The Road To Nowhere

Thirteen gangs control crime in Ireland. That's what the reports said. They were quoting Garda figures and the view of the authorities. And I'm sure that, within certain boundaries, they were right. But that's not to say I'm happy with the story. I'm not, and for many reasons.

A crime, according to the Concise Oxford dictionary (9th edition) is a serious offence, punishable by law , or an evil act . Crime, as in he is involved in crime , refers to illegal acts as a whole .
A gang is a band of persons acting or going about together, especially for criminal purposes . With both words, of course, there are other usages. I am just trying to tease out the meaning and implications of the official view.
So, in the view of the authorities, thirteen bands of persons largely control illegal activity in this country. Well, that's interesting. Because I think there's more. But the meaning that we can infer from the official view, the understanding of crime, tells us a great deal about the GardaL, the justice system in general and (regrettably) Irish society.
They are not talking about the Black Hole in the Economy gang. Or the Cayman Islands gang. They are not talking about sex offenders or drunk drivers. They are not talking fine wines. They're talking pints of plain. About working class crimes and working class people. They are deferring to respectable fears and middle class preconceptions, the kind of cosy prejudices that would allow a drunken thug a second chance because he is from a good home .
Don't get me wrong. I am resolutely opposed to violence, theft, drug pushing and football hooliganism. If the Belgian police were a little hard on the English fans, I wasn't going to complain too much. And I accept that 'good homes' are not synonymous with middle class homes. In addition, I firmly believe in second chances. But I think you know what I'm getting at.
Now, the GardaL make a great play of their preventive approach. In many domains, this means something positive that you try to get people to be conscious of their actions, to be responsible, to think. But for most parts of the Garda Smochana, that's not what they mean. No, for most it means that you go in hard and fast and loud.
I might even accept that if it weren't for the fact that they are so selective their targets are usually young and male, and principally working class.
What has me so annoyed? Well, I read that the GardaL were assuming 'total control over the management of peak-time traffic in Dublin in an effort to deal with rapidly increasing levels of congestion . And, according to Frank McDonald in the Irish Times, this came as news to Dublin Corporation, which is the city's road authority.
Well! Noses are out of joint! Not quite a coup d'etat, but certainly a provocative gesture. Does it signify impatience? Or a view that the softies in the Corpo aren't up to it and traffic in Dublin needs the hard men to keep order? Who knows?
I accept that the Garda Smochana is unlikely to demonstrate the same contempt for the senior political order they proved themselves to be staunch defenders of the democratic order in the past. But at the same time, their apparent unwillingness to act in partnership with the city officials is both astonishing and vaguely menacing.
Maybe it's as much about PR. In recent years, they seem to be infatuated with behaviourist psychologists and 'behaviour modification'. This means they try to prevent law breaking by conditioning people.
The emphasis is on optics, on style rather than substance. It's the same mentality that has Gardam checking speed on safe motorways in the middle of the day, rather than on twisty boreens late at night, where and when most young men die.
And, I suppose, I get really mad when I think that instead of PR demos on the streets of Dublin, the Gardam could have been active on those boreens down which the attackers of Paddy and Peter Logan came and went. You remember, don't you? The two old men in Castlejordan who were beaten by raiders demanding money, and who got away with #45. That and a man's life.
Or perhaps they might have been out on the streets of Dublin late one night when an English tourist family were attacked by racist thugs on Pearse Street.
I know you can't be everywhere, and you can't base a policy on second-guessing thugs. But there's work to be done. It demands real substance. It demands intellectual honesty, and it demands hard work, not PR optics. Above all, it demands respect for the citizens, not contempt.
Sad, really. Because in so many cases (take the Catherine Nevin trial, but there are so many others) the real cops, the hard-working people who stick to their last and don't claim to be experts on road engineering and behaviourist theories or PR, are doing fine, admirable jobs. But the zero tolerant PR-pushing bimbos are undermining the value of their contribution to a peaceful and democratic society.
The Hog