Garda violently shut down RTS

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday May 06, 2002 21:31 by Aidan O'Brien - IMC Ireland aidanobrien at esatclear dot ie

I'm not sure what Image is going to stay with me tonight when I go to sleep. What I can only say is Dublin has witnessed some of the worst police brutality seen in years

I'm sitting in a cybercafe across from Christchurch, police bikes, a half dozen are driven passed. One of them earlier joked to a passerby, "Just some kids acting up"

"Just some kids acting up" if the Garda felt the level of brute force used today was justified for just some kids, I'm sincerely glad the don't equip them with tactical nuclear weapons to sort out post pub brawls. Let me recount some of what I saw;

An old mate, a corporal in the FCA, stepped out of a pub to see what all the fuss was about, shoved indiscrimiately by the "peace force", and a little drunk he fell and was set upon by three Garda kicking punching and using a trunchon.

A 16 year girl, sobbing by the side of the building, screaming in pain, beaten across the skull, later I helped her into an ambulance, she was obviously concussed.

A young man skilled in caporeia, taking a baton across the shins for not moving quick enough to clear the street.

I've plenty of video evidence for other crimes and assaults, but not for these, why? Because while filming the assault, mentioned above, from the pavement, a Garda grabbed, me as I shouted that I had a right to film and I was on the pavement, his other hand, shoving my camera down, then he ripped out my battery.

If the Garda are so assured their behavior has been justified why try and stop people filming, a young girl, struggled free from a ban Garda, trying to take her camera.

I'll give you some back story.

By six things were mellow, the party finishing Garda's walking through the crowd. There had been trouble earlier on, centered around a symbolic car the protestors had purchased, a banger, to trash.

Whether this was sensible is debatable, but the Garda reacted to Protestor hostiliy by trying to take the car off the street without asking questions; bottles where thrown, Gardas where shoved, there was a tug of war for the car. A Flare was set off inside it, orange smoke billowing out.

The Garda reaction to this was predictable but nevertheless surprisingly intense. Among other things they hit a 16 year old girl, and dragged a boy, on crutchs, 30 feet into the back of a van. Eventually after about a half hour the car was wheeled off by the Gardas and the attention rightfully returned to the drums and the sound system.

It turned into a gorgeous warm may evening, serious techno played till about 6:30 bright sun and a nice breeze the revellers made the most of it. Anarchist Cheeleaders, Face painting, drinking and chilling.

At 7 we realised we were heemed in. This isn't supposed to be what reclaim the streets is about it's about freedom, not the freedom the police let you have. So the party moved, danced around police lines, and down the quays the liffey on one side, the band played as they moved.

A highpoint for the RTSers was when a Unmarked cop car tried to drive through the crowd. The parters in front of the cops just sat down. 50 of them, and then everyone danced around the police car hemmed in unable to move. Eventualy reinforcements arrived, there were minor scuffles, a few from RTsers who'd been drinking for a while but mostly everyone was good natured chilled, just not willing to take the crap and play by the rules everyday society demands.

This teasing of the Gardas lasted as the protests rolled down the Quays up Parliament street and down Dame Street.

At College green a Garda bike and van tried the same trick as before, instead this time, the street was wider and the protestors more spread out, they got to the front, just about, 20 people sat in their way.

First just one from the van, trying and falling to wrestle the big RTS banner which had been hanging from lamp posts. Then dozens of Gardas bikes and vans, batons out, brute force and ignorance. Clubbing protestors repeatadly to make way for cars, they drove everyone from the street, even on pavements you weren't save, this is when my camera was damaged.

There was confusion most protestors fell back through temple bar giving the tourists something colourful for their postcads. I should make this clear, this was no running battle, no riot. Garda casualties were minor to say the least. A few cuts and bruises and a lost cap would be the worst of their woes. Though later I learnt one Garda had a broken wrist.

Small groups of protestors and Garda are still milling around the streets as I write this, two people I know are in custody, with many more, possibly as high as 15. There's an attempt to gather a protest outside the station, but Zero Tolerance is the Garda Attitude. Several more people were taken away in ambulances. People in pubs and restaurants came out to shout abuse at Gardas, astonished by what they saw.

They beat up children. They arrested a man with a broken ankle, they attacked people videoing them doing this. There was minor scuffles but nothing to warrant or justify this obscene behaviour.

I just recieved a phone call, I can't conform this, but theirs a report of a ten year old boy in hospitial struck by a Garda baton.