Anger of the public is rising

gremha

This morning I was dropping my kid off to school, it's on a busy road & there's a bus stop right outside the main gate (which always struck me as a dangerous place to put it, but I didn't plan it), indented off the road..

Sometimes parents pull up in the bus stop, drop their kids & drive straight off again, no more than a 30-60 second exercise.

This morning there were two Gardai at the bus stop, standing back from it, behind a high wall.

A car pulled up & the door opened, a child aged about ten kissed it's mother (assume it was it's mother) & was getting out of the car when the two Gardai stepped out. One had his notebook/ticketbook out already & the other walked around the back of the car, I guess inspecting it. The child got out & stood on the path watching.

As the garda with the book was speaking to the driver. A pedestrian walking their child across the road started shouting at them "You should be arresting corrupt politicians instead of harassing parents dropping their kids to school" Then another on the side where the car was started shouting at them to "Leave the poor woman alone", then another started shouting something I was just out of earshot to hear clearly, all three of them approached the Guards & were shouting at them, the Garda motioned for the woman to go & then they said something to each other & to the two men & woman who had been shouting at them. They then walked away leaving the three bystanders shouting after them to "go after the real crooks".

No it surprised me as it was a spontaneous act which could have ended up badly for all the civilians involved, but it did demonstrate the anger of the public at recent events.

I know there's a couple of demonstrations & protests coming up, if this was anything to go by, We're probably going to see a large turnout & quite angry mobs.

prinz

Ignorant fools should my their own business and let the gardaí do their jobs.

admiralofthefleet

gremha wrote: »

This morning I was dropping my kid off to school, it's on a busy road & there's a bus stop right outside the main gate (which always struck me as a dangerous place to put it, but I didn't plan it), indented off the road..

Sometimes parents pull up in the bus stop, drop their kids & drive straight off again, no more than a 30-60 second exercise.

This morning there were two Gardai at the bus stop, standing back from it, behind a high wall.

A car pulled up & the door opened, a child aged about ten kissed it's mother (assume it was it's mother) & was getting out of the car when the two Gardai stepped out. One had his notebook/ticketbook out already & the other walked around the back of the car, I guess inspecting it. The child got out & stood on the path watching.

As the garda with the book was speaking to the driver. A pedestrian walking their child across the road started shouting at them "You should be arresting corrupt politicians instead of harassing parents dropping their kids to school" Then another on the side where the car was started shouting at them to "Leave the poor woman alone", then another started shouting something I was just out of earshot to hear clearly, all three of them approached the Guards & were shouting at them, the Garda motioned for the woman to go & then they said something to each other & to the two men & woman who had been shouting at them. They then walked away leaving the three bystanders shouting after them to "go after the real crooks".

No it surprised me as it was a spontaneous act which could have ended up badly for all the civilians involved, but it did demonstrate the anger of the public at recent events.

I know there's a couple of demonstrations & protests coming up, if this was anything to go by, We're probably going to see a large turnout & quite angry mobs.

hopefully. weve been too passive for far too long

who the fug

prinz wrote: »

Ignorant fools should my their own business and let the gardaí do their jobs.

Drink tea and eat their hang sandwiches

Anyway OP, apathy will rule once more, next week

If parents would stop parking everywhere in the vicinity of schools, swarming the roads, and often being a hazard, we'd get somewhere
good on the gardai for going out there

abouttobebanned

prinz wrote: »

Ignorant fools should my their own business and let the gardaí do their jobs.

The boards do gooders brigade arrives earlier than usual.

kincsem

I live 50 yards from a school. I'm fed up with aggressive, inconsiderate drivers clogging up the road.

crusher000

Your dead right cause nobody in authority has ever abused their power. We should follow their example and live our lives as morally correct as them . Well done to the by standers.

Ghandee

prinz wrote: »

Ignorant fools should my their own business and let the gardaí do their jobs.

Even if the job in question was issuing a ticket of some sort to a mother dropping her child off at school?

