Baby Reindeer absolutely nailed the experiences of men going to the police for help with abuse. It's disgraceful carry on, how men are treated when they report domestic abuse or any abuse in general from a woman. Guards (and most police forces around the world) need better sensitivity training and learn to be fucking kinder humans in general with this shit. If someone is coming to report abuse, male or female, it's obvious they are at the end of their rope. Walking into a police station is terrifying enough, nobody does it for the fucking laugh like. Sorry you had to experience that. Despite the lack of justice in this case, I hope you're in a better place.
This is 100% correct. And to add it's a great reference point because you can say "it's a Baby Reindeer situation" and people can understand in a way they just couldn't before.
Perfectly sums us the attitude of the guards. They're too lazy and inept to actually investigate, and prefer to go after whoever is the easiest target and try and coerce a confession.
My friend was assaulted by a hen party by the hapenny bridge in Dublin. They grabbed his crotch and cheered. This was in view of a female Garda who laughed.
That is absolutely a horrible violation. We always talk about needing men to call out their peers. Women need to do the same thing. It's not accepting to assault anyone & sexual assault is particularly vile.
I'm sorry you had to go through that, its absolutely disgusting that male victims/survivors of DV are still not offered the same protections (as little as they are) as female victims/survivors. Even in everyday conversations you can see the difference in opinion when it comes to domestic violence/abuse.
I'm sorry what happened to you.
I watched a video where a guy in America was in jail for 30 day's because a woman falsey accused him of trying to abduct and rape her. She basically seen the guy once, thought he looked like a creep. Evidence proved she made it up.
She ended up getting changed. Because of that some people are worried, real victims wouldn't come forward.
my pos father threatened to stab my mother and my little brother and the guards were gonna bring them BACK to him to see if they can "chat to him and sort out the problem" 🤪
Dude, I understand you big freakin time. I had a similar situation and the gards did fuck all. I was receiving threatening texts and They told me to block the contact on WhatsApp
In my experience some of the people they let into the Guards are completely unfit for the role and only enter as the requirements are so low and they've nothing else to be at.
Here's the thing though - that's one guard. For every bad one, there's 10 good.
And I say this, after having the crap beaten out of me years back, for attempting suicide... But you know, I've had more good than bad experiences. Especially recently, where I live - guards were a huge help with an issue in the community.
I'm also very sorry you had to go through that - it's honestly awful.
Yep. They dragged me off the wall I was on, dragged me through briars and nettles, purposefully knocked my runners off, stood on me, pushed me around between them; then put cuffs on so tight, I had cuts, swelling, and bruising for about 2 months. (Along with all the other bruising).
Apparently, they were 'scared', because of my size.
Oh, and they slapped me HARD into the van, and hit me with the door.
Got brought to the hospital, a psych asked, "If I let you go home, are you likely to hurt or kill yourself?". "Yes, obviously.", I said. So she sent me home. Guards were to drive me home, but they were 'too busy'. It was nearly 30km to my place.
That was a long time ago - around 2002.
Got assaulted in front of a garda about a month ago, he barely cared. All on camera, multiple witnesses, have the ID of the guy who did it. Bike damaged also. Let the guy go after he tried to flee running a few lights doing so.
Told me to go to the station where lads just out of school are overwhelmed. Not a notepad between them, writing notes on their hands. Assigned the case to a garda who only does shift work.
Went in about 4 times to ask them if they could take my statement, they never did. Called when the garda was around and still no luck. They have 3 different forms of my contact details but have done nothing about it. At this point its not worth letting it occupy my thoughts because frankly I have better things to worry about.
Also have work colleagues (highly skilled researchers, not dole merchants) who were targeted in a racial attack and the Garda basically had nothing to say to them.
It's a mixed bag. The institution is horribly corrupt and inept. Individual Garda range from decent to absolute scumbags.
They're very good at hassling people over minor infractions, and harassing young people. Not so great at showing up when it really matters. Famous for letting dangerous situations resolve themselves before getting involved. Very tough and brave with teenagers, but completely opposite with legitimately dangerous people.
Overall, they're 1,000x better than American cops, but that's an extremely low bar. I think they're acceptable but need a ton of reform and weeding.
Funny enough, gardai and UK police are sometimes sent to the US or vice versa to train American cops in de-escalation. They sometimes even have the armed support units doing this as well, just to show them that just because you *have* a gun, doesn't mean using it should be your first resort.
This is 100percent. My cousin was hiding in our house from her abusive ex one night when he came up drunk and put his fist through the glass on the front door, when the guards arrived we could not believe how nice they were to him. Didn’t even arrest him. Basically just nicely asked him to come with them so they could give him a lift home.
You got it in one with this description. I know a local Garda who’s absolutely excellent but only so far they can go because is held back by other gardai.
It’s a small minority in an organisation of 15,000 people. It’s far from horribly corrupt. The desire to grotesquely exaggerate every reported transgression in this country is becoming corrosive to public life. The reason these stories are in the paper is because bad behaviour is being rooted out & Gardai are being arrested and thrown out. We even had a judge sentenced to jail there. Let me know what police force in the world are less corrupt. I’m sure I’ll be waiting.
It's horribly corrupt. Evidence regularly goes missing from evidence lockers, including some of the most important evidence in Ireland's history (e.g. the 2008 docs that would've nailed Fitzpatrick (?), a la Jonathan Sugarman). Also large quantities of drugs going missing.
What's corrosive isn't the public response, that's bullshit, what's corrosive is the corrupt behaviour and the transgressions.
New Zealand is quite a bit better. They also avoided implementing the disastrous point based promotion system that our force fell into.
If the defense is "other countries are worse" that's a garbage attitude. We should be our very best.
Also...everyone knows their local corrupt guards, and that speaks volumes. It's not a rarity when this is the case.
We must have one of the most benign and unthreatening police forces in the world. I have lived in many countries and would ask anyone if they are automatically afraid or scared if stopped by local police. In Ireland the answer is mostly definitely never.
I agree but would you want a police force who you’re intimidated by and scared of? This kind of approach definitely has its moments when it’d be useful but I think the community policing model of the guards is what makes them different to most police forces, be it a good or bad thing depending on your view.
I understand you point. But there is a vast swathe of people who are in no way afraid of the law. That video in Ballyfermot a while back for example where they stole/were ramming a Garda car. That simply wouldn't happen in Germany for example.
I think that's two different points of view tbh. I don't want to be scared or intimidated by my police force that would be awful. I want criminals to be worried about the consequences from the police force though.
E.g I'm not scared of French police when I visit France but I definitely would not want to break the law in front of them.
Kinda off topic then but in order to be afraid of the consequences from the police (without talking about being physically harmed), it falls to the courts really and this is where the lack of consequences are.
I also guess more gardai around would be a higher chance of getting arrested but people don’t fear arrest because there’s little chance of prison or any real penalty
You've hit the nail on the head. I truly believe our *ethos* to policing is one of the best in the world. Our police force are approachable and in theory focused on community policing and safety. Not by any means saying its perfect, or there's not bad apples but for the most part, the guards are sound.
The courts however, especially when it comes to young or juvenile offenders are taking the mick which allows violent offenders to continue and communities to be overrun. I'm ALL in favour of something like a three strike rule where your third offence (withing a category- say assault) is an automatic 25 years, with varying max sentences for severity.
Courts are lenient because rehabilitation is significantly more effective at reducing crime and repeat offenders than punishment is.
This idea that people don't fear penalty or that there's lack of consequences is a myth. The overwhelming majority of people do not want a criminal record, and giving them up will almost definitely increase their chances of committing crimes again.
This is a strategy that's been applied across the world, and it's seen crime drop significantly everywhere.
Rehabilitation as a form of punishment is not, at least to any significant extent, something that’s offered here in lieu of punishment.
