This morning.
Blanchardstown, Dublin.
Earlier…
Yesterday.
Blanchardstown, Dublin.
The fourth day of protest outside Blanchardstown Garda Station over the killing of George Nkencho during stand-off at Manorfields Drive Dublin last week.
According to a report yesterday’s Sunday Times, officers claim that lethal force was their only option as they feared that the 27-year-old could stab a garda or take hostages if allowed into his family home.
Social media posts over the weekend falsely claimed Nkencho – who suffered from mental health issues – had a number of criminal convictions.
TD Brid Smith said:
“What saddens me is the number of decent people that believe the lies. George Nkencho, shot dead by Gardai last week, was a man with mental health issues, but NO CRIMINAL RECORD.”
Gardai ‘had to shoot’ George Nkencho under public safety protocols (Sunday Times)
Black Lives Matter in Ireland – but only if it’s somewhere else.
The shopkeepers of Blanchardstown have nothing to fear about their stores being looted and torched.
Or perhaps the people of Ireland can see the difference between the shooting of a man who, despite twice been tasered, was trying to stab a garda and the kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed man until he died.
One was a violent crook pumped full of drugs who ignored police orders.
The other was a man with no criminal convictions but mental health problems who ignored police orders.
Both may have died unecessarily.
Perhaps Prime Time will investigate this week.
Don’t hold your breath.
One was killed while handcuffed and not a threat to anyone.
The other was killed when non-lethal methods had failed and he was an active threat to people.
I’m not going to second guess the actions of the gardaí but there is a massive difference in the circumstances. The only people ignoring that difference are those looking to push an agenda.
Or charger who is just being a troll again.
“if he was white the papers would be full of reports on his criminal records and his victims”
George Nkencho had no criminal record.
re “spreading false information”
was the shop keeper’s face “cut open”? where did you get this information ? because it’s not true
did brid smith “side with the gangs”? she didn’t
was the deceased a menace to neighboura and society? he wasnt
are you a bit of a hypocrite ?
Brid Smith also agreed with a post that said that the Gardai were an armed gang and that George was executed.
She is a sad excuse of a public leader.
Smith and her like call for no knee jerk reactions, but knee jerks herself…
you’re doing a bit of knee jerking yourself there, hector
brid smith didnt do any such thing – perhaps verify before condemning
Is this her consistuency or was she just passing and jumped in…..
is this a local issue?
Brid is an old provo whom i happen to like,its you,
that’s interesting, ger
can you link to it, please ?
Must be bogger geography says here it’s not her area,why is she stirring up racial strife and inciting it,when she does not even represent this area,why all the media attention……
https://www.bridsmith.net/about-brid/
brid smith is “stirring up racial strife and inciting it”? interesting angle, johnny. can you elaborate?
“What saddens me is the number of decent people that believe the lies. George Nkencho, shot dead by Gardai last week, was a man with mental health issues, but NO CRIMINAL RECORD AND A LARGE KNIFE AND WAS A THREAT TO HIMSELF AND OTHERS”
same question again, johnny
in what way is brid smith “stirring up racism strife and inciting it?”
you’ve made a stupid and defamatory comment about a decent politician because you have a grudge against the political party she represents
grow the fupp up, you d1 k
The Trots are always looking for an angle..
It shouldn’t matter if they mental health issues or not, if someone is armed with a knife and has already shown they are prepared to cut someone up, the approach should be identical. What saddens me is the amount of people running riot outside Eurospar as if they are to blame, acting like untouchables and shouting racism. This needs nipped in the bud and all those acting illegally should be arrested and charged accordingly. And mainstream media (RTE) ignoring the problem isn’t helping, there should be all out condemnation of the behaviour. There should be no protected minorities when it comes to crime, we are all equal.
While there were a lot of emotional people getting very agitated outside the Eurospar it’s important to note that there were also a lot of people in the protest who were trying to stop them causing trouble and trying to keep them away from the shop. The same is true of those who walked through the shopping centre and, briefly, blocked traffic outside the centre. There was some violence but it was very much the actions of the minority.
