Where are the Gardaí?

Kivaro

Was in Limerick city during the week. The place was packed with Christmas shoppers. Across from Brown Thomas in the city centre, a stereotypical rat-like hooded creature was using a large bolt-cutters to cut the lock and chain of a bike on a bike rack. When some women on the corner spotted him getting away with this bike, they stopped him. This creature left the bike behind when he could not barge his way past the women and a young man who also got involved. He ran across the street to his other hooded friends who were laughing at the incident. Not a guard in sight. When they eventually showed up, it was 3 Guards fresh from Templemore, and one of the women in the crowd explained to them that the hooded gang across the street were "robbing the place blind". The guards gave chase. When I say "chase", I mean they walked quickly across the street; at which time the 3 thieves ran off laughing. It was a keystone cops moment.

It was then I realised how defenseless the citizens of Limerick city were. There was no one there to protect them and their property, except for themselves. In any other city in the western world, the response to this incident would have been handled differently by the police authorities. In general, there is no police deterrent on Irish streets and this emboldens the criminal element. We have to fend for ourselves, and that's an indictment of a government who do not care about its law-abiding citizens.

Mantis Toboggan

Gerry G wrote: »

Where did that figure come from?

1300 per week according to someone above?

Infernal Racket

Kivaro wrote: »

Was in Limerick city during the week. The place was packed with Christmas shoppers. Across from Brown Thomas in the city centre, a stereotypical rat-like hooded creature was using a large bolt-cutters to cut the lock and chain of a bike on a bike rack. When some women on the corner spotted him getting away with this bike, they stopped him. This creature left the bike behind when he could not barge his way past the women and a young man who also got involved. He ran across the street to his other hooded friends who were laughing at the incident. Not a guard in sight. When they eventually showed up, it was 3 Guards fresh from Templemore, and one of the women in the crowd explained to them that the hooded gang across the street were "robbing the place blind". The guards gave chase. When I say "chase", I mean they walked quickly across the street; at which time the 3 thieves ran off laughing. It was a keystone cops moment.

It was then I realised how defenseless the citizens of Limerick city were. There was no one there to protect them and their property, except for themselves. In any other city in the western world, the response to this incident would have been handled differently by the police authorities. In general, there is no police deterrent on Irish streets and this emboldens the criminal element. We have to fend for ourselves, and that's an indictment of a government who do not care about its law-abiding citizens.

You got it in one. These little rats used to fear a hiding from the Guards. Now the public cries foul if a guard lays a hand on their little darlings. General consensus among Guards now is why would they bother. Not worth losing your job and possibly facing a prosecution for laying a hand on a dirt bird

Infernal Racket

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

1300 per week according to someone above?

Again it's only am average. The commissioner earns roughly 250k per year. A young Guard earns approx 30k. Average of 140k each

Ninthlife

Ninthlife wrote: »

Youd need a real cyclepath to do that..

And some guards

hmmm

Gerry G wrote: »

Again it's only am average. The commissioner earns roughly 250k per year. A young Guard earns approx 30k. Average of 140k each

There's no point pretending Guards are cheap to hire, because then people expect to see one on every corner, and wonder where they all are. We have too few Guards. It's not cheap to hire more. Either more money is allocated to the Guards or people will have to put up with a lack of policing.

Infernal Racket

hmmm wrote: »

There's no point pretending Guards are cheap to hire, because then people expect to see one on every corner, and wonder where they all are. We have too few Guards. It's not cheap to hire more. Either more money is allocated to the Guards or people will have to put up with a lack of policing.

Very true. And the government def won't spend anymore on guards. They could reform the whole legal aid system which would pay for massive recruitment of Guards but that will never happen as the gravy train for solicitors and barristers would be affected and we couldn't have that now could we?

Mantis Toboggan

Gerry G wrote: »

Again it's only am average. The commissioner earns roughly 250k per year. A young Guard earns approx 30k. Average of 140k each

I know they work lots of overtime and have allowances for everything so it wouldn't surprise me tbh. I'd love to have been a guard. Everyday different.

Fiery mutant

I’d be perfectly happy for all the beat guards to be making 67k a year, if they were allowed to do their jobs, and not be hamstrung with beauracratic bull****.

Same for the nurses and firefighters. They are a frontline force doing a very tough job.

