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IMC IRL Interview with Eoin Rice on Galway arrest and previous arrests national |
crime and justice |
news report
 Sunday January 18, 2004 20:15 by 1 of IMC IRL - Indymedia Ireland
 An Interview with Eoin Rice on his dealings with Gardai since March 2003. Conducted by E-Mail. IMC IRL: You seem to have been arrested and charged with various offences a lot in the last 9 months or so. Could you list your various arrests and give a short comment on each? EOIN RICE: 1st Mar03 at Shannon, charged Breach of the Peace (real crime - excess use of humour), 4 court appearances, dismissed on 27th Mar03 at Tulla. 24th Mar03 at Dail on Hunger Strike with Caoimhe Butterly, charged BotP + Offensive weapon (real crime - freedom of speech), 4 days on remand in Cloverhill, about 8 appearances, trial set for 26th Apr04 at Richmond Hospital, Dublin. Gardai erased my Dictaphone recording of arrest scene and are under Internal Affairs investigation. 26th June03 at Tulla District Court, arrested along with Tim Hourigan on "No grounds" (quote from Detective Seargent) (real crime - holding different opinion from Judge) dragged into court, accused of "holding a banner outside" by Judge Mangan, then slung into police custody in Tulla Garda Station until end of the day. Banners taken on Judge's order, has since refused on 4 occassions to return them. No charge were brought - pending judicial review of Judge's behaviour. 11th Oct at FF Ard Fheis in Killarney, charged BotP + failure to obey Garda orders (real crime - Freedom of Speech), 2 court hearings, trial set for 18th Feb04, Killarney District Court. Much video + audio evidence will be presented. 17th Nov03 near Nenagh, Co.Tipp, awoken in car at 1:30am by someone in plainclothes claiming to be a Garda, demanding my drivers licence. Very aggressive + unpleasant character (later discovered to be called Gerard Brassil). He pulled car door open as I was getting window down. Refused to ID himself. Got door closed and locked as he noted name. Began Dictaphone recording. Several other men called to scene, one ID'd himself as Bernard Casey. Refused to exit car or open boot. They claimed to be "investigating a spate of burglaries in Killaloe" They sabotaged my car by deflating both front tyres before departing at 2:30am. Audio recording available. Later, in custody on 6th Dec in Shannon, I was given 4 charges following from this incident. All these were summarily dismissed by the Judge in Nenagh District Court on 16th Jan04 as Brassil failed to appear. Will pursue case against all for harassment and sabotage. 5th Dec03 at Ballinasloe, Co.Galway, forced off the road by unmarked car driven by incoherent nutter wearing Garda jumper, refused to ID himself or state what the matter was. Remained locked inside car for 20minutes, recording exchange on Dictaphone. Eventually, after threats to tow car away I got out and was arrested, charged with Dangerous Driving (real crime - listening to car radio?). Held for 5 hours and bailed, dictaphone had been erased. 1 hearing in meantime, at which I was re-arrested, several charges added and trial set for sometime in Feb04. 6th Dec03 at Shannon Airport, after much harassment involving roadside interrogation, car search, tow-truck, locking self in car and being blockaded in the Viewing Area at Aerospace entrance for half the night by plainclothesmen, was awoken at 6am from deep sleep to be told "You are being arrested for dangerous driving!" Car window smashed open when refused to exit vehicle. Taken from car and arrested. Held 13hours at Ennis, charged with Dangerous Driving and Obstructing a Member, taken to Tulla DC for 7pm. Judge had meantime rescheduled for 6pm. Bail hearing forced through despite absence of Lawyer and uproarious protest from defendant + others in court. This saga still running, next date 12th Feb04 in Shannon. 7th Dec03 1:10am in Shannon town centre carpark - after being followed around all night by unmarked cars and having taken several photos of their occupants, who consistently refused to ID themselves, 2 men claiming to be Gardai approached wanting to take my camera. Argument regarding their ID ensued, none was produced and they both attacked me, attempted abduction into a blue car - loud struggle ensued, escaped and locked self in car. Eventual arrest along with Conor Cregan, held for 1 hour in Shannon Garda Station, 'forcibly released' without charge upon demanding attention of a Doctor, who had by telephone recommended an ambulance and X-rays. Conor then released, camera kept, Dictaphone returned, erased, as usual. Seen in 2 hospitals, various X-rays, diagnosis - whiplashed neck, ligaments in arm damaged. Arm in sling for a week of painkillers and anti-inflammatories. At a later court hearing regarding 6th Dec re-arrested and given 4 charges, BotP, Blocking Patrol Car, Obstruction + Failing to avert eyes while conversing with Garda Thugs. This list is not exhaustive - there are other cases I'm sure I have forgotten. I think I was arrested 10 times in the last 9 months of 2003 and once this year so far. IMC IRL: Do you believe you are being harrassed by the Gardai? EOIN RICE: No! No! But seriously, officers up to the rank of Superintendant have told me quite candidly in 2003 that I will be arrested until such times as I learn to be "careful about what you say". I have replied that