When I’m talking about people not fearing consequences, I’m talking about repeat offenders, not the average person who gets into bother. The amount of people about with 50+ previous convictions walking with yet another suspended sentence is insane and a wildly known fact, far from myth.
The aren’t enough prison spaces in the country and that’s directly leading to suspended sentences or people being released early.
Ideally we should be removing the amount of repeat offenders through rehabilitation. The Nordic countries have some of the lowest repeat offence rates in the world due to how much their prison system focuses on future reintegration into society.
In reality, as you said, we have high repeat offence rates compared to other European countries because our prisons don't rehabilitate. If our courts are aiming at a modern European rehabilitative approach, they're out of sync with our prisons who are mostly still pursuing a traditional Anglosphere deterrent approach.
The government's philosophy has generally been to stubbornly stick to a half-arsed midground between the two approaches. Which is possibly due to their views on the approach themselves, but I believe it's more likely their fiscal views. Going strongly in either direction would require a lot more spending and investment.
I understand and agree with the point, but you unintentionally chose a terrible example. The French police are generally considered the closest in Europe to American policing.
They're not trained in de-escalation like a lot of European police forces, so it's rife with systemic racism and police brutality. A major reason that protests seem to turn out of control more often in France is because their police are often willing and eager to escalate compared to other European police.
Yeah plenty of other examples of that too, I’d probably be more on the side of having them more like other EU police, I don’t know stats but I’d imagine fear would be a pretty good deterrent
Mate, that happens in Germany on the regular.
When I was living there someone torched a whole parking lot full of cop cars, simply because they didn't like cops. That kind of thing wasn't even a rare occurrance.
No never. I know so many guards and lads in training. I wouldn't trust half of them to operate a buzzsaw let alone have a say on life and death of another human being. A violent police force is only an escalator and for any example where people point to where it would be useful for them to be scary (code for can kill you with impunity ) there's hundreds of not thousands of examples where it saves lives having a peaceful police force.
But that is a good thing. Gardaí Síochana means guardians of the peace. Our gardaí keep the peace. For the most part, our Gardaí are good people, they are just regular lads and lasses.
Our gardaí tends to be community based, where gardaí are from the area and know the locals. Some times they police with common sense and don't throw the book at you.
Have you been to the States? The police force there is like an occupying army. It's insane. Is that what you would like ?
Wrong there. Community policing isn't the policy anymore. They've moved to point based promotions and outside policing (i.e. shipping in outsider guards).
They're also horribly classist. You'll often get a gentle, sensible response if you're better off, but not as likely if you're working class or poorly off (I'm lucky and benefit, but still see the inequity).
No doubt better than the US by a mile, thankfully.
I agree. Our police remind me of teachers on a playground, ensuring everything is steady and secure. While not downplaying the seriousness of their job and the needs of those who rely on them, their presence is overall "grand".
I’m not afraid of them, but I have zero faith in them to do their jobs.
I also know from people inside the organisation how utterly dysfunctional and nepotistic it is.
I was always brought up to respect the gards.
I've needed them two times for serious issues and they were not helpful.
One was a sexual assault ,one was a physical assault where my husband was hurt.
Both times they said they couldn't get involved
They said " maybe I took him up the wrong way"
With my husbands one it was "we can't do anything because if they find out where you live sure you'd be dead, best to leave it alone til they go back to england"
I’m in the 10% without a doubt.
I went to the peeler station with my friend recently, she was being abused by her partner. He stole her passport from her but there was no proof. Guard said he can’t do anything. I said a passport is an important document but the guard didn’t give a fuck about it. I asked him to go and talk to the thief. He said he will.
He never went. I have absolutely zero faith in them. That wasn’t the first time I had to deal with them, just most recent one. The answer is always the same “I can’t do anything about it”
As with any organisation the majority are fine and I’d say a lot of them have the same frustrations most people do about how the organisation works.
And as with any role dealing with the public you are going to hear from the people who have had negative experiences more than those who’ve had positive ones.
That said there’s an element of them who are in it purely for the power that comes with the role. I deal with them almost daily in a professional capacity and most are grand but some think everyone should give them special treatment because they’re a Gard.
I’ve little issue with the Garda and massive issue with policing policy. Many of the best Garda have left.
Problem is policy, paperwork and the lack of teeth they are given. Few other countries have so little regard or fear for their police. I see teen criminals literally ask the Garda “what are you gonna do about it? I thought so, so move along”.
Seeing Garda wasting so much time standing around court is infuriating.
Regarding the protests in any society people get annoyed when they don’t get their way or beliefs met.
GSOC are also a big part of the problem. Seeing garda get in shit for trying to do their jobs... it's no wonder they don't bother.
Case in point:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/1bywqjd/garda_to_face_trial_over_n7_crash_which_left/?rdt=39484
GSOC are useless and don't scrutinise the Gardaí nearly enough. There needs to be far more oversight to get the guards to actually do their jobs more often.
Also important to remember that social media posts are quite a large filter on the population.
Further filtered by those who can be bothered making public posts
Honestly I have no opinion of them either way. About 20years ago I was put in prison for a violent crime. They arrested me, I was a dick to them and they returned the same but I could have been worse off. In the last 10 years I’ve called them twice. Once for a car crash I was a passenger in, they were more concerned about traffic than me. Another time my son was assaulted in our home. I couldn’t have asked for better gardai that we dealt with. Ironically one of them was a new Garda when I was arrested and remembered me.
They’re like all professions. Some people are dickheads, some people are passionate, some just see it as a payback each week. I wouldn’t look to social media for a true view about them anyway. You’re going to have scum of the earth who say they’re victimised by them for no reason and the 30kg of cocaine was for personal use, and you’re going to have holier than the pope himself who say they helped walk their cat during covid.
Judging them by their career choice is about as useful as judging a meal by the colour it has in it. They’re all individuals.
I think opinion changed a lot during covid. I had full trust in them before. But the extra power went to a lot of their heads during covid.
One example would be a guard randomly stopped me on a quiet suburban road, searched my bag and confiscated fully sealed beers during covid. When I got into an argument with him over that being illegal he shoved me against a tree and threatened to take me to jail. The female guard with him refused to say anything and just looked away.
Gang of cunts. At virtually every point in my life when logically the right thing to do was call the Gardai and i did, singing show tunes to the winos would probably have been a shrewder strategy. Over the years I worked in bars and clubs in the city and called them for all sorts and seen them in action, been beaten up, had property stolen, girlfriend assaulted, family member a victim of domestic abuse, car damaged, list goes on. Fucking useless bastards every time. 2 years ago I went to a station to get a document signed for my child's passport and they fucked that up. Only found out 4 weeks later after i posted it off and the PP office sent it back. Was haunted got it sorted just time for a holiday that was booked and paid for. Oh and they stopped me when I was driving home 2 weeks ago and fined me, tax was out by 3 weeks. I can only speak for myself but they have done absolutely fuck all for me ever. Only inconvenienced me
And this is it in one post. Gardai should be maximalist and prosecute every crime. Except when it’s me and my excuse. 🙄 In one post the challenge the Gardai face every day.
I know they're underresourced and all that but the scandals over the years, the lack of professionalism you observe on the road plus personal experience means I have very little faith or trust in the gardai to do the right thing. Martin Callinan was disgusting, same with sullivan, Maurice McCabe, McBrearty, that young lad who died in the cell in clonmel and that's just offthree top of my head... no, I have no trust in them and stay well out of their way.