If it was the actions of the minority then the majority would have been able to stop them, there are many videos showing what happened during the resulting hissy fit, in only one clip (rampaging through shopping centre) could I hear an appeal for calm where one guy keeps saying “don’t be kicking things”, after several guys behind him were kicking at the advertising panels etc.
The bystander principle will usually prevent the majority from taking action.
I have seen clips at the shop where protestors are pushing people away form the shop and trying to prevent others approaching the shop.
I have seen clips of the traffic being stopped where protestors are shouting at people to get off the road.
I saw a clip where someone kicked a bus and people stepped in and tried to move him away from the bus immediately while the crowd expressed their displeasure at his actions.
+1
+1 Scundered
The reaction to this has been so depressing and frustrating. On one side you had BLM bandwagon jumping accusing the Gardai of US police style brutality. I really don’t think there was a racist element to this tragedy, notwithstanding the Gardai may have been heavy handed (time will tell). On the other you had the victim’s name smeared and lies spread about him all over social media to further a far right racist agenda. Depressing.
What hope is there for rational analysis on events such as this anymore.
Hard to disagree with any of that Jim.
+1
All things considered I’ll take people holding civic institutions to account over people spreading racist/classist lies to justify a shooting any time.
I’ll take the garda being allowed do their job and then actual procedures being followed(like there always has been in the few incidents we have had ) to look into the garda use of fire arms. I what I don’t is to listen to his brother calling for the death of garda.
*what I don’t want is to listen….
“his brother calling for the death of garda.”
The gardaí have already addressed this in a statement.
What’s your point. I said I don’t want to hear it. The garda addressed it by handing him an excuse, I can guarantee you some tracksuit wearing lad from Crumlin or Oliver bond wouldn’t be allow say it for any reason.
My point is the issue has been dealt with. The gardai have said they “are aware that emotions are running high and that the family and friends of the man who died are of course very upset”. If they’re willing to chalk it up to high emotions then you should be able to do the same instead of inventing some fantasy equivalence with a hypothetical “tracksuit wearing lad from Crumlin or Oliver bond”.
It’s of course hypothetical but it’s true.
Prove it.
I don’t want to hear racists and little-hitlers celebrating a shooting and generating lies about the victim, but there you go, at least the brother has an excuse.
Good for you, we agree so.
“Time will tell” – bull plop there should be bodycam footage so we can all see what really happened. The public deserve better than coverups & inquiries – we need raw footage
enough is enough? is shooting black people a regular occurrence? tripe!
How many people need to be shot for it to be considered enough? I’d argue that one is too many. For my own part it was a surprise to see the Guards had shot anyone at all. This may not be a race issue, however the fact that somebody was shot dead by the Guards who was supposedly impervious to pepper spray and taser is strange and is deserving of scrutiny.
To use non lethal methods you need to get a lot closer to the subject, do you think Gardai should be putting their own lives at risk by getting that close to someone who has already cut someone up earlier in the day, and refuses to comply? Not enough emphasis here on making sure our Gardai are kept safe, as they try to stop criminals.
“someone who has already cut someone up earlier in the day” This didn’t happen. He beat someone but did not use the knife on them.
replace “someone who has already cut someone up earlier in the day” with “someone who has already assaulted someone earlier in the day”.
Saying this, I don’t think he should have been shot 5 times. I don’t know the facts around this case so haven’t enough information to judge anyone.
While I never listen to the immediate ramblings of the social media posses, its normally tripe, I did see a post from the other shop working. It basically described what happened and she said he was going to stab her colleague but luckily he managed to fight him off and ran. I can’t say that’s what happened but surely cctv will show it. I’ve stated enough times on her how useless the garda where when I needed them, they are inept at best, this was not racially motivated.
The gardaí have said they are aware of that statement and are also aware that it was coming from a place of hurt.
This is simply African people in Ireland parroting what they have seen on American TV news. There are absolutely no comparisons to the situation for example that led to George Floyd’s awful killing, and the killing of this George in Dublin. One was choked to death with knees on his neck surrounded by 4 officers while not resisting arrest, the other had been pursued for 2 hours and many attempts were made to disarm him safely, until he lunged at police with a large knife. That was after he violently assaulted people in a shopping centre. These protests are not based on the facts at all. They are ignoring the facts.
