illegal. The rest are just not well thought out or realistic.

Boardwalk alone takes a half hour to patrol, thats 28 minutes between Garda visits.

GPO is a fixed post.

Delancey

da__flash wrote: »

if you see something illegal takin place ring your local garda station and report it they dont have a crystal ball to see where all these things happening as they say you cant measure prevention

Are you suggesting the Guards in Store Street don't actually know this is going on ? Because if they don't then they should quit and make way for others. The dogs in the street see that dealing going on every day in those places mentioned by the OP - I used to see it every evening from my work in Marlborough Street.

As was suggested earlier I believe that this IS tolerated by the Gardai - it would not be happening if there was a will to tackle it. If this is indeed the case then the Gardai should state this is so - if not then the Superintendent in Store Street should hang his/her head in shame and resign to make way for someone willing/capable of tackling this problem.

I have never seen such open dealing in any other european city and the tolerance shown toward it invites disrespect for the Gardai - it is an absolute disgrace.

Spartan09

delancey42 wrote: »

Are you suggesting the Guards in Store Street don't actually know this is going on ? Because if they don't then they should quit and make way for others. The dogs in the street see that dealing going on every day in those places mentioned by the OP - I used to see it every evening from my work in Marlborough Street.

As was suggested earlier I believe that this IS tolerated by the Gardai - it would not be happening if there was a will to tackle it. If this is indeed the case then the Gardai should state this is so - if not then the Superintendent in Store Street should hang his/her head in shame and resign to make way for someone willing/capable of tackling this problem.

I have never seen such open dealing in any other european city and the tolerance shown toward it invites disrespect for the Gardai - it is an absolute disgrace.

I would suggest that you havent been to Barcelona so because on the main street there Las Ramblas, which is full of tourists, at night is populated by prostitutes, and people selling alcohol and drugs in full view of the Police. I was there with a number of Gardai who were surprised at the tolerance shown towards this behaviour. I often travel through the area's you mentioned and do see the behaviour you describe. However I have also never travelled through these areas and not seen a number of Gardai in high vis jackets patrolling in order to deter this behaviour. Filling our over flowing prisons with addicts is not in my opinion a useful deterrent or a good use of our prison spaces

Princess Zelda

Some of it also boils down to the fact that overtime has been cut across all public sectors, so some operations would have been cut as a consequence. And I am not trying to inflame a whole public v private sector debate, just the resources are stretched as they are dealing with calls that come in every day that have to take priority. Yes, it does look crap around the city, and yes there should be something done about it, unfortunately as a previous poster stated, a lot of time is taken up with paperwork/court attendence etc.

Degsy

Eru wrote: »

GPO is a fixed post.

Why?
In case the rebels try to seize control again?

So if i go up to a guard standing at the GPO and tell him there's heroin dealing happening across the road,what can i expect him(or her) to do?

Degsy

Eru wrote: »

A lot of those suggestions are illegal.

Are they as illegal as heroin sale and distribution in broad daylight in the middle of the City Centre of the capital city of Ireland?

Shield

Degsy wrote: »

Are they as illegal as heroin sale and distribution in broad daylight in the middle of the City Centre of the capital city of Ireland?

Absolutely. Far more illegal.

Zambia

Sounds like Dublin has drifted back to 1995.

Economy hits the skids people dont get work, turn to crime drink , drugs

Goverments reduce spending on services. Due to lack of funds.

Crime increases.

The city centre is the hub of revenue and supply you can rob a shop , fence the goods, then instantly find a dealer.

Paulzx

Zambia232 wrote: »

Sounds like Dublin has drifted back to 1995.

Economy hits the skids people dont get work, turn to crime drink , drugs

.

Unfortunately Dublin city center was still a junkie sh*thole right through the boom. We're not drifting back to 1995 as we never left it.

harr

this is happening in every town in the country,i am from a small town in the midlands and open dealing happens all day and night in the same spot by the same people,the guards know it is going on and who is doing the dealing and seem to turn a blind eye.i have often seen a squad car slow down have a look and drive off again.why cant they just wait around the corner in plain clothes and then search them.i know people who have rang the guards about the dealing and nothing has been done.i know down here we only have guards in the town 10-15 hours a week.

kerry4sam

harr wrote: »

this is happening in every town in the country,i am from a small town in the midlands and open dealing happens all day and night in the same spot by the same people,the guards know it is going on and who is doing the dealing and seem to turn a blind eye.i have often seen a squad car slow down have a look and drive off again.why cant they just wait around the corner in plain clothes and then search them.i know people who have rang the guards about the dealing and nothing has been done.i know down here we only have guards in the town 10-15 hours a week.

I would imagine that the slowing down, looking at who is dealing & driving off again is to take note themselves first-hand who is there. Odds on, they are building case-loads of info and these guys dealing would be, in the grand-scheme-of-things, be small fish in an ocean! They will eventually lead the guards back to the main dealers and the guys running the show from the top who the guards would really be looking to track down.
Just what I would imagine to be the case anyways.

Mister men

CrackisWhack wrote: »

Total cop out, everyone in the city can see whats going on(I'm sure the Garda have been mad well aware of the issue), it's happening every day in full view of the public. I think it's incredible that it's allowed to go on!

There's more money to be made catching people on traffic offenses, but as the OP said tourism will suffer, a revenue which we really need at this moment in time.

Fu ck the tourists. I walk in the city centre a lot and i don't want to see the scum on every corner selling drugs.

IvySlayer

I think Garda have lost faith in the justice system. They don't want to go around arresting junkies/dealers for the paperwork and the 1 month suspended sentences given out by the judges.