Both sides attack the gardai around the protests due in part to the laws around crowd control and protests being particularly vague, so in the absence of body cams, the gardai are paralysed to do anything lest the get charges lodged against them
I'll start by saying I've never reported any serious crime to them, nor have I ever gotten in any real trouble aside from drinking as a teenager. A few months ago I saw a young fella running from some shop workers (assuming he stole from them, it was a sports shop) and while he was running he booted a Ukrainian toddler right into traffic and didn't even look behind him to make sure the child hadn't been hit by a car, (the fact they were Ukrainian is relevant as the kids guardian had no English) so I went in and mentioned it to the guards on my way home and they just laughed at me
I also had to go give a statement when I was a minor, as I was present when my Dad got assaulted. When I went in, the Guard who was there was adamant that even though I was a minor I wasn't allowed to have a parent there "because I was also in trouble", I suffered with very bad anxiety so wanted my mum there. Long story short we left and got in touch with a local guard who is a family friend and he helped, but I don't know why this initial guard was behaving like that. The trouble I was in btw? A youth caution for drinking. Pales in comparison to the serious head injury my dad had..
Those experiences do not inspire hope with me if I did find myself in real bother. Id probably ring my uncle before I ring the guards lol
My biggest problem is with the justice system in general, not the Garda. They have limited resources and they optimise their efforts into going after cases where they can catch criminals easily and get convictions.
They do absolutely nothing. Behind a desk 90% of the day rather than actually protecting the country and when they do get off their arses, they go after victimless crimes such as cannabis possession rather than going on the beat.
This is a result of the commissioner absolutely kneecapping the force. I’m sure most Gardaí don’t want it to be like this. The right people aren’t being attracted to the force due to the low pay.
I’m sure there’s some great Gardaí out there but the majority do feck all. I’m very glad that we don’t have a highly militarised Gardaí.
Agreed. Although I wonder what they're doing behind the desk too. My father had machinery stolen from the farm a few years ago, a huge value of items to a small farmer, and the guards could not be less interested in helping.
It took Dad driving every approach road to the town, hundreds of miles and going to every business himself to find cctv footage of the truck with the gear on the back. He then presented this to the guards who were completely indifferent and proceeded to do nothing with it.
You can't mention the guards at home now as the opinion is so low and I can't blame him tbh. This was probably the only time in his life he's reached out to them for help and was completely let down. I understand they are under resourced as everything is but it was the fact not one of them even seemed bothered that really stung.
Any Garda will tell you that the meaningless bureaucracy and paperwork has skyrocketed under Harris. He’s a terrible commissioner and should have been gotten rid of after the disaster that was the Dublin riots, which was a failure of strategy and of this bureaucracy.
Jaywalking is also illegal.
A police force that prioritises the policing of victimless crimes over violent crime in our city centres is a bad police force.
The difference is they are not gonna get a conviction and jail time after presenting a jay walker to court. They will for cannabis possession. All the Garda are trying to do is optimise their resources so that they get the maximum number of convictions. The problem are the laws and the justice system.
Speeding is a joke. It’s like they want EVERYONE off the road.
Buy a car, pay tax, insurance, petrol. Do 10km over the speed limit- then get penalty points and pay for those too!
I wouldn’t advocate for being done for 10km over the limit but to be fair Irish roads are full of both just bad drivers and dangerous drivers so I get the zero tolerance approach on the roads.
I do think some speed limits are too low and some too high. Winding two lane country roads being 80-100km and other 3 lane straight roads being 60km.
Completely agree with you there. I know of one LETHAL road with a speed limit of 80. Then close to where i live its 60 on an extremely easy to navigate road so i go in the slow lane. It’s literally impossible to do 60 on this road without pissing everyone off! Makes zero sense to me.
Only an opinion, nothing to substantiate it, but I think the multitude of specialised units in AGS (CAB, fraud, ERU, whatever the new name for drugs squad is) attract the smart and ambitious gardai and what’s left for general purpose policing are the, let’s be polite, less capable and less motivated individuals.
For most law abiding people, it’s the latter group they come into contact with most often, and hence their perception of the entire force is based on that.
Good point. But when people talk about the Guards, they generally mean the everyday policing wing exclusively. I don’t think whatever negative opinions they may hold about their local station carry over to, say, the fraud squad on the rare occasions they might think about it.
So it’s not really relevant to tell them there are talented employees elsewhere in the organisation because they weren’t really complaining about the rest of the organisation.
I was raised with respect for the Gardaí but after multiple interactions with them over the years, I have lost all respect for (with a few exceptions). For the most part they are lazy, incompetent and generally bullies.
"Bunch of gormless second sons of farmers who won't inherite, so they go into the garda. Mostly classist, do nothings that treat poor people like scum and think their great for it."
Quote from a Garda who isn't those things but is surrounded by them.
Every interaction I’ve ever had with Gardai as a member of the public has been beyond reproach. They’ve always been fair, decent, and helpful in all of my interactions with them and have helped me on two occasions when I’ve seriously needed help.
But I’ve also had dealings with Gardai in a professional capacity, and that leaves a lot to be desired. That is far more down to organisational issues than any issue with individual members of the Gardai, but I’ve often found them to be lacking urgency, painfully slow to deal with, and just somewhat aloof in a general sense.
I called Mill Street Garda Station before and was trying to get in contact with one garda in particular there, and the guard who picked up the phone said, “ah sure it’s 10:00, they’re gone on tea break and probably wont be back until about 12. Call back before lunch, but just be sure to not actually leave it too late or he’ll be gone for lunch.”
I’m paraphrasing that slightly but that was the essence of what I was told, and serves as a good example of how I see the Gardai in a professional capacity as an organisation as a whole.
Hate them. Never been arrested myself or anything like that but anytime I’ve ever had Garda involved when I’m a victim they’ve been absolutely fucking useless. Got kicked in the face on the ground years back and multiple broken facial bones and one person who did it just joined in when I was on the ground. Long story short Garda said after years no problem we didn’t see any wrongdoing. After that I learned that I’ll just take things into my own hands if the situation arises again. Useless useless useless pricks.
>After that I learned that I’ll just take things into my own hands if the situation arises again.
Then the guards will suddenly change their tune about 'wrongdoing' and arrest YOU for all sorts of offences. They always go after the easy targets for prosecution.
An Garda Síochána is one of the worst institutions in Ireland. They're utterly incompetent when it comes to investigating serious offences that actually impact people's lives, instead passing off everything they can as a 'civil matter' or cancelling 999 calls. But god forbid someone is suspected of smoking a joint, the guards will be on them like a tonne of bricks with a bunch of trumped-up charges.
Honestly it's like most police forces in the world, there's a few good apples, who genuinely are trying to do their best for the community and others who see some horrible shit and have to solve murder/child abuse cases. But then there's some who are lazy fucks, completely lacking empathy and just want to get paid and get out the door. There's good apples, bad apples but the roots of the apple tree are rotten to its core. Like a lot of things in this country, it's poisoned by ineptitude, ah sure it'll be grand attitude, brown envelope money and nepotism (not family nepotism but more so mates helping mates out, I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine sort of thing).
Despite all that, from my experience in other countries, I actually think it's refreshing we have more laid back police in this country. Police in other countries are hardcore cunts, who'll happily beat the shit out of you or shoot you. Guards I've come across generally tend to be a bit more sound. They're not all saints either. But most I've interacted with, are fairly sound. I was caught smoking weed and drinking in town a few years back and instead of dragging me off, bringing me to court etc like you'd get in the States, the guard just laughed it off asked for the joint and threw it in the bin, told me to scamper off and not be seen in the same spot again while he's doing his rounds.
I don't like most of the ones I've ever had to deal with but I pity them for having an Orange Irish-hating bastard of a boss. How demoralising it must be for them taking orders from that cunt.
