Highlighting Police Corruption
dublin |
crime and justice |
opinion/analysis 
Monday October 24, 2005 01:15
by MMcD
With the pressure on the Minister for Injustice McDowell and the Government to tackle the Garda corruption being constantly exposed, an opportunity exists for all those affected by police harassment to push for a genuine independent complaints body. Both political activists and ordinary people, working to expose Garda brutality can have an effect.
Highlighting Police Corruption
We can see from the news that the Minister for Justice (?) McDowell has finally set up what he calls an “Independent Garda Ombudsman Commission”, that both he and the Government are under pressure to address the growing number of examples of Garda corruption being exposed lately. The McBrearty’s, the Frank Shortt’s case, the Rossiter case etc…. are all piling on the pressure for a genuine independent complaints body similar to Nuala O’Lone’s office in the 6 Counties. McDowell and the Government are hoping that this new commission will provide a smokescreen to hide the fact that nothing is really being done to tackle Garda corruption.
The first disappointment about the new body was that, contrary to it’s independent title, it was actually handpicked by the Government. The three appointees, Justice Kevin Haugh, Carmel Foley and Conor Brady, all have close ties to the legal establishment. Foley and Brady have family members who were Guards while Haugh is a senior judge. The Commission doesn’t have retrospective powers of investigation and there are other limitations in comparison to O’Lone’s powers. This opportunity to serious tackle the culture of corruption within the Gardai appears to have been lost.
Frank McBrearty is currently trying to set up an anti corruption campaign to highlight the injustices people have suffered at the hands of the Garda or the legal profession. He has organised a public meeting in the Mansion House in November which should get some media attention on this subject. Unfortunately Frank and the people surrounding him probably don’t have the ability to create something permanent but the opportunity afforded by the publicity surrounding the Mansion House meeting should be used by people trying to focus attention on Garda abuse of their powers.
The family of twenty year old Terence Wheelock are campaigning for an independent public inquiry into the death of Terence after a beating in Garda custody. The family have organised a vigil outside Store Street Garda station on Saturday 29th October. Terence was left in a coma after being arrested and held in custody in Store Street. He died 3 months later. There are a huge amount of unanswered questions about the time he spent in custody. It’s worth reading the report in the Village magazine –
http://www.villagemagazine.ie/article.asp?sid=1&sud=41&aid=459
The above two events give people genuinely interested in making the Garda accountable an opportunity to get involved in doing something positive about Garda corruption. It is a good opportunity for those who where involved in the Reclaim the Streets demo which was attacked by the Gardai on May Day 2002 to link in with a community campaign highlighting police brutality. Last Tuesday police attacked people protesting against the mass deportation of immigrants. Saturday’s vigil provides a focus for all victims of police harassment. If all those affected by police abuse unite, political people and ordinary people, the pressure already on McDowell and the Government, can be intensified.
Support the Wheelock family, meet at Our Lady of Lourdes church in Sean Mc Dermott Street at 2pm. March to Store Street Garda station.
Comments (13 of 13)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13When Ahern told his Ard Fheis that the last 8 years had changed the past utterly, I wonder what he was thinking about? The price of a cup of tea or a mercedes? Corruption or lost pittances?
Or maybe it was the IRA decommissioning.
Anyway, Ireland is as our blogging partners up north have noted actually technically more corrupt by perception this year. The "perception of corruption" index rates all states according to "how easy it is to be a rogue, rascal, loveable, and of course buy justice, buy the press, buy silence, and get away with it".
http://www.sluggerotoole.com/archives/2005/10/more_corrupt_th.php#readcomment
The cases you mention are just the better-known recent cases. What is needed is a genuinely independent and open-ended inquiry. This must be prepared to look back at old cases which have been conveniently forgotten. The recent cases are just the tip of the iceberg.
Is the support group for those arrested on the Reclaim the Streets demo still going?
Are any of them involved in the McBrearty campaign?
LE PUY EN VELAY
CAPITALE DE LA CORRUPTION
VIOLATION DES DROITS DE L'HOMME DE LA DECLARATION DU GENERAL DE LAFAYETTE_
CORRUPTION POLITIQUE AVEC CRIMES ORGANISES / TENTATIVES CRIMINELLES D'ERADICTION NAZIE DE L'ESPECE HUMAINE / AVEC PSYCHIATRIE NAZIE AVEC TRAITEMENTS CRUELS INHUMAINS ET DEGRADANTS SUR L'ESPECE HUMAINE ATTEINTE INHUMAINE A LA FAMILLE HUMAINE EUROPEENNE ATTEINTE INHUMAINE A LA DECLARATION DES DROITS DE L'HOMME http://www.un.org/french/aboutun/dudh.htm
CORRUPTION POLITIQUE AVEC CRIMES ORGANISES / TENTATIVES CRIMINELLES D'ERADICTION NAZIE
UN ANCIEN ELU MEDECIN QUI A ESSAYE DE JETER PAR LA FENETRE
DU CONSEIL GENERAL DE LA HAUTE LOIRE UN JEUNE HOMME HEUREUSEMENT QUE LA DST L'A SAUVE
TRAFFIC D'ARGENTS VALISES NOIRES PLEINES D'ARGENTS SALES
AU SEIN DU CONSEIL GENERAL DE LA HAUTE LOIRE
PRESIDENT DU TRIBUNAL DE GRANDE INSTANCE NAZI MR Z-LI QUI POURSUIT MECHAMMENT
DANS LE BUT DE LE PLANTER POUR LUI FAIRE DU MAL UN INDIVIDU DANS LE PARKING SOUTERRAIN DU BREUIL
TOURNAGES DE VIDEOS PORNOS EN FACE DU TRIBUNAL DE GRANDE INSTANCE JUSTE A COTE DE L'EVEIL
AU SEIN DU VILLAGE DU THIOLENT
PRESENCE D'ACTEURS PORNO US DANS UNE DISCOTHEQUE ... A LIDL ...