The mind boggles some times?

rgmmg

admiralofthefleet wrote: »

hopefully. weve been too passive for far too long

he said, as he passed wind, yawned and went back to sleep

AnonoBoy

Let's shout at Gardai for issuing parking tickets. That'll show Bertie Ahern what for!

irelandrover

I live across the road from a school and idiot parents parking wherever they want really annoys me. I'd love to see the guards do something about it.

prinz

Some things never change... "do gooder" is still an insult according to some. Well look forward to more corruption and dirtbags leading the country.

The King of Moo

crusher000 wrote: »

Your dead right cause nobody in authority has ever abused their power. We should follow their example and live our lives as morally correct as them . Well done to the by standers.

Ghandee wrote: »

Even if the job in question was issuing a ticket of some sort to a mother dropping her child off at school?

The mind boggles some times?

How did they know they were giving her a ticket? Apparently the guards let the woman go without a ticket anyway.

Even if they had ticketed her, how did the people giving out know what it was for? It might have been completely justified, and her being a mother with a child shouldn't change that.

If people see guards clearly abusing their power or committing an injustice, then it's fine to express anger at that.

But I doubt the people complaining had any clue about what was going on between the guards and the woman, especially if they seem to think ordinary guards on patrol can just go into a bank and arrest high-ranking officials at will.

MaxSteele

prinz wrote: »

Ignorant fools should my their own business and let the gardaí do their jobs.

By ticketing parents (who probably have work and more important things to be doing) pulling over for ten seconds to drop their kids off to school ??

Great logic and use of Garda resources right there.

Anyone

gremha wrote: »

I know there's a couple of demonstrations & protests coming up, if this was anything to go by, We're probably going to see a large turnout & quite angry mobs.

A few people shouting at the cops has made you think that? Hate to burst your bubble, but people have been shouting at the police since time began.

crusher000

Maybe parents should F**k kids out of the car as they pass the school without stopping or let them run across the road in front of traffic. Maybe we should close the schools to stop this most vulgar practise , or just get the guards to send everyone that ever parked where they shouldn't a ticket. That's it I'm off to hand myself in at the local station because i've been parking in places I shouldn't for the last 15 years.

UDP

Ghandee wrote: »

Even if the job in question was issuing a ticket of some sort to a mother dropping her child off at school?

of course! If the mother was breaking the law then she should get a ticket. Otherwise what is the point of the law.

This whole thing of X should not get prosecuted for breaking the law because someone broke a bigger law is ridiculus. Everyone who breaks the law should get done unless there is a very very good reason e.g. a law was broken to save a life or that kind of thing.

The King of Moo

MaxSteele wrote: »

By ticketing parents (who probably have work and more important things to be doing) pulling over for ten seconds to drop their kids off to school ??

Great logic and use of Garda resources right there.

Unless the OP forgot to mention it, they didn't give her a ticket.

mikom

Fine Gael Ard fheis on Sat the 31st......... be there or be square.

Also tomorrow...

The National Rally on Saturday March 24th at 1pm in the National Stadium promises to be a huge event with national and international media coverage, bringing together the campaign nationally, arming ourselves with the arguments for the last push in the battle for mass non-registration, and planning our next steps to defend mass non-payment.
If you are coming, please try your best to get there as early as possible before the 1pm kick off.
Buses are being organised from around the country. For more details for your county see below: http://nohouseholdtax.org/travel-details-for-national-rally/

wyndham

Kid should be walking to school anyway. fat bastard.

prinz

MaxSteele wrote: »

By ticketing parents (who probably have work and more important things to be doing) pulling over for ten seconds to drop their kids off to school ??.

Times how many cars? There's no point having laws of they aren't going to be enforced, that goes for parking where you shouldn't and committing billio euro frauds. This thing about 'ah sure it's only pulling over for ten seconds/it's only one piece of litter/ it's only a few illegal cigarettes/it's only cheap jewellery from some lad a met in a pub/it's only a few quid there Bertie....' It all adds up.