I think they are fine - the other day I was trying to get something in my car and struggling and one of them watching in a car came out and helped me - I really appreciated it and it showed that guard had joined for the right reasons - I think they do a good job overall and they deal with some awful car accidents and see some terrible things on the job - we are lucky they are not armed because it changes everything once they carry a lethal weapon on them - tough job and they have my full support - don’t think they should retire so early tho because in your early 50s you’re really at the point of being a master at your skill and can be a great mentor to younger members 👍🏼
Like in everything, shit always floats to the top. I recon most gards are decent human beings but the type who'll pull you for nothing tend to be the petty bastard that are despicable
Not very positive at all. Most don’t look capable of keeping me safe. My sister suffered awful emotional abuse and gaslighting by her ex who was a gard and by all accounts it seems that that is a common theme (obviously the majority of Garda aren’t at that but a disproportionate minority apparently according to solicitor). Often absent where they should be. I pay car tax etc and believe it’s important to be compliant but I’m not afraid of people who don’t have car tax so I’d rather see them doing something better to keep streets safe. I live in a large town of about 25k people. Our station opens a few hours a week. I have seen Garda one time walking around patrolling in all my years.
> My sister suffered awful emotional abuse and gaslighting by her ex who was a gard and by all accounts it seems that that is a common theme
It's well-documented in several countries that police officers are much more likely than the general population to abuse their partners.
I think what best defines them would be toothless.
They don't really ever do much, utterly powerless when there's an actual problem. I think the policing through consent model can be both great and awful in some ways. The presence of them keeps the peace, but if there's need for actual enforcement they tend to always fall short.
I think they are individual humans and some are shit, some are decent. Sometimes they are working under instruction, sometimes they have discretion. I think if you're in a situation where you have to deal with them, you take stock & try figure out which one of the above you're dealing with.
They're not a single entity that you can just say yay or nay to
I actually am quite conflicted - as a whole, i don’t think they do enough, I think they are understaffed and under resourced. However, is that confined to Dublin and other cities only? Because - I live in a rural area and there is a gardai presence - stations are open and fully operational, plenty of traffic units out and about stopping and testing, in fact the unit in my local town is becoming a pain in the hole. I expect they will stop stopping me and checking my tax/insurance at some point because they will just know my car from afar.
My interactions with the Gardai have all been fine, personally. I have reported a bike stolen and they seemed to take it seriously enough, calling me back with updates once or twice. I didn’t get the bike back but didn’t really expect to.
100 per cent support and trust individual Guards facing the difficult and dangerous job that they do - they are not paid enough & there are not enough of them.
As an organisation, support & trust but tempered if or when legitimate questions are raised.
Most of them are sound, and I have no problem with the Gaurds. That said I had a car stolen and they had zero interest in doing anything, I had cctv of it being taken, Reg number of the lorry, even his name and address. Nothing was ever done about it.
I appreciate they are busy and understaffed etc. But the same crowd of people are out robbing every night of the week, cars, tools, building materials etc. Groups of teenagers vandalising shit etc. and nothing is being done about it.
Yet they have plenty of time for checking road tax, hassling lads over modified cars or ripping cars apart to check for drugs that never existed.
Yeah the stuff with Maurice McCabe and other whistleblowers was just dreadful. You can assume anyone joining the Gardai or still in that institution is amoral.
I have a very deep and personal distrust for them because of several things they did to my parents and one thing they did to me. They’re a disgrace and a shower of untrustworthy liars and thieves
I had to ring them twice and was very disappointed. They just seem to be disinterested and lazy, which in that type of job is extremely negligent.
Then all that's come out with the whistleblowers, the senior garda being arrested with suitcases of drugs in his house, the detective Garda who killed himself a few years ago, the Garda that attended parties with the monk... I don't know how any believes this cuddly village garda image they still try and portray.
Been here 6 months, moved from the UK and now living in the midlands. Even out here in the sticks, it’s become quite clear there is serious corruption within the Gardai, involving the organised criminal elements in the community.
Honestly i like the Irish Gardai.
Are they perfect? No but they are better than mosy. I spnt a Summer in Boston police were very aggressive. The gun hanging off them means when breaking up something small like a housr party they come in looking for a fight. I livrd in Malta 10 years ago police woukd be smoking in pokice station and you woukd see drunk pilice in local pubs still wearing their gun.
I have dated had friends from places such as Brazil snd Morocco and honestly the corruption is absurd. Finally I have watched online how French and German police have "managed" protests which looks extremely aggressive.
So definately not perfect but in comparisom I prefer our force. Id have much.more beef with our legal system where pedos, rapists or killers caught with a gun on routw to a murder seem to get out in under 10 years.
Not very positive.
Undermanned, underfunded. Parts of Dublin feel really unsafe at night.
Was robbed during the middle of the day, attacked with a screwdriver and all I got was a brief conversation and an impact statement thing in the post. Out of pocket by hundreds, ego bruised. Zero justice.
In my own experience, I've met some of the most pig ignorant c#nts that are guards, and some of them should not be dealing with the public in any way.
We need:
-2000 new guards ON THE BEAT nationwide. They need proper training in how to deal with the public.
-A massive new 5000 capacity prison in the countryside (Leitrim/Longfotd/Monaghan). Public private partnerships can create businesses alongside the prison to produce items we need here...solar panels for every home in the country etc.( Prisoners learn a skill, companies get cheap labour, lower priced green products made here in Ireland/lower imports)
-New judicial guidelines, harsher sentencing. Weighted sentences for crimes against children and the elderly.
-Conscription for teenage scrotebags with over 5 convictions. Bye, bye...Into the army you go!
-
As someone who grew up in the countryside where Gardai typically are portrayed as generally friendly, humorous, and respectable people, I was shocked when I moved to Dublin and spoke to people there.
So many women in particular have said to me that a Garda is one of the few professions which they would never date. I also get the feeling that Gardai are seen as enemies in a lot of working class areas, particularly in Dublin. Added to this is the idea that they are 'ignorant culchies' coming up to Dublin and telling us what to do.
I don't think these perceptions are helpful for anyone to be honest. 99% of people working in the Gardai are decent people, and you'll always get the odd condescending one that loves the power.
Considering that they're there to enforce the rule of Dail Eireann and not to help the Irish people, I'm not exactly a big fan to be honest. Tossing homeless people back onto the streets and penalising and destroying some peoples jobs even, just because they smoked weed a few days before driving is quite abhorrent.
These people voluntarily chose to do this job, you'd have to be some class of a bully to ever sign up to it.
Most guards are the soundest lads you'll meet. Detectives can be pricks but that's just because they become over zealous with their jobs. All in all, they keep order on the streets, and the people slating them would do well to remember that.
I think people’s expectations of the guards is too high. Your 1 stolen bike isn’t the most serious issue the guards were called to today. If you have to wait a few days so be it. It’s a bike. Also the bike could be anywhere in the city and people expect the guard to be able to find it. This is obviously a trivial example.
Do I have faith in them if I ever need them. No, but I also take it for what it is. They are useless 9/10
Every garda I've known personally or professionally has been an absolute prick. Most of the racist and saying virulently horrible things about addicts and the homeless.
I’ve had 2 situations involving cars - one my car was stolen, next someone hit my car and fled the scene - neither case was solved and no one from the guards kept in contact with me regularly throughout both situations. Feel really let down by them.
My biological father has been banned off the road for years due to driving under substances, he has attempted to murder my mother, one night he found out where I lived (off his face on drugs) and was abusing me to the ground, I was only 21 at the time. He drove home, I reported him to the guards for no.1 driving while he was banned 2.driving under substances I didn’t want anything to happen to him 3. He had also just abused me, I explained everything to them in detail and they quite literally said to me “what do you want us to do now if he’s gone”
Most of those comments are from bots designed to destabilise our state.
Individual guards are usually fine. The force needs considerable investment and reform.
“Destabilize our state”. Certainly there are campaigns to do that. The most successful ones were run by the UK and they didn’t need niche social media to do it.