Tougher sentences is the answer. Get caught dealing, locked up for 5 years. Get caught dealing again, 10 years etc etc.

Anyone who has drugs on them need tough sentences too. Out of your head on a illegal substance, 6 months inside, lets face it, some people make mistakes. Second offence, 2 years. And so on and so forth.

Then we'd need more prisons built. Arghhhh.

If drug dealers/junkies are actually being punished, then Gardaí might have the motivation to do arrest them.

Zambia

Paulzx wrote: »

Unfortunately Dublin city center was still a junkie sh*thole right through the boom. We're not drifting back to 1995 as we never left it.

Not to the extent being described. In the 00's I dont recall open drug dealing on Westmoreland st as is being described today.

But you are correct there was always junkies.

In reponse to Maikomis suggestions in relation to privatisation of the issue. Without the legal powers the gardai have they would be useless. Besides no private company would train them to the extent they needed. I dont think any insurance company would insure them to perform such tasks.

The only answer is a comprensive all round approach targeting supply, demand, addiction treatment , prevention education, effective punishment(court) , border protection. This is not cheap either.

Police presence is actually one of the smaller part of the issue. However that is just my opinion.

Delancey

The first step in tackling open street dealing is to cease tolerating it.

Tordelback

Reading over this thread I came away with one clear impression - those who understand the justice system do not believe that anything useful can be done about the sale of illegal drugs, primarily because the powers, resources and funding needed are prohibitive. So why not just throw in the towel and decriminalise all drugs? It's hardly the kind of culture I'd like to see us embracing, but what's the point of these activities being called a criminal offense if there's nothing that can be done to enforce the law?

Zambia

Tordelback wrote: »

Reading over this thread I came away with one clear impression - those who understand the justice system do not believe that anything useful can be done about the sale of illegal drugs, primarily because the powers, resources and funding needed are prohibitive. So why not just throw in the towel and decriminalise all drugs? It's hardly the kind of culture I'd like to see us embracing, but what's the point of these activities being called a criminal offense if there's nothing that can be done to enforce the law?

The law is being enforced if you really believed it was not you you and I would be dealing drugs as its bloody good money [so Paul Williams tell me].

Sadly there is a sector of society that is so far f**ked they are happy to live at this level.

mickoneill30

Eru wrote: »

A lot of those suggestions are illegal. The rest are just not well thought out or realistic.

Boardwalk alone takes a half hour to patrol, thats 28 minutes between Garda visits.

GPO is a fixed post.

How about 2 patrols. That's 14 minutes between Garda visits.

I think the presence in Dublin is better (or more visable) than it was a few years ago though.

Maybe we should also pester the TDs and councillors. It's not all the Gards fault.

Paulzx

Zambia232 wrote: »

Not to the extent being described. In the 00's I dont recall open drug dealing on Westmoreland st as is being described today.

But you are correct there was always junkies.

.

You might not recall it but it was there. I work in the city and have observed junkies buying and shooting up all through the last decade in the areas described.

What's the solution? There probably is none. The sheer volume of low level junkies and dealers makes it an impossible task to clear them.

Hardcore policing of one area is expensive and resource heavy and just moves them on temporarly. As soon as the crackdown stops they'll ease back into the area.

The justice system should operate as a deterrent. A junkie doesn't give a damn about being arrested or a criminal record. He's basically already outside of society and only gives a damn about getting gear.

Heroin at this stage is a problem that i see no solution for

00MARTZ00

just out of curiosity why are the judges handing out such leniant sentences everyone knows what a scurge heroin is?

Degsy

00MARTZ00 wrote: »

just out of curiosity why are the judges handing out such leniant sentences everyone knows what a scurge heroin is?

Especially when they think nothing of sending people with no motor tax to prison.

Zambia

I reckon once you turned up in an irish prison with your measley week long motor tax sentence they would send you straight home. As long as the press was not focusing on your case.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Zambia232 wrote: »

I reckon once you turned up in an irish prison with your measley week long motor tax sentence they would send you straight home. As long as the press was not focusing on your case.

Mostly this is what I'm told from P.O. friends of mine, your in & out in an hour.

But its still a rub against the grain for the ordinary citizen on the street who don't know this.

Although I wasn't nabbed (this time, I was having a nice bowl of pasta), the other day a Gatso van parked opposite Bar Italia on Wood quay catching motorists breaking the stupidly low 30km speed limit and whats right beside the van - drug dealers!.

Seriously, right beside it in plain view of the people inside (maybe the Gatso is a private company??) there are people dealing, and accompanied by babies in pram's too!.

Now how in the name of God are people to have any respect, or confidence in AGS when their penalized for breaking a 30km speed limit while junkies & dealers fly in the face of the law, apparently scot free.

ria5000

Most of the time there's no garda in the gatso van.

Detour

The NYPD managed to clean up most areas of Manhattan by implementing some of the steps suggested by Degsy. In the early nineties areas like Times Sq. were bogged down with drug dealers, pimps, porn peddlers but the cops more or less cleaned up the entire area. The cops came in and made life hell for these law-breakers. It was just to much of a headache to stay, so they began moving out to BK, Queens, Bronx. Now Manhattan feels like one of the safest areas i've ever been to.

Now i'm not by any means suggesting that the problems were solved - merely that they were moved out of the City Centre, and this is what Dublin needs. At least the City Centre should be a crime free zone - these guys should be pushed out to the suburbs, so at least the tourist industry is not interrupted.

The cops should make it way too much hassle for these dealers. If these guys were picked up every day for a week, they'd move out of the city centre pretty quickly.

As to actually solving the problem of drugdealers, thats a much bigger question. But at least with the above the city centre would be clean.