Where do we draw the line and say **** it, if it's the law follow it. There's far too much of this 'it's only....' If one person drops a piece of litter it's only a crisp packet. If one hundred do it's a mess.

crusher000

crusher000 wrote: »

Maybe parents should F**k kids out of the car as they pass the school without stopping or let them run across the road in front of traffic. Maybe we should close the schools to stop this most vulgar practise , or just get the guards to send everyone that ever parked where they shouldn't a ticket. That's it I'm off to hand myself in at the local station because i've been parking in places I shouldn't for the last 15 years.

you're right, it's a choice between disobeying the law and throwing children out the window

will you ever cop on :rolleyes:

My name is URL

Not the best of approaches to take, giving out to ordinary Gardai doing their jobs.. but it's understandable that a lot of anger exists out there, and that some of it will inevitably be misdirected. Over the last couple of years I've noticed a marked increase in tensions between the 'classes'.. only a matter of time before it boils over, imo.

AboutTwoFiddy

Ghandee wrote: »

Even if the job in question was issuing a ticket of some sort to a mother dropping her child off at school?

The mind boggles some times?

They weren't issuing a ticket for a mother dropping her child off, they were doing it for parking illegally. The way some parents stop their cars in mid traffic outside schools is ridiculous, delighted the gardai are pulling them up on it. If it was a white van parking on a double yellow nobody would complain about a ticket.

MaxSteele

prinz wrote: »

Times how many cars? There's no point having laws of they aren't going to be enforced, that goes for parking where you shouldn't and committing billio euro frauds. This thing about 'ah sure it's only pulling over for ten seconds/it's only one piece of litter/ it's only a few illegal cigarettes/it's only cheap jewellery from some lad a met in a pub/it's only a few quid there Bertie....' It all adds up.

Where do we draw the line and say **** it, if it's the law follow it. There's far too much of this 'it's only....' If one person drops a piece of litter it's only a crisp packet. If one hundred do it's a mess.

Christ it's hardly bringing the place to a standstill now is it? We all park somewhere illegal for ten seconds, to drop someone off, whether it's your child to school or a friend at the airport. I can't actually fathom how you can compare this to stealing or smuggling. A completely victimless "crime". (I cringed referring to it as a crime btw). If you believe a parent should be made fork out an 80 euro fine to some lardass, prick in blue to fill his weekly notebook for something as miniscule and irrelevent as that, well then I feel for you.

dark crystal

prinz wrote: »

Times how many cars? There's no point having laws of they aren't going to be enforced, that goes for parking where you shouldn't and committing billio euro frauds. This thing about 'ah sure it's only pulling over for ten seconds/it's only one piece of litter/ it's only a few illegal cigarettes/it's only cheap jewellery from some lad a met in a pub/it's only a few quid there Bertie....' It all adds up.

Where do we draw the line and say **** it, if it's the law follow it. There's far too much of this

Thing is, the woman dropping her child to school is most probably an otherwise law abiding, tax paying citizen doing nothing other than trying to get her child to school safely and get to work on time and getting bother from the police for doing so.

On the other hand, you have the likes of Sean Fitz, Bertie and all his cronies pocketing thousands and getting away with it, with accusations of police corruption into the bargain.

I can see where people might find the injustice of it alright.

I'm not condoning law breaking of any sort, but the ordinary Joe Soap has had enough of being culpable for any minor crime and misdemeanour, yet those in power get away scot-free for the major ones.

Anyone

Op never said they were issuing tickets, who knows maybe the guards were looking at the "Baby on Board" sticker, and instead got verbally abbused by some grumpy women! OP, by any chance, were any of the women wearing pyjamas?

My name is URL

My name is URL wrote: »

Not the best of approaches to take, giving out to ordinary Gardai doing their jobs...

Thats the Gardai doing a job and its the only job i see Gardai doing these days. If you are mugged robbed broken into. You Wont get back what was stolen. They wont protect you from getting a punch, they wont catch who did it and no investigation will be done.

I dont blame the garda but i would blame who is running them. They will go were the money is.

Gee Bag

Was this a special school for the children of Joe Duffy listeners?

prinz

MaxSteele wrote: »

If you believe a parent should be made fork out an 80 euro fine to some lardass, prick in blue to fill his weekly notebook for something as miniscule and irrelevent as that, well then I feel for you.

Did she fork anything out? No. Did she even actually get a ticket? Doesn't seem like it. Were any of the gardaí in question overweight? We have no idea. Were they pricks? They were doing their jobs, if that makes you a prick maybe so. Feel for me away. I am not the one creating the culture of letting people away with crimes of any sort.

dark crystal wrote: »

Thing is, the woman dropping her child to school is most probably an otherwise law abiding, tax paying citizen doing nothing other than trying to get her child to school safely and get to work on time and getting bother from the police for doing so..