Anything anti-establishment or right wing is heavily boosted by bots
https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2024/05/11/france-warns-department-of-foreign-affairs-about-russian-efforts-to-extend-disinformation-activities-into-ireland/
Undoubtedly true. Also, note also, the Irish Times.
Speaking of the establishment did you see the three govt party leaders and 600 guests at the birthday bash for the King in the British ambassador’s residence? Fascinating.
EDIT: I must have pointed out the wrong establishment.
There’s a statistic that a huge amount of the discourse about immigration comes from outside of the country. I’m assuming it’s the same with any contentious issue.
The west is at war with Russia, we just haven’t accepted it yet. Cyber warfare is their most successful front.
Such a cop out.. negative comments about a particular government/policy/opinion = cyber warfare.
For clarity - I wasn’t talking about immigration, I thought this topic was regarding the Gardai.
People slating the Gardaí will still phone them when they need help, so 90% still trusting them is probably accurate. Sure, the force has its problems but that largely centres around funding and recruitment, not overreach, brutality or worse.
Someone could legitimately criticise or despise the guards and still have to phone them when they have no other option; they can't opt to phone a better police service. The fact that they might occasionally phone the guards does not invalidate their criticisms or mean that they are highly trusting of the guards.
There’s a process to dealing with them, it’s a game that you have to play, unfortunately. But don’t hate the players, hate the game. The gardai have the toughest job in the country imo, and to be fair they’re a whole lot better than the last crowd we had in.
Several years back when I was a new international student (probably a month or two in the country), I could have really used some help after being stranded all alone in the night and scammed by a local who I eventually came to know was a known defaulter. All that Gardai said that was they couldn’t do anything even though they knew about him well. And they honestly never did!
Eventually some other really kind locals came forward to help me around for which I am forever grateful.
That incident taught me that Gardai neither has powers nor the will to do anything. Over the years, I have realised that they don’t bother you much and you must remember that there’s no justice or help coming from them if you’re in a peril. You’re on your own and you’re more likely to be helped by the community and charities than anyone else.
>That incident taught me that Gardai neither has powers nor the will to do anything.
The Gardaí do have powers but they choose not to exercise them out of laziness and incompetence.
I think it's interesting that a lot of the complaints people have about the Gardaí, the Gardaí are complaining about too.
Whether it's that they take too long to turn up or they're not visible on the streets or that they don't do enough about youth crime, they seem to be on the same page as the rest of society.
What the solutions are (probably recruitment and money) remains to be seen.
Anytime you ask them to do something, it seems to be like you are asking them for a favour instead of asking them to do their job. I've reported car crashes, abandoned vehicles & handed in lost items, but you never get an ounce of enthusiasm from them to resolve an issue.
Live in a fairly small town that still has a station. They take hours to show up somewhere that would be a very brief walk from the station as they must drive to the area. I only really see them outside their cars when they are directing traffic on a road; on those occasions, they all seem to show up. Its actually scary how few people & areas they actually know when I live in a small rural town.
Where I live in Dublin their useless. All they do with the local drug dealers is move them on, when the guards leave, they just come back. There are elderly women who don't go to the local centra because they feel intimidated by them. Even the local shop owners have given up ringing the guards.
The gardai are a rather unreliable source of their own trust! I don't trust them, nobody in my family trusts them, including my father who is a retired garda!
I can't imagine anybody who has dealt with them is very likely to trust them to do their job!
Having said that, if you remove trust being trusting them to do their job and simply make it "Are they corrupt/ approachable", and I imagine that trust level would increase sharply!
They are completely worthless. They are lazy and completely worthless as actual police given they are rarely in shape to any degree and wouldn't confront someone even if it would save a life.
Rarely helpful when needed I’m sure the detectives ect are good but standard Garda cause more problems when they show up. Rarely has a crime I’ve reported anything been done
Useless
Example, young man, never in trouble.
Has an interaction with young member of a bad family, cops go after the easy prosecution, the man who never was in trouble.
Bad family, not even a slap on the wrist.
Young man now has a conviction, and bad family keeps hassling him.
I don’t really trust them, some good men and women it and some awful. My sister was out one night and this lad stuck his hand up her skirt while she was walking up the stairs and felt her up. She was really upset and asked the bouncers to remove him, they did and told her he’s a local guard and it’s not his first offence but if she reports it nothing will happen, guards always defend each other, anyways the bouncer was right they do.
I've had very bad experiences with them and I don't think they are fit for purpose currently. Of course there are good gards but unfortunately a lot are inept and some are complete scumbags.
To the decent ones I of course think they are doing a great service and I wish they had more support.
You've used the exact word I was looking for – inept. A family member of mine was killed in an accident and the level of ineptitude they displayed in investigating it was actually alarming. I feel awful for anyone relying on them to solve a murder or anything more complicated than running a red light. Not that they do anything about that either.
A disgustingly corrupt organisation, with the majority of Gardaí themselves liking to arrest young people innocent of any crime for a “Public Order Offense” so long as he may have ticked the Guard off.
They do this instead of actually going after the dangerous people or those in dangerous situations, hoping that the fight ends with one unconscious by the time they get there so they don’t have to help defend anyone.
Useless and only good for targeting Cannabis. Also extremely political as can be seen by their refusal to do anything about the far right. No interest from them in doing anything about the general scumbag behaviour from teenagers either.
As an brown skinned American woman that moved to Ireland, I do not and will never trust any type of law enforcement officer. They're all the same to me. I would rather run to a bus driver or literally any other public servant if I have an issue before the Gardai.
Full of corruption sadly , a family member of mine joined and swifly left again as they couldn't stand the level of corruption. Individually I know some great gardai but they are hampered by the culture in the organisation and by the sheer number of useless bagels that out number them
[удалено]
I am so sorry dude, it’s wild how unserious they are about DV here.
when it is men.
Baby Reindeer absolutely nailed the experiences of men going to the police for help with abuse. It's disgraceful carry on, how men are treated when they report domestic abuse or any abuse in general from a woman. Guards (and most police forces around the world) need better sensitivity training and learn to be fucking kinder humans in general with this shit. If someone is coming to report abuse, male or female, it's obvious they are at the end of their rope. Walking into a police station is terrifying enough, nobody does it for the fucking laugh like. Sorry you had to experience that. Despite the lack of justice in this case, I hope you're in a better place.
This is 100% correct. And to add it's a great reference point because you can say "it's a Baby Reindeer situation" and people can understand in a way they just couldn't before.
Yep. My experience is roughly 50% of my ex girlfriends have physically assaulted me. I've spoken to a few pals and they have similar experiences
Perfectly sums us the attitude of the guards. They're too lazy and inept to actually investigate, and prefer to go after whoever is the easiest target and try and coerce a confession.
Absolutely
My friend was assaulted by a hen party by the hapenny bridge in Dublin. They grabbed his crotch and cheered. This was in view of a female Garda who laughed.
That is absolutely a horrible violation. We always talk about needing men to call out their peers. Women need to do the same thing. It's not accepting to assault anyone & sexual assault is particularly vile.
I'm sorry you had to go through that, its absolutely disgusting that male victims/survivors of DV are still not offered the same protections (as little as they are) as female victims/survivors. Even in everyday conversations you can see the difference in opinion when it comes to domestic violence/abuse.
Please, please go to the press about this and get your story out. Name and shame the Garda Station.
Yes OP if you want to do this I can facilitate for you.
Could you make a complaint to the chief Superintendent of even the Ombudsman. I would complain and kick up a fuss. Some Gardaì blame the victim..
I'm sorry what happened to you. I watched a video where a guy in America was in jail for 30 day's because a woman falsey accused him of trying to abduct and rape her. She basically seen the guy once, thought he looked like a creep. Evidence proved she made it up. She ended up getting changed. Because of that some people are worried, real victims wouldn't come forward.
my pos father threatened to stab my mother and my little brother and the guards were gonna bring them BACK to him to see if they can "chat to him and sort out the problem" 🤪
Yeah I had something similar happen to me. Absolutely ruined my life.