I will say what I feel like saying, come hell or high water. Apparently, they have decided to play hardball(s). IMC IRL: If you do - why do they think they are picking on you? The system is struggling to keep a lid on the voices of dissent generally. Information is Power, we are giving this power to the People, despite the best efforts of the lapdog state and commercial media. Anyone who does this will find their Freedom of speech being assaulted - political sanction of abuses is provided by politicos with vested interests, police are given a free hand to intimidate, bully and stitch-up those who will not desist from dissent, and both rely on the collusion of a politicised judiciary to cover for it all. I am a (sometimes) vocal opponent of this system's Warmongering and Crimes against the poor, who encourages thought and organised resistance to Imperialism and Racism - the two central hallmarks of the US-EU-NATO regime we are living under - therefore a target. IMC IRL: Have you made an official complaint about all this? EOIN RICE: Copious quantities thereof, yes, but this is simply 'for the record', not in any expectation that this will lead to any lessening of such abuses. IMC IRL: Do you think any of this will be investigated? EOIN RICE: One or two cases are under investigation, yes - how far they or I get remains to be seen. IMC IRL: Is this the first time you have complained officially about being assaulted by the Gardai? EOIN RICE: Apart from 7th Dec03, yes. Both occassions involved serious bodily harm, trips to hospital, etc. IMC IRL: How many Gardai witnessed the alleged assault in Galway? EOIN RICE: 5 men in plainclothes participated in it while at least a dozen uniformed collegues stood in a circle viewing the spectacle. None tried, even by a word, to restrain the frenzied 5. IMC IRL: Please describe your injuries in detail? Rear of head split open against concrete wall (glued), right wrist injured anew (bandaged up), abrasions and marks on both wrists from being dragged by cuffs behind back, legs adorned with weals from a telescopic metal baton with weighted ball on the end (fotos), neck extremely stiff from being stood on for 2 minutes. Ego intact. ENDS __________________________ |
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Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8Some of this (Nenagh and Ballinasloe episodes) has nothing to do with antiwar activities. You're not that important that they're trailing you around trhe country to fit you up for stuff. Arrested ten times at least in 2003? I think what the guards did to you in galway was appalling but grow up! What's with locking yourself in the car and all that anyway?
I think it's fairly obvious that the State believes that the Black Pope is a threat to its workings. Or else some group of anti-democratic layabouts within the Gardai believes that.
For those of us that support the view that certain politicians and Gardai should be hung out to dry for their behaviour it's interesting to ask whether or not the assessment by these thugs is correct: will intimidating a single activist into silence suppress the anti-war movement?
If the answer is yes then we have some thinking to do.
I'd argue that it's too late and the genie is out of the bottle and that this farcically obvious intimidation is a serious misstep by whowever is responsible.
Torturing people like Eoin Rice can only have the effect of calling more attention to the activities of the anti-democratic forces present in Irish society.
I can only add my sincere admiration of Eoin for his principles and courage and the shining example he has set.
If you want to harass an anti-war activist, you don't just want to harass him when he's doing anti-war stuff. The whole point of harassment is to wear down the individual over time. Spurious charges cost the individual time and energy, they cost the state almost nothing relative to its resources.
Locking your car is probably a good response to the approach of an aggressive man who refuses to identify himself and demands that you come with him.
Telling Eoin to grow up is and stop whining after he gets arrested 10 times, without having commited any crimes, is far from mature.
Owen Rice was arrested at 10 am approx on main street galway,17th jan 2004. This what i saw.
Please bear with me as I fill in the back round to why we were there. I travelled up to galway on the evening of the 15th to attend the demo organized by anti globalization activists in galway. Unemployment ministers from all the Eu were attending a function at a hotel in the center of galway. This was part of the first of the many EU meetings being held in ireland over the next six months.
We arrived arround 7pm and started to take pictures of men standing near the protest as we had learnt these people were harrasing protesters. One of these approached and told me to take that camera out of his face, I replied that he had come over to me and that he was in my face. Owen, who was near me, was getting the same attitude from his a couple of his camera-shy mates. Makes you wonder what they have to hide. Although they never said it, they implied they were members of the gardai. This went on for a few minutes and I walked away and went over to the barriers to see a line of 20 or so uniformed gardai, 4 mounted and 2 battle busloads of riot storm troops (aka the public order unit).