And? What if she drove through a red light? Or overtook dangerously? Or was on the mobile phone or fixing her make up? What if she finished her breakfast and threw rubbish out the window? Are they supposed to sit there and ignore it and say 'ah well otherwise she's a decent sort'.... that kind of parochial crap has been accepted too long in this country. "Ah well judge, he's a good family man, I am sure that child porn was a mistake.."

dark crystal wrote: »

On the other hand, you have the likes of Sean Fitz, Bertie and all his cronies pocketing thousands and getting away with it, with accusations of police corruption into the bargain..

Two different issues.

My name is URL

MaxSteele wrote: »

We all park somewhere illegal for ten seconds, to drop someone off, whether it's your child to school or a friend at the airport.

No we don't. Every one of us here are perfectly functioning automatons; programmed not to break any law in any way whatsoever. Lest our righteous indignation chips be deactivated.. perish the thought.

dark crystal

AboutTwoFiddy wrote: »

They weren't issuing a ticket for a mother dropping her child off, they were doing it for parking illegally. The way some parents stop their cars in mid traffic outside schools is ridiculous, delighted the gardai are pulling them up on it. If it was a white van parking on a double yellow nobody would complain about a ticket.

Where my child goes to school, the surrounding roads are all double yellow lined, there are no car parks and you're not allowed to drive into the school premises. There's no school bus system and it's on a busy main road.

Some parents have no choice but to park illegally for a few seconds to allow their children to get to the school gates safely.

Anyone

dark crystal wrote: »

Where my child goes to school, the surrounding roads are all double yellow lined, there are no car parks and you're not allowed to drive into the school premises. There's no school bus system and it's on a busy main road.

Some parents have no choice but to park illegally for a few seconds to allow their children to get to the school gates safely.

Park 5 mins away and walk up, will do you and your kids the world of good.

Ice87

Fat owl ones should be walking their kids to school. Not trying to park as close as they can to the gate.

Ellis Dee

bluewolf wrote: »

If parents would stop parking everywhere in the vicinity of schools, swarming the roads, and often being a hazard, we'd get somewhere
good on the gardai for going out there

So true! In fact, things can't be all that bad, relatively speaking, when there are still so many cars on the road and kids can't walk even a few hundred metres to school. I walked a couple of miles and then cycled, and that was my routine for years until I could get out of school and resume my education.:)

No point in shouting at the gardai over things like the Mahon report or our country's astonishing tolerance for white-collar crime that does not involve garlic. It's another matter entirely that the command echelons of the force need a really good looking at and probably a thorough shaking up. :rolleyes:

It would also be very interesting to know how many of those who are now futilely and impotently yelling their heads off to the wrong people in the wrong places actually voted for Fianna Fail in the past, and just how sure they are that Lowry wasn't the only crook in the Blueshirts.:eek:

I could be out yelling at someone, too, as it happens, because a whole range of tax increases (including VAT up to 24%) were announced yesterday in Finland and will hit me for half the year or so. One politician said it was better to tighten belts now BEFORE we "end up like Ireland". As bitter as it always is to part with money, I'll grin and bear it, because the package also includes a new "solidarity tax" on the rich. It was originally proposed by Jutta Urpilainen, who is the Finance Minister and a far better looker than Michael Noonan.;);)

http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2012/02/sdp_wants_solidarity_tax_on_high_earners_3287582.html

dark crystal

prinz wrote: »

And? What if she drove through a red light? Or overtook dangerously? Or was on the mobile phone or fixing her make up? What if she finished her breakfast and threw rubbish out the window? Are they supposed to sit there and ignore it and say 'ah well otherwise she's a decent sort'.... that kind of parochial crap has been accepted too long in this country. "Ah well judge, he's a good family man, I am sure that child porn was a mistake.."

Driving through red lights, overtaking dangerously and using mobile phones whilst driving can seriously impede other drivers safety and could cause possible fatalities. I wouldn't equate that with parking outside a school gate to drop off a child.