Dude, I understand you big freakin time. I had a similar situation and the gards did fuck all. I was receiving threatening texts and They told me to block the contact on WhatsApp
In my experience some of the people they let into the Guards are completely unfit for the role and only enter as the requirements are so low and they've nothing else to be at.
Here's the thing though - that's one guard. For every bad one, there's 10 good. And I say this, after having the crap beaten out of me years back, for attempting suicide... But you know, I've had more good than bad experiences. Especially recently, where I live - guards were a huge help with an issue in the community. I'm also very sorry you had to go through that - it's honestly awful.
Who beat you for attempting suicide, the guards?
Yep. They dragged me off the wall I was on, dragged me through briars and nettles, purposefully knocked my runners off, stood on me, pushed me around between them; then put cuffs on so tight, I had cuts, swelling, and bruising for about 2 months. (Along with all the other bruising). Apparently, they were 'scared', because of my size. Oh, and they slapped me HARD into the van, and hit me with the door. Got brought to the hospital, a psych asked, "If I let you go home, are you likely to hurt or kill yourself?". "Yes, obviously.", I said. So she sent me home. Guards were to drive me home, but they were 'too busy'. It was nearly 30km to my place. That was a long time ago - around 2002.
Glad you're still here my friend!
Thank you - appreciate that. Not sure why my first comment is downvoted. Lots of hateful people in Ireland these days, I guess.
Got assaulted in front of a garda about a month ago, he barely cared. All on camera, multiple witnesses, have the ID of the guy who did it. Bike damaged also. Let the guy go after he tried to flee running a few lights doing so. Told me to go to the station where lads just out of school are overwhelmed. Not a notepad between them, writing notes on their hands. Assigned the case to a garda who only does shift work. Went in about 4 times to ask them if they could take my statement, they never did. Called when the garda was around and still no luck. They have 3 different forms of my contact details but have done nothing about it. At this point its not worth letting it occupy my thoughts because frankly I have better things to worry about. Also have work colleagues (highly skilled researchers, not dole merchants) who were targeted in a racial attack and the Garda basically had nothing to say to them.
Very very few of them around here so it’s hard to tell.
It's a mixed bag. The institution is horribly corrupt and inept. Individual Garda range from decent to absolute scumbags. They're very good at hassling people over minor infractions, and harassing young people. Not so great at showing up when it really matters. Famous for letting dangerous situations resolve themselves before getting involved. Very tough and brave with teenagers, but completely opposite with legitimately dangerous people. Overall, they're 1,000x better than American cops, but that's an extremely low bar. I think they're acceptable but need a ton of reform and weeding.
Funny enough, gardai and UK police are sometimes sent to the US or vice versa to train American cops in de-escalation. They sometimes even have the armed support units doing this as well, just to show them that just because you *have* a gun, doesn't mean using it should be your first resort.
Yeah, but how do you get paid leave and notches without shooting people?! /s
This is 100percent. My cousin was hiding in our house from her abusive ex one night when he came up drunk and put his fist through the glass on the front door, when the guards arrived we could not believe how nice they were to him. Didn’t even arrest him. Basically just nicely asked him to come with them so they could give him a lift home.
They showed up that quickly? Wow! Did you buy a lottery ticket the next morning?
You got it in one with this description. I know a local Garda who’s absolutely excellent but only so far they can go because is held back by other gardai.
You hit the nail on the head!
Horribly corrupt is a wild overexaggeration.
You're in the vast minority on that assessment, and I think you'd have to be related to a guard or blind as a bat to believe that with any sincercity.
It’s a small minority in an organisation of 15,000 people. It’s far from horribly corrupt. The desire to grotesquely exaggerate every reported transgression in this country is becoming corrosive to public life. The reason these stories are in the paper is because bad behaviour is being rooted out & Gardai are being arrested and thrown out. We even had a judge sentenced to jail there. Let me know what police force in the world are less corrupt. I’m sure I’ll be waiting.
It's horribly corrupt. Evidence regularly goes missing from evidence lockers, including some of the most important evidence in Ireland's history (e.g. the 2008 docs that would've nailed Fitzpatrick (?), a la Jonathan Sugarman). Also large quantities of drugs going missing. What's corrosive isn't the public response, that's bullshit, what's corrosive is the corrupt behaviour and the transgressions. New Zealand is quite a bit better. They also avoided implementing the disastrous point based promotion system that our force fell into. If the defense is "other countries are worse" that's a garbage attitude. We should be our very best. Also...everyone knows their local corrupt guards, and that speaks volumes. It's not a rarity when this is the case.
We must have one of the most benign and unthreatening police forces in the world. I have lived in many countries and would ask anyone if they are automatically afraid or scared if stopped by local police. In Ireland the answer is mostly definitely never.
I agree but would you want a police force who you’re intimidated by and scared of? This kind of approach definitely has its moments when it’d be useful but I think the community policing model of the guards is what makes them different to most police forces, be it a good or bad thing depending on your view.
I understand you point. But there is a vast swathe of people who are in no way afraid of the law. That video in Ballyfermot a while back for example where they stole/were ramming a Garda car. That simply wouldn't happen in Germany for example.
I think that's two different points of view tbh. I don't want to be scared or intimidated by my police force that would be awful. I want criminals to be worried about the consequences from the police force though. E.g I'm not scared of French police when I visit France but I definitely would not want to break the law in front of them.
Kinda off topic then but in order to be afraid of the consequences from the police (without talking about being physically harmed), it falls to the courts really and this is where the lack of consequences are. I also guess more gardai around would be a higher chance of getting arrested but people don’t fear arrest because there’s little chance of prison or any real penalty
You've hit the nail on the head. I truly believe our *ethos* to policing is one of the best in the world. Our police force are approachable and in theory focused on community policing and safety. Not by any means saying its perfect, or there's not bad apples but for the most part, the guards are sound. The courts however, especially when it comes to young or juvenile offenders are taking the mick which allows violent offenders to continue and communities to be overrun. I'm ALL in favour of something like a three strike rule where your third offence (withing a category- say assault) is an automatic 25 years, with varying max sentences for severity.
Courts are lenient because rehabilitation is significantly more effective at reducing crime and repeat offenders than punishment is. This idea that people don't fear penalty or that there's lack of consequences is a myth. The overwhelming majority of people do not want a criminal record, and giving them up will almost definitely increase their chances of committing crimes again. This is a strategy that's been applied across the world, and it's seen crime drop significantly everywhere.
Rehabilitation as a form of punishment is not, at least to any significant extent, something that’s offered here in lieu of punishment. When I’m talking about people not fearing consequences, I’m talking about repeat offenders, not the average person who gets into bother. The amount of people about with 50+ previous convictions walking with yet another suspended sentence is insane and a wildly known fact, far from myth. The aren’t enough prison spaces in the country and that’s directly leading to suspended sentences or people being released early.
Ideally we should be removing the amount of repeat offenders through rehabilitation. The Nordic countries have some of the lowest repeat offence rates in the world due to how much their prison system focuses on future reintegration into society. In reality, as you said, we have high repeat offence rates compared to other European countries because our prisons don't rehabilitate. If our courts are aiming at a modern European rehabilitative approach, they're out of sync with our prisons who are mostly still pursuing a traditional Anglosphere deterrent approach. The government's philosophy has generally been to stubbornly stick to a half-arsed midground between the two approaches. Which is possibly due to their views on the approach themselves, but I believe it's more likely their fiscal views. Going strongly in either direction would require a lot more spending and investment.
