Garda are nowhere to be seen while city center is overrun by crime and drugs

The_Brood

Have lived in Dublin for a few years now and nowhere else in the civilized world have I found a city center and surrounding areas so overrun with thuggery, drugs, and crime. People drugged out of their minds flailing about, women getting constantly harassed on the streets, knackers assaulting people, robberies, just absolute lunacy all over the city center and not a garda in sight. You'll see them every once in a while in chippers, but not actually out on the streets clamping down on this behavior.

Even worse though is the "justice" system that just lets these guys go with a slap on the wrist back on the streets - the rare times they even get caught.

People always say "well look at other big cities they are rough too" but this is the city center. This is the main community hub of the entire city. If the garda aren't here, if they have lost control of even the center, then there is absolutely no hope for any other neighborhood.

Nobody wants a police state like America, but this is the exact opposite extreme, where there is absolutely no safety and protection for the public, and no justice against thugs. We need to wake up and demand radical improvement.

cruais

Am I just lucky that I seem to see them all the time in town? GPO, Grafton St etc

I agree with you that the city centre is a kip. I blame two issues regarding our crime situation

Number 1 being the boring word..... resources
Lacking completely. One can only work with what they have

Number 2. Our judicial system is a sham and is not a deterrent for these scum to re-offend

Birneybau

Someday a real rain will come, and wash the scum off the streets.

Gavin "shels"

Where are you not seeing Guards? Always one at the GPO - they regularly patrol around Talbot St & Westmoreland St due to junkie activity.

donkeykong5

Well there were loads in city centre last Saturday. Haven't seen so many in ages. Where was it again............oh yeah . Some parade!

Boxing.Fan

If is bad but it's no worse than cities such as Marseille Naples or Barcelona. That doesnt mean we should accept it though.

Ballso

I see Garda everywhere, dunno what you are talking about. I don't see these hordes of violent criminals you are talking about either, where are they?

I think we've a lot of very sheltered individuals living in our city.

The_Brood

Ballso wrote: »

I see Garda everywhere, dunno what you are talking about. I don't see these hordes of violent criminals you are talking about either, where are they?

I think we've a lot of very sheltered individuals living in our city.

Very likely it is you who are the sheltered individual if you have not seen or been confronted by the gangs roaming around city centre.

Clearly you have never had a knife pulled out on you in broad daylight. You're not a woman who has been followed and harassed. You've never been pelted with rocks on the street or on the bus. And a lot of this happening up and down O'Connell street - before we even mention the druggies and needles that seem to be an entirely accepted and normalized feature.

People should have the right to be able to walk in a city without the fear of being mugged or stalked or knifed. The fact that it is happening right smack in the city centre speaks of insane incompetency and lack of concern.

Edit: And looks like I'm lucky to only be pelted by rocks, they are throwing hatchets now too: https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/woman-hatchet-thrown-head-teens-16527917

Absolutely pathetic when people deny what is going on.

Interested Observer

Ahhh, sure aren't we due one of these threads. It's been a while.

Lux23

What I find hilarious is the lads selling party drugs near Stephen's Green, it's so out in the open.

tricky D

Birneybau wrote: »

Someday a real rain will come, and wash the scum off the streets.

Mod: please note the last point in the DC charter in relation to posting this stuff on thread again.

abcabc123123

Oddly I've never had any of this stuff happen to me, despite living and working in the city for the better part of the last 15 years.

I've had potatoes thrown at me though and a kid hit me on the head with a chip last week (and then called me a paedo/****). It was harrowing stuff altogether.

diceyreilly

Worked in town for 20 odd years ( don’t now )
Junkies absolutely everywhere. But 99 per cent of them are harmless and wouldn’t go anywhere near you. Some might ask you for a few coppers but that’s it.

Used ( prob still is) to be a bitta kip around the summer holidays kids up to no good, but what you read on here you’d swear we were living in the projects in Baltimore.