One of the protest signs says “enough is enough!” There was only one killing so far of an African by the Gards. It’s not like this has happened repeatedly like in the US.
The weaponisation of victimhood.
Yes I agree. People are learning some really bad reactions/ behaviors from the crazy (US) ideology. It’s wokeism and CRT pushing this rubbish : “if you are black your are a victim, if you are white you are a racist.”
Thankfully the woke asshats are loosing their court cases hand over fist these days. That Stephxine Hxyden fella lost the hate case he took in the UK and free speech won the day.
Free Speech DOES include the right to offend and now we have legal precedent to back it up :D !
“now we have legal precedent to back it up”
UK law does not apply to Ireland.
Does being African rather than African-American make a difference ?
Asking for the boys in da hood.
It’s like being Anglo Irish only with less fox hunting, but Republicans still hate you.
Meh, Republicans even hate themselves.
Has anyone checked whether African people in Ireland experience either everyday or institutional racism while living here? Is it possible that your response to the demonstration may be far more influenced by YOUR view of BLM in the US, while their actions may be influenced by their own lived experience? ‘Enough is enough’ need not refer solely to police shootings.
This is about The Gards response to a dangerous, violent situation where the assailant was armed with a large knife and may have been 2 seconds away from stabbing a Gard in the chest and killing him. This has nothing to do with racism. The racism angle was thrown on top afterwards regardless of any facts, because the guy with the knife was black. The African people (protesting) in Ireland have just watched how this plays out in the USA and decided this must be the same thing. They are not thinking clearly, or based on the evidence, they are following US cultural trends like BLM, when the situations are not comparable. Its a tragic, shocking death. It will take time to get the right answers. I’m sure many Africans living in Ireland have experienced some racism, but you are implying that our system is now as racist as the USA? Based on what?
That’s an astonishing insight into how African people in ireland think and live: they are are liars and oppoortunists. wasn;t not implying anything except that to guage how racist Ireland is you;d have to listen to people who experience raicsm, but you’ve already classed them as liars and opportunists, so your own instincts and insights in that area will have to be definitive.
I never said such a thing. You’re being ridiculous. Also, you know nothing about my family. I have black relatives in my extended family. I’m aware of the horrors they had to go through in the 80’s, very aware. That was when Ireland did not yet have any African communities, or many black people at all.
The only thing I implied was that the protestors here were reacting without knowing the facts, as well as imitating what they have seen on TV from the USA. They have been led to believe in an unrealistic, uninformed, backwards ideology which teaches the worst lesson to them and their kids. You are black, so you must be victims.
‘You are black, so you must be victims.’
You’re doing it again.
You are misunderstanding again. I was quoting the bad ideas from Critical Race Theory / Woke ideology that black people are being told is the correct way of thinking. When it is not. It is dangerously misguided, baseless in fact, racist nonsense that is damaging to young black kids and teens. Teaching any group of people that they are all victims is very damaging to their self esteem and ability to think positively and progress in life, long term.
Here is the point of view of Kemi Badenoch, a black politician from the UK:
start at 2:16
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqBTWPl-11U&ab_channel=NewsAddict
Why is everyone saying “African”? There are people who live here who are not Black from Africa and Black people who live here not from Africa. No clue as to how ignorant some of you actually sound.
Not to mention some Black people born here who protested and would identify as Irish and black…BS really has gone to poo
For me it was because so many I heard interviewed on camera had strong African accents. Of course black people is a better term, or African-Irish. I guess wasn’t sure to say the African community or what.
Fair enough Junkface. I don’t believe anyone using it meant it to be derogatory. Just reads terribly.
Good old Nigel. Makes everything a Social Justice issue.
Man swings blade a cops, refuses to put blade down repeatedly and gets shot. In Nigel land it’s purely a racist issue. The king of waffle.
