Garda Commissioner Noiriin O’Sullivan and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald; Dr Julien mercille
The O’Higgins report and the prosecution of water charges protesters illustrate the double standards in policing in Ireland.
Dr Julien Mercille writes:
Last week, the O’Higgins report was released. It marked the culmination of an investigation into garda practices emerging out of allegations made by whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe.
The report details instances of incompetence and failings by gardai in handling a number of cases under their remit. Of course, those who ultimately paid the price were the victims of the crimes and operations described in the report.
The report is important because it brings a modicum of accountability to the police. Yet, as a number of observers have noted, while the report pointed to a number of failings, in essence, the leadership of our police forces walk away absolved, unfortunately.
As the Sunday Business Post summarised it, the O’Higgins report “establishes what we already knew — several garda investigations in the Cavan/Monaghan division were mishandled”.
Yet, no findings of corruption were made. “The former garda commissioner Martin Callinan and former justice minister Alan Shatter walk away absolved. Senior gardai emerge broadly unscathed”.
Fintan O’Toole also noted that we are yet again paying the price for the lack of accountability in our country as the O’Higgins report concludes that disciplinary proceedings that might arise out of its findings “would not be helpful”.
Really? Why?
Reports of police corruption surface every now and then. On one hand, they are important because they highlight malpractice or incompetence within the police.
However, one thing should be underlined. It is that whatever “failings” and “corruption” one can find by individual guards, their superiors, or politicians overseeing them, there is a more fundamental issue. It is the fact that in many respects, the police forces are used by the State to control and repress dissent.
The behavior of those who challenge power is invariably closely scrutinised. But a blind eye is often turned to crimes committed by those in power, such as their involvement in war crimes by allowing US military aircraft to go through Shannon airport, or “failings” such as cutting funding to women’s shelters, rape crisis centres, and a range of vital support services on which we depend. There’s also little accountability for those who have completely mishandled the chaos in the health care system, which leads to deaths.
A few examples of the ongoing cases related to the prosecution of water charges protesters illustrate the double standards in policing.
Sean Doyle and Eamon McGrath are two elderly men who took part in a water protest in Kilcoole last Monday.
The two men, who are in their 70s, went to court, both on crutches, and were put in custody until they appear before Cloverhill District Court on 24 May.
We thus have a situation where two men with health issues are detained by the “Justice” bureaucracy for protesting austerity measures.
A few politicians have issued a statement condemning the imprisonment of the two men. They are Clare Daly TD, Cieran Perry (Deputy Lord Mayor), Mick Wallace TD, Eoin O’Broin TD, David Cullinane TD, Gino Kenny TD, Jonathan O’Brien TD, Thomas Pringle TD, Joan Collins TD, Richard Boyd Barrett TD and Catherine Connolly TD.
Their statement reads: “We condemn the criminalisation of protesters and the imprisonment of two elderly people who were the victims in this incident”.
Moreover, only a few days ago, a 16-year-old boy became the first Jobstown protester to be jailed, for 6 months. He was 15 at the time of the Jobstown protest.
There have been other arrests of water charges protesters, including the case of Joan Collins TD and a group of nine others. Joan Collins’ case was recently dismissed; the judge rejected the State’s charges and criticised gardaí’s handling of the protest.
But the charges against the remaining defendants continue.
This comes on top of the prosecution of Paul Murphy TD and 17 other protesters in relation to the events at Jobstown when Joan Burton remained stuck in her care for two hours in November 2014. Their trial is set for May 2017 and will then take place over four weeks.
This means that the whole process will have lasted at least two and a half years.
Think about all the money, energy and human resources spent on that. Yet, our politicians constantly call for “efficiency” and “belt tightening” while in fact the government is big waster of resources. Prosecuting water protestors is political and there is never any shortage of money to repress dissent.
In short, inquiring about garda corruption and failings is one important task, but we must also understand the role of police forces in protecting this country’s power structure.
Julien Mercille is a lecturer at University College Dublin. Follow him on Twitter: @JulienMercille
Rollingnews
Prosecuting water protestors is political and there is never any shortage of money to repress dissent.
Prosecuting people who break the law is not a political act as commonly understood. Ulitimately all law is political and all decision are also, but prosecuting a yahoo who abuses a politician or a Siteserv employee is no more political that prosecuting a yahoo who racially abuses a randomer on the street.
The notion that there is never a shortage of money to repress dissent is also plainly bogus. I recently had a bunch of local yahoos stop traffic without a permit while they marched around protesting about paying for water. This all took place within eight hundred metres and a line of sight of a Garda station. The Gardaí only ventured out about 15 minutes later when the crowd had passed on.
Dr Mercile would do well to interrogate some of his own assumptions.
“Moreover, only a few days ago, a 16-year-old boy became the first Jobstown protester to be jailed, for 6 months. He was 15 at the time of the Jobstown protest.”
Yep. He had just finished a jail term for another unrelated conviction, has previous convictions for theft, and his conviction on the Jobstown protest was due to kicking in the window of an unmarked policecar he had jumped on top of. The judge had previously indicated there would be no custodial sentence provided he cooperated with the probation service, but he had since decided not to cooperate with them and said he’d prefer a jail sentence. But yes, clearly this is just a politicized conviction. Even though he actually pled guilty.