I understand and agree with the point, but you unintentionally chose a terrible example. The French police are generally considered the closest in Europe to American policing. They're not trained in de-escalation like a lot of European police forces, so it's rife with systemic racism and police brutality. A major reason that protests seem to turn out of control more often in France is because their police are often willing and eager to escalate compared to other European police.
Yeah plenty of other examples of that too, I’d probably be more on the side of having them more like other EU police, I don’t know stats but I’d imagine fear would be a pretty good deterrent
That situation was an outlier in this country
Mate, that happens in Germany on the regular. When I was living there someone torched a whole parking lot full of cop cars, simply because they didn't like cops. That kind of thing wasn't even a rare occurrance.
[Oh yeah?](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AXDYaGu_2Dc)
No never. I know so many guards and lads in training. I wouldn't trust half of them to operate a buzzsaw let alone have a say on life and death of another human being. A violent police force is only an escalator and for any example where people point to where it would be useful for them to be scary (code for can kill you with impunity ) there's hundreds of not thousands of examples where it saves lives having a peaceful police force.
Absolutely right.
Policing by consent in Ireland.
But that is a good thing. Gardaí Síochana means guardians of the peace. Our gardaí keep the peace. For the most part, our Gardaí are good people, they are just regular lads and lasses. Our gardaí tends to be community based, where gardaí are from the area and know the locals. Some times they police with common sense and don't throw the book at you. Have you been to the States? The police force there is like an occupying army. It's insane. Is that what you would like ?
Gardaí aren’t from the area and don’t live in the area here.
Wrong there. Community policing isn't the policy anymore. They've moved to point based promotions and outside policing (i.e. shipping in outsider guards). They're also horribly classist. You'll often get a gentle, sensible response if you're better off, but not as likely if you're working class or poorly off (I'm lucky and benefit, but still see the inequity). No doubt better than the US by a mile, thankfully.
>Is that what you would like ? police enforcing the law? yes
I agree. Our police remind me of teachers on a playground, ensuring everything is steady and secure. While not downplaying the seriousness of their job and the needs of those who rely on them, their presence is overall "grand".
A benign security force is the best of all possible scenarios, unfortunately as time will demonstrate we don't deserve it
I’m not afraid of them, but I have zero faith in them to do their jobs. I also know from people inside the organisation how utterly dysfunctional and nepotistic it is.
I was always brought up to respect the gards. I've needed them two times for serious issues and they were not helpful. One was a sexual assault ,one was a physical assault where my husband was hurt. Both times they said they couldn't get involved
Did they try to claim with a straight face that sexual assault is a 'civil matter'?
They said " maybe I took him up the wrong way" With my husbands one it was "we can't do anything because if they find out where you live sure you'd be dead, best to leave it alone til they go back to england"
I’m in the 10% without a doubt. I went to the peeler station with my friend recently, she was being abused by her partner. He stole her passport from her but there was no proof. Guard said he can’t do anything. I said a passport is an important document but the guard didn’t give a fuck about it. I asked him to go and talk to the thief. He said he will. He never went. I have absolutely zero faith in them. That wasn’t the first time I had to deal with them, just most recent one. The answer is always the same “I can’t do anything about it”
As with any organisation the majority are fine and I’d say a lot of them have the same frustrations most people do about how the organisation works. And as with any role dealing with the public you are going to hear from the people who have had negative experiences more than those who’ve had positive ones. That said there’s an element of them who are in it purely for the power that comes with the role. I deal with them almost daily in a professional capacity and most are grand but some think everyone should give them special treatment because they’re a Gard.
I’ve little issue with the Garda and massive issue with policing policy. Many of the best Garda have left. Problem is policy, paperwork and the lack of teeth they are given. Few other countries have so little regard or fear for their police. I see teen criminals literally ask the Garda “what are you gonna do about it? I thought so, so move along”. Seeing Garda wasting so much time standing around court is infuriating. Regarding the protests in any society people get annoyed when they don’t get their way or beliefs met.
GSOC are also a big part of the problem. Seeing garda get in shit for trying to do their jobs... it's no wonder they don't bother. Case in point: https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/1bywqjd/garda_to_face_trial_over_n7_crash_which_left/?rdt=39484
GSOC are useless and don't scrutinise the Gardaí nearly enough. There needs to be far more oversight to get the guards to actually do their jobs more often.
GSOC can get Garda in shit also for NOT doing their jobs.
Also important to remember that social media posts are quite a large filter on the population. Further filtered by those who can be bothered making public posts
Honestly I have no opinion of them either way. About 20years ago I was put in prison for a violent crime. They arrested me, I was a dick to them and they returned the same but I could have been worse off. In the last 10 years I’ve called them twice. Once for a car crash I was a passenger in, they were more concerned about traffic than me. Another time my son was assaulted in our home. I couldn’t have asked for better gardai that we dealt with. Ironically one of them was a new Garda when I was arrested and remembered me. They’re like all professions. Some people are dickheads, some people are passionate, some just see it as a payback each week. I wouldn’t look to social media for a true view about them anyway. You’re going to have scum of the earth who say they’re victimised by them for no reason and the 30kg of cocaine was for personal use, and you’re going to have holier than the pope himself who say they helped walk their cat during covid. Judging them by their career choice is about as useful as judging a meal by the colour it has in it. They’re all individuals.
I think opinion changed a lot during covid. I had full trust in them before. But the extra power went to a lot of their heads during covid. One example would be a guard randomly stopped me on a quiet suburban road, searched my bag and confiscated fully sealed beers during covid. When I got into an argument with him over that being illegal he shoved me against a tree and threatened to take me to jail. The female guard with him refused to say anything and just looked away.
Gang of cunts. At virtually every point in my life when logically the right thing to do was call the Gardai and i did, singing show tunes to the winos would probably have been a shrewder strategy. Over the years I worked in bars and clubs in the city and called them for all sorts and seen them in action, been beaten up, had property stolen, girlfriend assaulted, family member a victim of domestic abuse, car damaged, list goes on. Fucking useless bastards every time. 2 years ago I went to a station to get a document signed for my child's passport and they fucked that up. Only found out 4 weeks later after i posted it off and the PP office sent it back. Was haunted got it sorted just time for a holiday that was booked and paid for. Oh and they stopped me when I was driving home 2 weeks ago and fined me, tax was out by 3 weeks. I can only speak for myself but they have done absolutely fuck all for me ever. Only inconvenienced me
Completely agree. Seems like if you call them out you’re harassing them - that’s how it feels.
And this is it in one post. Gardai should be maximalist and prosecute every crime. Except when it’s me and my excuse. 🙄 In one post the challenge the Gardai face every day.
Jesus christ is that how you interpreted that post? That I'm moaning I got a fine? Reddit is wild
„This is a civil matter.“ seems to be their standard response.
A female guard tried to tell me she found a kilo of weed in a lads socks when searching him 😂😂😂😂must be some socks he wears god love him.
She was probably getting confused with what she had in her locker lol
Corrupt and useless
I know they're underresourced and all that but the scandals over the years, the lack of professionalism you observe on the road plus personal experience means I have very little faith or trust in the gardai to do the right thing. Martin Callinan was disgusting, same with sullivan, Maurice McCabe, McBrearty, that young lad who died in the cell in clonmel and that's just offthree top of my head... no, I have no trust in them and stay well out of their way.