1o059k7ewrqj3n

There’s supposed to be 14,500 Gardai in Ireland. In 2016 Fine Gael promised to up the numbers to 15,000 though this hasn’t happened. There are not enough police.

They need to look at introducing civilian aides who are trained and qualified to handle desk duties but even then you still need the officer who was there to do the paperwork. Keeping Gardai on past 55 would be an idea, no sense losing decades of experience when they could slot into a desk job for 2-4 years extra (optional) or help train new recruits.

The closure of stations has also really affected things also. A friend of the family is a Gardai, the area he has responsibility for in a midland county is massive and partly includes sections of very busy motorway. This would have been handled by more Gardai years ago.

Too little butter spread over too much bread.

Mantis Toboggan

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

I know they work lots of overtime and have allowances for everything so it wouldn't surprise me tbh. I'd love to have been a guard. Everyday different.

Not everyone does or can work overtime. Childcare & other issues come into it.
The budget in AGS is never enough, & overtime is the first to get cut.
I know 'someone' over 20 years in & earns 52k
In order to make more they work weekends, nights, bank holidays, Xmas etc. But still don't make 67k a year though!

There are not nearly enough Gardai in the country, but in order to entice educated adults to the force you do need to compete with the private sector, it's not terrible money, but there are much easier ways to make that money.

listermint

hmmm wrote: »

Of course it is, but then there's only so much tax to go around - so decisions have to be made as to how we allocate tax. Personally I don't know why more isn't spent on policing, prisons etc, because the public are crying out for more Guards and more criminals being taken off the streets.

I'm fully aware of there's only so much tax money to go around.its my money too.

Which is why its amazing that funding is pulled out of our arse for terrible projects like water meters and city centre new hospital locations on a Victorian postage stamp location.

Now excuse me if common sense was something I was given but I mean misuse of funding comes to mind.

Kivaro

Here is one suggestion to help fund more Gardai.
Leo Varadkar is going to send €1 Billion in the upcoming year to Africa and other areas of the world in the form of overseas aid. He wants to increase this Irish tax-funded overseas aid to €2 Billion per year in future years. Ireland must be really flush with money.

Until we have a functioning well-resourced police force, health service, and affordable housing, this "overseas aid" should be spent in Ireland.

hmmm

Kivaro wrote: »

Until we have a functioning well-resourced police force, health service, and affordable housing, this "overseas aid" should be spent in Ireland.

A country as wealthy as us should be able to have a well-funded police force and still spend a small amount of our wealth on helping poorer countries.

TheRepentent

hmmm wrote: »

Guards earn an average of 1300 euro a week (IPA report).

have you a link to the (IPA report)?

X111111111111

They threatened to go on strike a while back (breaking the law) to garner a pay rise. Lost all respect for them after that.

Jinglejangle69

Kivaro wrote: »

Here is one suggestion to help fund more Gardai.
Leo Varadkar is going to send €1 Billion in the upcoming year to Africa and other areas of the world in the form of overseas aid. He wants to increase this Irish tax-funded overseas aid to €2 Billion per year in future years. Ireland must be really flush with money.

Until we have a functioning well-resourced police force, health service, and affordable housing, this "overseas aid" should be spent in Ireland.

Leo Varadkar is going to send 1 billion?

I’m definitely in the wrong game.

Our first ever billionaire Taoiseach!!

Jinglejangle69

Gerry G wrote: »

You got it in one. These little rats used to fear a hiding from the Guards. Now the public cries foul if a guard lays a hand on their little darlings. General consensus among Guards now is why would they bother. Not worth losing your job and possibly facing a prosecution for laying a hand on a dirt bird

Paul Murphy tells us he is elected to break the law.

Jobstown comes to mind.

It’s no wonder....

DellyBelly

I actually hadn't realised 1300 a week is the average wage a guard earns. No wonder we can't afford more which is a shame cause they are badly needed. I hope that wage includes overtime

Jinglejangle69

Plumbthedepths wrote: »

Must tell my son, he's a guard and earns nowhere near that figure.

Well aint that an eye opener.

Kermit.de.frog

Been saying it for years, if they wanted to scummers could cripple the whole of Dublin City Center in an afternoon and help themselves (they actually could).

People don't seem to understand the extent of the security situation in the country. It's bleak.

Look what happened in Tallaght during "the beast from the east" - parts descended in to absolute anarchy and looting, terrifying for locals but the gardai could not do anything because not enough and under resourced. The few that were there could only watch.