+1 it’s incredibly cringeworthy to see him miss the meaning in everything, deliberately it seems, possibly it’s just trolling. Even when the article was posted I thought to myself there’s only one person here who will translate this like an off the scale radicalised lefty.
Racist – noun
a person who is prejudiced against or antagonistic towards people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.
*opens door*
*reads comments*
*closes door and walks swiftly away, humming anxiously*
+1
The tragic loss of the life of a mentally ill young man at the hands of Gardai left with very little choice in a violent situation being used by woke leftist clowns and idiot far right racists to progress their agendas of hate and division. This was a mental health issue not a race issue. The two tribes Left and Right seeking to make it a race issue are the problem. Whilst they engage in their little race war, the mental health of our nation’s youth continues to decline.
Thank you E’Matty. Recognising the wood from the trees.
it was indeed a mental health issue and this situation should not have resulted in this young man’s death.
there’s much about the gardai’s version of events that doesn’t necessarily wash with me; how can someone be tasered twice and still stand up? were any of the gardai trained to recognise or deal with someone in acute distress or psychosis?
it’ll be an interesting GSOC report for sure.
“how can someone be tasered twice and still stand up?”
Tasers fail.
“In more than 250 cases over three years, a Taser failed to subdue someone who was then shot and killed by police.”
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/27/729922975/despite-widespread-use-police-rate-tasers-as-less-effective-than-believed
twice in a row? ok, for argument’s sake let’s say the taser failed for some reason, and we are gone beyond talking the lad down. there were enough gardai there to disarm him, or again, are they not trained for this situation? there must be scores of contingencies that gardai must attempt before shooting him multiple times.
unless i’m being naive.
The gardaí don’t shoot people because it’s the easy option. How do you recommend safely disarming someone who is waving a knife around when you know both pepper spray and a taser have failed to subdue him? How many gardaí being stabbed or slashed in the attempt is acceptable?
Seriously? You want the Garda to approach a maniac² with a machete¹? And try to disarm him? Just because they outnumbered him doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have caused serious damage to them.
¹it may not have been a machete.
²a person exhibiting extremely wild or violent behaviour.
that’s a very un-cian comment, cian
even with disclaimers at the end – surely better not to make unsubstantiated comments at all?
and, as you know, I’m sure, the word “wild” is an historical pejorative used by white people to describe black people’s behaviour with deeply offensive insinuations
There are ways to do it Cian but it depends on so many factors that there’s no guarantee of the safety of all those involved which is probably why they gardaí resorted to firearms. In another thread on this someone mentioned prison guards disarming prisoners, which is fine in a situation where the prison officers have repeatedly trained the techniques involved in using a shield wall to pin a prisoner against the wall or floor of their cell. That’s not likely to be useful in an open area unless the gardaí have sufficient riot shields and trained personnel to try and hem him in.
W. E. Fairbairn, who wrote the hand to hand combat manual for British commandos for WWII, wrote “In close-quarters fighting there is no more deadly weapon than the knife. An entirely unarmed man has no certain defence against it”
Taking that as a starting point we can ask, are the gardaí entirely unarmed? Of course they are not. They have a selection of weapons to choose from:
– ASP – this requires coming within striking range of the attacker so it’s a high risk move, especially when the attacker is attempting to stab, as opposed to just brandishing the weapon
– Pepper Spray – already deployed and failed to subdue
– Taser – already deployed and failed to subdue
– Firearm
It’s very easy to second guess the actions of the gardaí but we lack 99% of the information about the situation and the lead up to the shooting. Obviously an outcome that left George alive would have been preferable and hopefully the GSOC enquiry will recommend other options for any future situation.
so are we saying that gardai are sent en masse to a situation where someone is endangering their own life and the lives of others without necessary protection? so they have stab vests and batons but no helmets, face guards, gloves or body armor?
i’m not pointing fingers, i’m simply wondering if gardai are properly trained and resourced for this sort of situation because you can be damn sure it won’t be the last time we see it.
We don’t know scottser. We don’t know what gardaí were present, what equipment or training they had, how far away other gardaí with other equipment were, how long the gardaí believed the situation could be allowed to play out, what the actual threat level to the gardaí or bystanders was. Not knowing all this makes second guessing the outcome pretty pointless.