Its the biggest miscarriage of justice since the Hurricane.
Great song in fairness
Brilliant comment.
Of course Mercille won’t engage.
Gardai are corrupt shocker.
Ahhh Julien will you ever not try to twist the facts to suit your own arguments?
Thank you Dr Mercille, your articles always bring out the thatcherite pondscum to the surface, as they defend the corrupt and condemn the weak and the poor.
+1
++1
Nothing like a bit of weak person condemnation and corruption defending. Invigorates me for the week ahead.
Clearly.
“It is the fact that in many respects, the police forces are used by the State to control and repress dissent.”
This man is not overly troubled by the constraints of academic rigour….
I can’t take this guy seriously.
“The O’Higgins report and the prosecution of water charges protesters illustrate the double standards in policing in Ireland”
The DPP authorised the prosecution of water charges .
*water charge protestors
I think Julien’s is confusing repression in somewhere like Egypt, the PA territories, etc with Ireland. No one disappears, no one get’s extra judicially killed, and tear gas bombs aren’t popping off like they’re going out of fashion.
Perhaps if he took a leaf out of his own book and like he wrote about the Irish papers inflating the property bubble could he stop inflating his own language. Repression is a bit of a loaded word and let’s not play the whose been oppressed the most game, because Irish Water protestors are effectively the posh boys of that one.
I haven’t really been following the Higgins report but I understood that the major screw was in relation to the man who assaulted the taxi driver and later killed another person (???) Everything else was either incompetence (of either a gross or a nod and wink level) or cute whore stuff. Where was there mention of corruption?
“I think Julien’s is confusing repression in somewhere like Egypt,”
Stupidity like this needs to be tackled by doctors. ‘You can’t complain because it’s worse in a 3rd world military dictatorship” is just dumb.
You can certainly complain. That’s how most social reform movements and in fact any interest group has worked. My problem is with the language.
Just like the whole situation with Gerry and his N word tweet his language matters and can inflame a situation. Certain words carry a stronger meaning. For a man who works as a lecturer on media issues, it’s cynical of him to use certain words. If you watch video’s of Republican SF parades or read face book comments, a lot of it is Free stater this or traitor that. They’re angry and when you see that you think what a bunch of knobs. It doesn’t help your situation. Then look at the Provisional SF. Martin McG is known as a teddy bear and Gerry has a book of his twits. They more acceptable, electable and listenable to.
“My problem is with the language.”
That’s a strange problem. The other day I saw some (clearly crazy) woman shout ‘black bastard’ at some guy that walked by her in town. Are you going to have a problem with him referring to that as racism and cite incidents of cross burning as examples of what “real” racism is?
Nope that’s racism and rather sadly a reflection of the state of our mental health service.
So what did you do about it?
If that’s racism then this is repression. I can only assume your double standard is explained by a vested interest.
Did you not read the second part of my comment or is your lack of privilege included to ignoring things which don’t fit to your story.
As regards my vested interest I’m a CIS white male whose turnt thirty and whose in relatively stable employment. I also vote for social democratic parties favour higher taxation for all and have experience long periods of unemployment and living on the dole.
What’s yours? You haven’t answered my last question either
Why are you giving me your life story? You don’t like the word repression being apparently repression being used in an Irish context because repression only exists in a military dictatorship yet you won’t any this same logic to other words, displaying a blatant double standard. I’m just stating facts.
Wow, your either a poor troll or you’re scrapping the barrel here.
So your actually saying that if a mentally ill person does something inappropriate or wrong then we should punish them or in this case call them racist. That’s messed up.
Secondly you said I have a vested interest. I told you what mine were. You on the other hand haven’t. We’re all privileged to some degree, it’s just recognising it would be helpful.
“So your actually saying that if a mentally ill person does something inappropriate or wrong then we should punish them or in this case call them racist. That’s messed up”
Holy Jayzus. We’ll leave it there.
Good avoidance there ;)
Don’t waste your time with this idiot Declan. He’s an absolute scourge – we all ignore him
Donkey, last week you asked me why I was humouring some troll. (Obviously jealous of rhe attention he was getting) If you’re going to troll, it’s a good idea to remember posts you left less than a week ago.
I didn’t see any answer so I concluded its because you’re a troll yourself.
It was a confusing comment to read alright…. >_<
I can’t multitask : (
I can’t tell my left from my right :(
#solidarity
We’re nothing more than a bunch of Blairites – filthy
I have the greatest sympathy for the gaurds during these sorts of protests. They have a duty to uphold the law but also a responsibility to build local relations. They can’t do both in these circumstances and I expect that their job is now a lot harder in some communities.
But the time, money and energy wasted over Joan The Moan’s ‘incarceration’ is very political. She was the leader of the Labour, a party born out of such direct action. She got held up. Big friggen deal. Contrast this reaction with Micheal D’s in similar circumstances. He welcomed such activism. Go figure.
Years ago when I was a student I was amongst a cohort who blocked Mary Harney in her car in UCD when she was minister for health. Eggs, water balloons, chants they all came out she was stuck there for ages. It never made the papers or was ever mentioned again. Fair game was a comment used to describe it at the time, not false imprisonment.
did the police ask you to let her leave?