Also, the child porn analogy is ridiculous - you don't need me to tell you that, surely...

benway

Tend to agree with the OP on this, maybe not so much on the specific example, but it seems like Mahon was the point where people finally started to crack. Dunno how it's taken this long.

irelandrover

dark crystal wrote: »

Driving through red lights, overtaking dangerously and using mobile phones whilst driving can seriously impede other drivers safety and could cause possible fatalities. I wouldn't equate that with parking outside a school gate to drop off a child.

Also, the child porn analogy is ridiculous - you don't need me to tell you that, surely...

How do you collect your children in the evening?
My experience is in the morning it is not such a huge problem (it is still a problem). As you say parents only park for about 10 seconds.
In the evening you have about 100 cars all parked around the school blocking up the entire area.

prinz

dark crystal wrote: »

I wouldn't equate that with parking outside a school gate to drop off a child ...

And who said the gardaí were there to enforce your rules? A car stopped on the roadside even for 10 seconds could be extremely dangerous. Perhaps it's near a bend, or what happens when 50 cars turn up and they all want to stop at the gate. Suddenly you have a traffic build up. What happens if an ambulance needs to get into the school in a hurry and 20 cars are all parked every which way blocking the school gate. If it was your child in need of an amublance would you be so understanding?

dark crystal wrote: »

Also, the child porn analogy is ridiculous - you don't need me to tell you that, surely...

Why? It's still the same excuse being made (NB before you make the same mistake as an earlier poster I am not comparing the crimes only the excuses)... or is there some magic list of offences where it's ok to say 'ah well apart from x they usually are law abiding, tax paying' etc?

The King of Moo

I think this thread is evidence that there's a lot of anger about, but that it's directed at ridiculous, non-existent targets; in this case an incident of guards issuing a parking ticket to a woman which doesn't seem to have actually happened.

This is the kind of the thing the politicians and bankers must love to see: a load of vitriol about a trivial matter that never actually happened anyway.

See also: Hijabs in photo ID's.

dark crystal

irelandrover wrote: »

How do you collect your children in the evening?
My experience is in the morning it is not such a huge problem (it is still a problem). As you say parents only park for about 10 seconds.
In the evening you have about 100 cars all parked around the school blocking up the entire area.

They actually get a lift home from their friend's mum after school because I'm usually working at that time.

She picks them up outside the school gate.

DonalK1981

The parents have no place else to park, the council or planning dept are the cause of this as they didn't allow place for dropping off kids when the school was built designed. Crazy people getting all flustered over this to be fair, a bit of common sense would go a long way...

ejmaztec

The Guards just wanted to check the kids' lunchboxes for doughnuts.

AEDIC

People would want to make up their minds.... either you want the Gardai doing thier jobs or you dont...

Having the 'down with this sort of thing' type yelling at them isnt going to resolve anything other than giving the shouter something to tell their friends about how they 'fcucked the Garda out of it'

MaxSteele

prinz wrote: »

Did she fork anything out? No. Did she even actually get a ticket? Doesn't seem like it. Were any of the gardaí in question overweight? We have no idea. Were they pricks? They were doing their jobs, if that makes you a prick maybe so. Feel for me away. I am not the one creating the culture of letting people away with crimes of any sort.



*Sigh*... Who here is creating a lawless culture ?? By penalising parents in a rush to get their children to school ?god forbid they don't want their children crossing a busy road alone. It's laughable you'd think that's even worth Garda resources or time. We don't know if she did or didn't pay anything. Fact of the matter is, instead of doing something useful, they were sitting on their holes, waiting to pounce on someone who crossed a double yellow line out of a victimless, necessity to get their kids to school. Funny how they haven't caught any of the gang robbing houses in Swords, Balbriggan or Skerries for the past month, but can have cat like reflexes on something like this. I'm not saying guards are pricks, just pisses any rational minded person off to see this kind of petty, trivial nonsense as opposed to actually doing their job.

prinz

MaxSteele wrote: »

I'm not saying guards are pricks, just pisses any rational minded person off to see this kind of petty, trivial nonsense as opposed to actually doing their job.

O no?