There was a bit of light hearted banter with the uniformed guards. Before we wrapped it up, we were told that there would be a walking tour around the market at saint nicks near Shop street the next morning.
Arriving at shop street the next morning, we met more activists and as we exchanged greetings the walking tour (consisting of a small number of EU delegates and one plain clothes and uniformed Gardai acting as minders) passed by our impromptu protest. Owen and myself and Jose started to walk behind them. At this stage the plain clothes minder made a phone call on his mobile. We continued to walk down the street and in to the market where Owen tried to engage one of the walking tourists. The man smiled at Owen and said that he was only a tourist. As we got down to the end of the market Owen was alertting the people setting up thier stalls that the EU delegates were present at the market.
The uniformed guard took exeption to this and grabbed Owen and accussed him of harrasing people.He started to hold us up and when we got around the corner and the walking tour was an ample few steps in front of us, not looking at us he stuck his hand in Owen's pocket and pulled out a taperecorder and a set of earphones. I couldn't believe my eyes and I started to shout out to the garda that he had no right to do this and i took the tape recorder from his hands while Owen recovered the earphones. The guard replied "I can, I was looking for drugs" and started to back off. We set off to catch up with the walking tour when a number of men jumped out of a blue 04 Mondeo and started to push me back shouting "What did i think i was doing harrassing poeple" and at one stage they cornered me into a doorway.
There were two men focussing on me and the others on jose and looking back it seems they wanted Owen to proceed further on his own. I broke through them and the three of us started to regroup while they pushed back towards the market. They were shouting abuse at us the whole time "fuck off and get a job," "Your on the dole" and "a bit of law would sort you out". When the walking tour was truly out of sight, they jumped back into their car and left. Not too deterred we started out to find our EU friends; we walked up to Main street and were heading to Shop street when i saw two of the state thugs ( who had assaulted us only moments before) pointing us out to two more of Galway's finest. These were two men that we had not come in to contact with before. They seperated to walk on either side of Main street, coming down towards us while the their heavy handed mates jumped in to a nearby alleyway to hide themselves. At this stage I thought that we all would be lifted and as they walked past me and Jose, Owen stopped to take a picture.
The first man to approach Owen had a tache and was asking Owen why did he take his picture when his partner joined him blocking my view of what was going on, so I went to the other side of them. Owen asked the man to identify himself and the moustached one replied that hew was a member of the gardai. Owen asked to see a warrant card. The man pulled out a black wallet and put it up to Owen's face for a split second and returned it to his pocket. Owen protested that he didn't see it properly, the man said he did and proceeded to take it out more carefully and placed his thumb over most of the picture ID, and again stuck it towards Owen's face. Owen again protested that he couldn't see it. At this stage owen was irate at the treatment he was recieving from these men.
Owen was told to shut up and when he said he wouldn't shut up he was grabbed by the two men and they pulled him sharply towards the 04 blue ford that had just conveniently pulled up. As Owen tried to steady himself up and get on his feet two more men jumped out of the car. At this stage they were four paces to the rear of the car. Owen's arms were now restrained and he was bellowing in pain. To "shut him up", one of the aggressive buckos from before wrapped his hands around Owen's head and placed one hand's set of fingers in his mouth. I started to shout at this and the man stopped and took a couple of steps backwards. When he regained his composure, he returned and grabbed the crown of Owen's head and started to push towards the ground. Owen's arms were restrained by the other men putting on handcuffs, and i could see Owen was in great pain. He was the put in a car and one of the branchmen came over to me and pulled a placard out of my hands and threatened to arrest me. Ah it was only a placard and it wasn't mine so I gave it up. These little victories keep him going, I suppose.
As he put it in the car a uniformed guard grabbed me and pushed me away shouting that he would arrest me. Owen was then taken to Millstreet station.
Good interview mais ou est la picture!
that is when they decide to identify themselves
Many of them started life as young country lads being buggered around or otherwise abused by aggressive older men (in the guise of teachers, priests or other authority figures) .....
They learned the hard way to "be careful about what you say" and have difficulty in realising that not everybody else subscribes to this repressive way of life .........
This is serious violation of peoples right to public protest. have there being complaint made against thest people. The Chief Sup should be requested to id the gardai involve for official complaint to the Gsrda Complaints Auth. While the protester has a democratic right to protest, the gardai must walk a thin line of protecting others and their property they must also protect the right to protest, one of the pilliars of our democracy. I know and see gardai often plainclothes and junior ranks who believe they are democracy.