Thelonious Monk

There are many problems with Dublin city centre but as with most cities in the developed world it's totally safe.
There's a really bad heroin problem in Dublin and a lot of them live in and around the inner city, so that makes it more visible. I lived in London for years, in rough enough areas, and I never saw heroin addicts, it's really in your face in Dublin though.
I was cycling down Amiens st this morning at around 0715 and I saw a heroin addict worse for wear stumbling a bit and then he just went flat on his face, when I turned around he was still there so he could be dead for all I know, people just walked right past him, and I kept cycling.
I used to think of these addicts as scum and would get a laugh out of the state of them shouting at each other etc, but it's not their fault they were born into whatever horrible upbringing they've had, or lack of. These people need help and for all the money our Gov wastes they could probably give them the help they need for not all that much funding. They throw money at various causes like refugees and travellers etc but don't do a lot for the heroin scurge of Dublin. There but for the grace of God go I.

H3llR4iser

As someone who's been living here for a decade but comes from a different country - and has been around a bit of the world, well, I have zero idea what you're talking about OP. Compared to other main cities / capitals, Dublin has very little of the issues you mention; Go visit some cities out of this list:

Madrid
Rome
New York
London
Naples
Liverpool
Turin
Chicago
Barcelona
Paris


and see for yourself. Even the "homeless crisis" will look like a fabrication, in comparison. Traffic? Try getting home from Rome city center any day of the week or spend 3 hours not moving an inch on the I-90 towards O'Hare, then you'll know what a traffic jam really is.

Now, obviously if you compare Dublin with Ballysomething, well, then sure, it's a cesspit of crime, homelessness, drugs and whatever else.

Thelonious Monk

Yeah I found Turin to be rough af

Strumms

I’ve spent copious amounts of time in Madrid and Paris where I used to live. Madrid in particular is of of the nicest and safest cities I’ve visited. Paris there are a fair few beggars in more deprived areas around metro stations etc and the odd con artist around touristy spots but that’s even been clamped down upon massively.

I’ve traversed both cities at all times of day and night without issue.

In Dublin I’ve been robbed at syringe point in the Iilac Center and a friend who I was with was the victim of an unprovoked assault that caused a serious facial injury which required two surgeries and long term rehabilitation. All in Dublin, all unprovoked, on both occasions the Gardai completely useless.

caff

Ye worked on lower Abbey Street for years never noticed much. GF works there too and doesn't fear for her life.

Is the Op a tabloid journalist fishing for an article?

Thelonious Monk

Strumms wrote: »

I’ve spent copious amounts of time in Madrid and Paris where I used to live. Madrid in particular is of of the nicest and safest cities I’ve visited. Paris there are a fair few beggars in more deprived areas around metro stations etc and the odd con artist around touristy spots but that’s even been clamped down upon massively.

I’ve traversed both cities at all times of day and night without issue.

In Dublin I’ve been robbed at syringe point in the Iilac Center and a friend who I was with was the victim of an unprovoked assault that caused a serious facial injury which required two surgeries and long term rehabilitation. All in Dublin, all unprovoked, on both occasions the Gardai completely useless.

I mean there are hookers everywhere in Madrid, it has it's own set of problems, but yeah maybe you're less likely to get in a scuffle there because they just seem a bit more placid than Irish gurriers overall.
I was also held up with a syringe in Dublin in about 1996 now that I think of it, the only place in the world anything like that has happened to me.

The_Brood

Right so because some people here haven't been held by knife point or been sexually harassed it means anyone who says they have is lying or exagerrating?

What an utter joke.

And it is absolute madness to compare Dublin to massive mega cities like New York and London. I'm not even gonna bother with that one
.

Strumms

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

I mean there are hookers everywhere in Madrid, it has it's own set of problems, but yeah maybe you're less likely to get in a scuffle there because they just seem a bit more placid than Irish gurriers overall.
I was also held up with a syringe in Dublin in about 1996 now that I think of it, the only place in the world anything like that has happened to me.