MaxSteele wrote: »

If you believe a parent should be made fork out an 80 euro fine to some lardass, prick in blue to fill his weekly notebook for something as miniscule and irrelevent as that, well then I feel for you

Either way, they were actually doing their job. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. Oh I forgot they are supposed to turn a blind eye to some people. So Max, where exactly is the line between petty, trivial nonsense and the rules of the road the gardaí should be enforcing? In your head I assume.

SomeFool

gremha wrote: »

This morning I was dropping my kid off to school, it's on a busy road & there's a bus stop right outside the main gate (which always struck me as a dangerous place to put it, but I didn't plan it), indented off the road..

Sometimes parents pull up in the bus stop, drop their kids & drive straight off again, no more than a 30-60 second exercise.

A bus stop outside a school, whatever next. I suppose if the bus can't park properly and causes an accident will you call the guards then?

kippy

UDP wrote: »

of course! If the mother was breaking the law then she should get a ticket. Otherwise what is the point of the law.

This whole thing of X should not get prosecuted for breaking the law because someone broke a bigger law is ridiculus. Everyone who breaks the law should get done unless there is a very very good reason e.g. a law was broken to save a life or that kind of thing.

This is something I talked about during the whole Ivor Callelly debate last year or a couple of years ago. (God knows where I could find the post)

What kind of a signal is sent to every man woman and child in this country when people at the very top of society that are entrusted with running the country and making critical decisions, decide to act illegally, immorrally, and unethicilly and get away with it, often times without even a criminal investigation? And when I say get away with it, I mean completely take the piss in getting away with it?

It's not a signal that we should be proud of because it lessens the law of the land and when you see what happens with people who commit what is thought of as a "lesser" crime you have to see where the anger is coming from?

Directing the anger at the ground level gardai is pointless, they are after all only doing their job - policing at that level, however up the line and in certain areas of this society the law does not apply or it applies in a quasi grey fashion, which is completely wrong and paints our country in a very very poor light.

On this particular incident, it does seem a bit petty but she did break a law, however as with a lot of these type of things one has to ask why she broke this law, and in the case of many of you who live near schools one has to ask why people clog up roadways? Perhaps because:
The schools aren't adequately provided with public transport,
No planning has taken place to allow for space for safe drop offs,
or in the case of new schools or houses that have been built near old schools, outright bad planning.

I feel for the Gardai and I feel for the woman mentioned but I am with the OP, there is a greater feeling of anger over the past few months and this is being shown through incidents such as this and the opposition to the housing charge.

dark crystal

prinz wrote: »

And who said the gardaí were there to enforce your rules? A car stopped on the roadside even for 10 seconds could be extremely dangerous. Perhaps it's near a bend, or what happens when 50 cars turn up and they all want to stop at the gate. Suddenly you have a traffic build up. What happens if an ambulance needs to get into the school in a hurry and 20 cars are all parked every which way blocking the school gate. If it was your child in need of an amublance would you be so understanding?

You do love a bit of hyberbole, don't you

There's a yellow grid directly outside the school gate which is never parked in by any cars, which would facilitate an ambulance, if that were ever required. As I stated before, cars other than those driven by staff are not permitted in the school grounds, so an ambulance would have no trouble entering the school entrance.
Speaking of safety, it seems crazy to me, that so many schools are built on busy main roads, with no planning for the increase in traffic around the area. Yes, there's a lollipop lady there, but I've seen so many near misses with little ones darting out from nowhere further up the road and just missing being hit from oncoming traffic.

This is why I drive them as close as I can to the gate and why their safety comes before the possible threat of a ticket.

prinz

dark crystal wrote: »

There's a yellow grid directly outside the school gate which is never parked in by any cars, which would facilitate an ambulance, if that were ever required..

What about the bay for the school bus? That not count? Let's say a low figure 20 cars each lining up to pull in the bus parking area, each taking on average by your count 45 seconds, that's 900 seconds. Be generous and divide that by three for three cars at a time. 300 seconds. That's 5 minutes. 5 minutes that the school bus would either (a) have to block up a lane of traffic and wait holding everyone else up, or (B) allow the kids disembark in a potentially dangerous spot. Neither scenario I would assume is going to be acceptable to yourself.