In Ireland the everyday experience of many young men in unskilled working-class estates, or of homeless people and addicts, is of being at risk of becoming targets for intimidation or violence by the police. In one Dublin police station, for example, mothers can collect their teenage sons when they sign a paper to say that they havent been assaulted in the station – which says it all. Other people, in leafy suburbs, often grow up feeling that the police are on their side, and are used to being able to call them to deal with noisy neighbours or after burglaries. This difference in treatment – being woken by a boot in the face if youre a junkie sleeping on the streets of Dublin, or having the guards as friendly school visitors if youre in a nice country town – is particularly visible when people protest, or gather in large numbers. If working-class youth have a bonfire (now illegal on Halloween), if travellers resist being moved on yet again, or if office workers like the staff in Thomas Cook travel agency occupy the offices when told theyre going to be sacked – the police will move in and people will be lucky if theyre only manhandled out of the way. Conversely, if theres a GAA match, if farmers occupy the Department of Agriculture or guards themselves go on strike, everyone knows that theyll be treated nicely. Thats just how it is, in our kind of society. In fact, where this line runs – between who gets thumped and who gets called “sir” or “madam” – is one way of defining different kinds of society. Mayday 2002 Whats really interesting, though, is what happens when things dont go according to business as usual. For example, in 2002 a group of young people organised a protest about the way Dublin city centre is given over to cars at the expense of bikes and people. A group of police were sent out (illegally) without their uniform numbers on. Removing numbers is the usual indication that police expect to get violent - as they did, leaving a trail of teenage blood along Dame Street (or, if you prefer, heroically keeping the streets safe from crime). So far, business as usual – except that the next day even the tabloids were full of headlines about cop riots, and there was a major outcry about it. Why? One simple answer is that trainee gardaí were dozing off in their sociology classes at Templemore, and couldnt tell the difference between nice kids from good families who happened to be wearing funny clothes and going a bit wild (which is usually allowed if your parents are rich enough) and working-class lads who can and do die in Garda stations without anyone being held to account for it. Another possible answer is that Garda management were spending too much time in Europol seminars being shown photos of protestors in Seattle and Genoa and being told “these are your new subversives”, and forgetting that ordinary Irish people might find it just that little bit harder to feel seriously threatened by a street party. One way or another, the cops overstepped the line (it didnt help that they also attacked an Irish Independent reporter, and business executives waiting at the taxi rank). They were also caught doing it, though – on a video which was sent to RTÉ in time to make the 6 oclock news, and was produced clearly enough that RTÉ could use it. So in this case, the guards got it wrong, and the Indymedia cameraman who did the video was able to catch them out. Read the full article from Make Policing History at the link below
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 15:14:39 +0000
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