REPERAGE DE PERSONNES, ENLEVEMENT D'ENFANTS
POUR LES RESEAUX PEDOPHILES NOTABLES DE LA HAUTE LOIRE
DROGUES QUI CIRCULENT DANS LES ETABLISSEMENTS NAZIS DE DESTRUCTION DE L'HUMAIN
VIOLENCES ET INTIMIDATIONS POLICIERES INTERNEMENTS NAZIS ABUSIFS DE PERSONNES NORMALES
DST OLAF ET INTERPOL AU COURANT
TRIBUNAL DE PARIS DEBOUTE TRIBUNAL DU PUY EN VELAY CONTRE DES INTERNEMENTS ABUSIFS NAZIS
PEDOPHILIES ET PORNOGRAPHIES SECTAIRES / LA PETITE ETOILE / MIVILUDES VOIR SITE USPORNO
DONT NG- PRESENTATRICE FRANCE 3 AUVERGNE PORTE AUSSI DANGER SEKTE NAZIE
VIOLATION DES DROITS DE L'HOMME AU PUY EN VELAY CAPITALE DE LA CORRUPTION
LA COUR EUROPEENNE DES DROITS DE L'HOMME
SANCTIONNE
http://corruption.ifrance.com/corruption-dysfonctionnem...aires....
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We were failed by clonmel gardai when trying to locate the whereabouts of my sister who had left hospital in her nightdress in june 07. We were to learn afterwards that the garda knew where she was but because they failed to assist us she was found dead less than two days later. What followed then was a cover up to avoid there own failings being exposed. They treated us, Catherines family in a heartless, inhumane manner. We were bullied threatened and at times they said terrible things about catherine in their quest to keep us quiet. I made a complaint to the garda ombudsman and an unsupervised investigation followed. the investigation was supposed to take 12 weeks but took 8 months because there was a delay in getting a report from one of the gardai in clonmel . No one was disiplined because the investigation failed to identify the garda that took the call on the night. None of the garda on duty that night can remember taking it. The call was made to them through our local garda who do remember contacting them but dont know who they were talking to . We have just discovered this week NOV 09 that the superintentent oringinaly over the case into her death was transferred to another county, and the commissioner choose a officer from this same station to investigate the gardai. What a sly decision on his behalf. We are an honest decent hard working family and i will not stand to be treated in this way by these scum. I am now campaigning against garda corruption and my full story is on facebook.
I am interested in assissting anybody with some help if needed. If I can be of any assistance please contact me at wayneflanagantobin@live.ie or 085-765 9347. Wayne. Thanks
The Sunday Tribune recently reported that in the year 2002 one million euro will be paid by the state in out-of-court settlements to dozens of people who are suing the Gardai for false arrest or imprisonment, assault and malicious prosecution. Six million euro has been paid out in compensation over the past five years for breach of citizens' rights by Gardai. Cases settled out of court are not reported and plaintiffs sign confidentiality agreements, so such matters conveniently do not reach the papers. In addition to the 6 million euro paid out to citizens abused by Gardai, the taxpayer also the pays the costs of compensation for Gardai injured while on duty. Currently 1,500 Gardai (14% of the force) are suing the State for such compensation and the final cost is expected to top 80 million euro, which works out as an average payout of 40,000 euro per individual guard.
The latest available report of the Garda Complaints Board (GCB), for 1999, states that 1,400 complaints were received. Almost half of these - 643 - were deemed inadmissible, with another 181 being ruled 'vexatious'. 270 cases were withdrawn and 24 resolved informally. Of the 298 cases the Board actually adjudicated on, 100 were dealt with within the Gardai. That left 196 complaints going to the DPP to decide if the cases should go to court. Out of this just 9 cases came to court and in NONE of them was a Garda convicted. Put another way, over 10% of the force were the subject of complaints by private citizens and in NOT ONE of these instances was a Garda found to have exceeded his/her authority. So that’s the Garda Complaints Board, a complete waste of time.
Quite often we the people lean toward the belief that police are solely there for the protection of the citizen and the citizens property . That effectively the police are selected by a process of meritocratic appointment , where those most able are appointed by those most sound in judgement and in character . however on examination without distinction we the bodies of appointed enquiry and the citizen public find houses of corruption built on and by the most corrupt individuals and principals of a dog eat dog past . A past where allignment to a swiftly changing political landscape would leave the slow soles of the university proffesor-ships realing and at a lose to see the age peopled by the most maltrivant conivances of all the alligorical cautionary parabels ever designed to keep humanity on the straight and narrow .
Corruption will be slow to expose . Corruption is the compiled effect of all that went before it and quite often that leaves sons and daughters corrupted by the need to cover up their fathers deeds in office .
"Put another way, over 10% of the force were the subject of complaints by private citizens and in NOT ONE of these instances was a Garda found to have exceeded his/her authority"
How do you reach that result? You think all complaints should be going to court? That a judge and jury should be deciding if a Garda was rude? What the states show is 10% were subject to a complaint out of which less than half were for criminal matters of which not a single Garda was found guilty of a criminal act.
Innocent until proven guilty, remember? I could walk into a station and accuse my neighbour or some terrible crimes, doesnt make them guilty so stop assuming guilt when its a Garda
What about corruption in the legal profession?
i never heard of corruption within the Legal Fraternity
never even heard of corruption in the gardai either
not to my knowledge , and i always know whats going on around the area.
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