Wherever you’ve been hanging out in Madrid looking for or encountering hookers I can assure you they are not everywhere. By the nature of their profession they do want to be ‘accessible’ to a point but I’ve never happened across them. I’ve spent more time in Madrid then any city with the exceptions of Dublin, Nice and Paris and again not encountered them.

Thelonious Monk

Strumms wrote: »

Wherever you’ve been hanging out in Madrid looking for or encountering hookers I can assure you they are not everywhere. By the nature of their profession they do want to be ‘accessible’ to a point but I’ve never happened across them. I’ve spent more time in Madrid then any city with the exceptions of Dublin, Nice and Paris and again not encountered them.

You never saw them hanging around Puerto del Sol?

Strumms

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

You never saw them hanging around Puerto del Sol?

It’s an area I’d only have visited during the day and it’s thronged with tourists and shoppers, I’m normally staying in the Radisson Blu Prado.

vriesmays

Birneybau wrote: »

Someday a real rain will come, and wash the scum off the streets.

Including the dopes by the GPO handing out free food to the homeless to shame the Government instead of doing this outside Dáil.

Thelonious Monk

Strumms wrote: »

It’s an area I’d only have visited during the day and it’s thronged with tourists and shoppers, I’m normally staying in the Radisson Blu Prado.

Well anyway, a few girls soliciting in short skirts isn't as bad as roaming junkie hoards I suppose, the poor divils

Strumms

vriesmays wrote: »

Including the dopes by the GPO handing out free food to the homeless to shame the Government instead of doing this outside Dáil.

GPO fine but I’d say if it was moved to the Dáil it would last all of five minutes. Gardai would put a stop to it.

Infernal Racket

Guards have been arresting these junkies and street criminals for years. I guarantee you that at least 20 or 30 of these criminals go through Pearse St and Store St garda stations every day of the week. They arrest them, they charge them, they take them to court and the judges keep letting them on out the big revolving door. Now ask yourself, if you were an ordinary uniformed garda walking the streets day in and day out, would you bother your hole arresting these guys for petty crime??

Thelonious Monk

Being a heroin addict should not be a crime imo

Interested Observer

Strumms wrote: »

I’ve spent copious amounts of time in Madrid and Paris where I used to live. Madrid in particular is of of the nicest and safest cities I’ve visited. Paris there are a fair few beggars in more deprived areas around metro stations etc and the odd con artist around touristy spots but that’s even been clamped down upon massively.

I’ve traversed both cities at all times of day and night without issue.

In Dublin I’ve been robbed at syringe point in the Iilac Center and a friend who I was with was the victim of an unprovoked assault that caused a serious facial injury which required two surgeries and long term rehabilitation. All in Dublin, all unprovoked, on both occasions the Gardai completely useless.

I'm sorry these things have happened to you but your experience is basically irrelevant to how safe or unsafe a city is overall. I've spent my whole life in Dublin, went to school in the city, University in the city, work in the city, bought my house in the North inner city and I've never been the victim of crime. This obviously doesn't mean there is no crime.

Amirani

Strumms wrote: »

I’ve spent copious amounts of time in Madrid and Paris where I used to live. Madrid in particular is of of the nicest and safest cities I’ve visited. Paris there are a fair few beggars in more deprived areas around metro stations etc and the odd con artist around touristy spots but that’s even been clamped down upon massively.

I’ve traversed both cities at all times of day and night without issue.

You've obviously been very selective in your traversing of Paris so.

Strumms

Amirani wrote: »

You've obviously been very selective in your traversing of Paris so.

I would say no, I had and have friends living in various arrondissements across the city and have socialized extensively throughout the city. The only places I felt and WOULD have been and be a little extra wary would have been in and around Clichy / Pigalle and Chatelet, particularly after dark but they were to be avoided usually unless there was a gig that we wanted to see.. or something else specific. But those places are reasonably well policed.