Apologies.
I thought that someone on this page mentioned a machete.
I’ve checked and it was actually on twitter that I read that. :-(
I retract that statement, it was very careless of me to use it.
@Bodger – feel free to delete my earlier comment/edit it to remove that word .
And as a mental health issue, if he had a history of mental health issues, where are the HSE in all of this? Treatment? or the usual ‘lack of personnel / funding etc.?
The HSE has questions to answer if this man had ongoing mental health issues and if they hadn’t been on top of it.
Look at the date. He was shot on Wedneday December 30, between Christmas and New Year.
And you ask where the HSE were in all this……….
OK – where were they before this. And if they were in it before this, they are in it now.
If this incident was about mental health then the guards dealt horribly with the situation. End of. We have had many people with mental health issues in our country who commited a crime and did not die that same day by the hands of the police. Admittedly it is scary but it needs to be acknowledged as the human and social tragedy that it is. No other way to learn. And to learn together is best of all.
Did Brid move,WTF this got do with her,is she these losers justice spokesperson.
Had George not died , he would have been arrested for carrying an offensive weapon, ABH, breach of the peace. He would be out on bail with serious mental health issues. This is where our “system” collapses &I hope his parents focus on these aspects for the sake of their surviving children.
In the bad old days, people with psychosis were locked up ina mental home for ever. Now it seems they are shot down in the street like rabid dogs. Somebody in Gov. must have done a cost benefit analysis on the differing solutions.
suspected it would be an unpleasant one if BS went here… unfortunately so
defamation of brid smith was unexpected though
For context, in the USA there were just 990 people shot and killed by the police in 2018 and 999 in 2019;
Per head of population that would be the equivalent of 15 shot per year in Ireland
In Ireland there have been 6 fatal shootings in the line of duty since 1998.
You brought facts? This woke ideology is a fact free zone. It’s about feelings and ignorance.
you compare ireland with the states and call it context?
who are you and what have you done with the real cian?
https://youtu.be/yaWnNs9-Y1I
really brilliant spoken word from a mixed race dubliner on his life experience and sense of dislocation
worth a post in itself, imo – bodger ?
Brid knows this is just a dumb movie,which has so not dated well,right,its not real life,no one thinks this,no one.
‘The Irish are the blacks of Europe, Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland, and the North Siders are the blacks of Dublin … so say it loud — I’m black and I’m proud!’
is this nonsensical gibberish pre or post spliff, johnny?
Let me speak to the organ grinder,wtf is brid doing so far out her lane,where is Gino you know the chap elected to represent these people,MIA?
this is a national issue
brid smith is a national representative
simples
….yeah bro,its a international issue armed dangerous man with large knife,ignores repeated instructions to drop it,where is the peoples elected representative ?
Where is Gino….
I certainly prefer to live in a country where even a justified fatal police shooting is shocking on a national level. (Not saying this wasn’t justified. Don’t know yet.)
….total agree if only these people had a local TD to represent them and voice there concerns about policing,oh look here’s Brid again,from another constituency,does she follow RTE vans about…oh look Brid a camera and a mic….quick.
you’re on a roll with the silly pants comments today, johnny
pre-rolls on Monday bro.
irish are the blacks of europe my hoop
I wish more people rallied around him when he was alive
clearly the poor man was going through a terrible time and was very distressed on the day
RIP George and condolences to your family
Nicely put, V.
The thing about mental health is that not everyone wants to share the extent of their struggles. Even though there is a much better understanding of mental health and the taboo of speaking about it is not so great nowadays, there is still a natural (and very human) tendency to downplay the effects it can have on both the person suffering and on their family. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that we don’t know a lot of the personal details, of how these mental health issues affected this young man and his family, and what kind of supports were in place for him. I know that a lot of services have been cut back or curtailed in 2020 because of covid, and it was a difficult year for so many.
Either way, it’s a terrible tragedy and my heart goes out to his family. RIP.
If any one of us here did what he did the outcome would be the same.