We don't have a functioning police force. That's a sad fact. Then there is the so called justice system...

This new commissioner is trying to shake it all up but is meeting resistance from the vested interests.

It's each to their own if the state does not take it's responsibilities seriously.

suicide_circus

i've said it before but its worth repeating;

the function of the police in Britain and Ireland used to be to PREVENT crime by proactive policing on the beat etc.

Now the function of the police is to wait for crime to happen and then REACT. SLOWLY.

Its a fundamental shift which leaves the citizenry at the mercy of criminals.

G-Man

Even if you do call the guards, the only thing they are interested in doing is telling you anything that will make you hang up the phone.

A neigbhour of mind got mugged in Dublin and managed to turn the tables and hold onto her putrid attacker. She rang the guards and after 45 minutes no show, so she had to let him go. When she complained, she was told she rang the wrong number, she should have rang this other number.....bla...bla ..

The gardai will do anything to get you out of your sight.. Now I am biassed here, I am a cyclist and pedestrian, so frequently report dangerous driving that is threatening to pedestrians and cyclists, but guards do not want to hear about it.. But yea, hi viz, cycling on the footpath.. yea, so important..

This was basically attempted murder on the canal.. THat was a very expensive bike, the mans only way to earn his livelihood and those thugs would not stop at anything.... Garda response, a few days later, one picture on twitter of a guard walking along the canal.

Where is the door to door search to find the bike, weapons or thugs. Where is the appealing to the community to give information. Same as Quinn case, it will take for a cyclist to die before we hear a peep.

Infernal Racket

G-Man wrote: »

Even if you do call the guards, the only thing they are interested in doing is telling you anything that will make you hang up the phone.

A neigbhour of mind got mugged in Dublin and managed to turn the tables and hold onto her putrid attacker. She rang the guards and after 45 minutes no show, so she had to let him go. When she complained, she was told she rang the wrong number, she should have rang this other number.....bla...bla ..

The gardai will do anything to get you out of your sight.. Now I am biassed here, I am a cyclist and pedestrian, so frequently report dangerous driving that is threatening to pedestrians and cyclists, but guards do not want to hear about it.. But yea, hi viz, cycling on the footpath.. yea, so important..

This was basically attempted murder on the canal.. THat was a very expensive bike, the mans only way to earn his livelihood and those thugs would not stop at anything.... Garda response, a few days later, one picture on twitter of a guard walking along the canal.

Where is the door to door search to find the bike, weapons or thugs. Where is the appealing to the community to give information. Same as Quinn case, it will take for a cyclist to die before we hear a peep.

I find the whole neighbour story hard to believe. Also, do you think the Guards can legally search every house for a bike without having a warrant for every single house which of course no judge would give to them in the first place. Also, how many guards do you think it would take to investigate this one fictitious story about your neighbour in the way you'd want it investigated?

Snow Garden

The Gardai are now only revenue collectors. All they do is go after easy traftic fines. They stopped doing their job years ago.

Mike9832

Army should be on the streets

We dont fight wars

What else are they doing?

Infernal Racket

Snow Garden wrote: »

The Gardai are now only revenue collectors. All they do is go after easy traftic fines. They stopped doing their job years ago.

That would be the traffic corps. Handing out fines is their job. Always was

Infernal Racket

Mike9832 wrote: »

Army should be on the streets

We dont fight wars

What else are they doing?

You would want to live in a country where armed soldiers patrol the streets? Okaaaaay then

bunderoon

Jinglejangle69 wrote: »

Leo Varadkar is going to send 1 billion?

I’m definitely in the wrong game.

Our first ever billionaire Taoiseach!!

Anyone ever wondered about the cost of sending aid to another country?
Why that country needs the aid? What/who caused it?
Where (and who) does the money come from to send it out of our country?
At what interest percentage rate does it cost Ireland to borrow 2Billion?

Imagine if the world bank just lent the poorer countries the money at near zero interest and encouraged them to grow and get into the position to repay it.

What if a country invades another country resulting in dispersing the native people causing a major humanitarian crisis - then also has to foot the aid bill instead of leaving it to the likes of Leo and co borrowing money (at interest) and letting us foot the bill.

Snow Garden

I lost all respect for the Gardai after seeing how they treated McCabe and for faking over 1.5m breath tests to make their 'numbers'.