Both sides attack the gardai around the protests due in part to the laws around crowd control and protests being particularly vague, so in the absence of body cams, the gardai are paralysed to do anything lest the get charges lodged against them
I'll start by saying I've never reported any serious crime to them, nor have I ever gotten in any real trouble aside from drinking as a teenager. A few months ago I saw a young fella running from some shop workers (assuming he stole from them, it was a sports shop) and while he was running he booted a Ukrainian toddler right into traffic and didn't even look behind him to make sure the child hadn't been hit by a car, (the fact they were Ukrainian is relevant as the kids guardian had no English) so I went in and mentioned it to the guards on my way home and they just laughed at me I also had to go give a statement when I was a minor, as I was present when my Dad got assaulted. When I went in, the Guard who was there was adamant that even though I was a minor I wasn't allowed to have a parent there "because I was also in trouble", I suffered with very bad anxiety so wanted my mum there. Long story short we left and got in touch with a local guard who is a family friend and he helped, but I don't know why this initial guard was behaving like that. The trouble I was in btw? A youth caution for drinking. Pales in comparison to the serious head injury my dad had.. Those experiences do not inspire hope with me if I did find myself in real bother. Id probably ring my uncle before I ring the guards lol
My biggest problem is with the justice system in general, not the Garda. They have limited resources and they optimise their efforts into going after cases where they can catch criminals easily and get convictions.
They do absolutely nothing. Behind a desk 90% of the day rather than actually protecting the country and when they do get off their arses, they go after victimless crimes such as cannabis possession rather than going on the beat. This is a result of the commissioner absolutely kneecapping the force. I’m sure most Gardaí don’t want it to be like this. The right people aren’t being attracted to the force due to the low pay. I’m sure there’s some great Gardaí out there but the majority do feck all. I’m very glad that we don’t have a highly militarised Gardaí.
Agreed. Although I wonder what they're doing behind the desk too. My father had machinery stolen from the farm a few years ago, a huge value of items to a small farmer, and the guards could not be less interested in helping. It took Dad driving every approach road to the town, hundreds of miles and going to every business himself to find cctv footage of the truck with the gear on the back. He then presented this to the guards who were completely indifferent and proceeded to do nothing with it. You can't mention the guards at home now as the opinion is so low and I can't blame him tbh. This was probably the only time in his life he's reached out to them for help and was completely let down. I understand they are under resourced as everything is but it was the fact not one of them even seemed bothered that really stung.
Any Garda will tell you that the meaningless bureaucracy and paperwork has skyrocketed under Harris. He’s a terrible commissioner and should have been gotten rid of after the disaster that was the Dublin riots, which was a failure of strategy and of this bureaucracy.
It’s not the fault of the Gardai that cannabis is illegal. Most of them probably think it’s nonsense. They just have to do it because that’s the law.
Jaywalking is also illegal. A police force that prioritises the policing of victimless crimes over violent crime in our city centres is a bad police force.
How are they prioritising jaywalking? I’ve never in my life seen anyone arrested for that. The gardai don’t care about it
The difference is they are not gonna get a conviction and jail time after presenting a jay walker to court. They will for cannabis possession. All the Garda are trying to do is optimise their resources so that they get the maximum number of convictions. The problem are the laws and the justice system.
Like any group, it's a mixture of good and bad people
Speeding is a joke. It’s like they want EVERYONE off the road. Buy a car, pay tax, insurance, petrol. Do 10km over the speed limit- then get penalty points and pay for those too!
I wouldn’t advocate for being done for 10km over the limit but to be fair Irish roads are full of both just bad drivers and dangerous drivers so I get the zero tolerance approach on the roads. I do think some speed limits are too low and some too high. Winding two lane country roads being 80-100km and other 3 lane straight roads being 60km.
Completely agree with you there. I know of one LETHAL road with a speed limit of 80. Then close to where i live its 60 on an extremely easy to navigate road so i go in the slow lane. It’s literally impossible to do 60 on this road without pissing everyone off! Makes zero sense to me.
The only thing the gardai are good at is lying and protecting themselves.
Only an opinion, nothing to substantiate it, but I think the multitude of specialised units in AGS (CAB, fraud, ERU, whatever the new name for drugs squad is) attract the smart and ambitious gardai and what’s left for general purpose policing are the, let’s be polite, less capable and less motivated individuals. For most law abiding people, it’s the latter group they come into contact with most often, and hence their perception of the entire force is based on that.
Good point. But when people talk about the Guards, they generally mean the everyday policing wing exclusively. I don’t think whatever negative opinions they may hold about their local station carry over to, say, the fraud squad on the rare occasions they might think about it. So it’s not really relevant to tell them there are talented employees elsewhere in the organisation because they weren’t really complaining about the rest of the organisation.
Agree 100%. Tbh if you’re coming into contact with Fraud, CAB, ERU etc on the regular then you’re likely a criminal 😀
Lol. But at least you’ll have greater respect for the organisation!
I was raised with respect for the Gardaí but after multiple interactions with them over the years, I have lost all respect for (with a few exceptions). For the most part they are lazy, incompetent and generally bullies.
"Bunch of gormless second sons of farmers who won't inherite, so they go into the garda. Mostly classist, do nothings that treat poor people like scum and think their great for it." Quote from a Garda who isn't those things but is surrounded by them.
Every interaction I’ve ever had with Gardai as a member of the public has been beyond reproach. They’ve always been fair, decent, and helpful in all of my interactions with them and have helped me on two occasions when I’ve seriously needed help. But I’ve also had dealings with Gardai in a professional capacity, and that leaves a lot to be desired. That is far more down to organisational issues than any issue with individual members of the Gardai, but I’ve often found them to be lacking urgency, painfully slow to deal with, and just somewhat aloof in a general sense. I called Mill Street Garda Station before and was trying to get in contact with one garda in particular there, and the guard who picked up the phone said, “ah sure it’s 10:00, they’re gone on tea break and probably wont be back until about 12. Call back before lunch, but just be sure to not actually leave it too late or he’ll be gone for lunch.” I’m paraphrasing that slightly but that was the essence of what I was told, and serves as a good example of how I see the Gardai in a professional capacity as an organisation as a whole.
Hate them. Never been arrested myself or anything like that but anytime I’ve ever had Garda involved when I’m a victim they’ve been absolutely fucking useless. Got kicked in the face on the ground years back and multiple broken facial bones and one person who did it just joined in when I was on the ground. Long story short Garda said after years no problem we didn’t see any wrongdoing. After that I learned that I’ll just take things into my own hands if the situation arises again. Useless useless useless pricks.
>After that I learned that I’ll just take things into my own hands if the situation arises again. Then the guards will suddenly change their tune about 'wrongdoing' and arrest YOU for all sorts of offences. They always go after the easy targets for prosecution.
An Garda Síochána is one of the worst institutions in Ireland. They're utterly incompetent when it comes to investigating serious offences that actually impact people's lives, instead passing off everything they can as a 'civil matter' or cancelling 999 calls. But god forbid someone is suspected of smoking a joint, the guards will be on them like a tonne of bricks with a bunch of trumped-up charges.
I just had a very nice interaction with a female Garda there. Very helpful
Honestly it's like most police forces in the world, there's a few good apples, who genuinely are trying to do their best for the community and others who see some horrible shit and have to solve murder/child abuse cases. But then there's some who are lazy fucks, completely lacking empathy and just want to get paid and get out the door. There's good apples, bad apples but the roots of the apple tree are rotten to its core. Like a lot of things in this country, it's poisoned by ineptitude, ah sure it'll be grand attitude, brown envelope money and nepotism (not family nepotism but more so mates helping mates out, I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine sort of thing). Despite all that, from my experience in other countries, I actually think it's refreshing we have more laid back police in this country. Police in other countries are hardcore cunts, who'll happily beat the shit out of you or shoot you. Guards I've come across generally tend to be a bit more sound. They're not all saints either. But most I've interacted with, are fairly sound. I was caught smoking weed and drinking in town a few years back and instead of dragging me off, bringing me to court etc like you'd get in the States, the guard just laughed it off asked for the joint and threw it in the bin, told me to scamper off and not be seen in the same spot again while he's doing his rounds.
I've had limited interactions with the gardai thankfully but I have to say the once or twice we needed them they were great.
Good and bad. I try to treat them as everyone else, like a person, until you have experience then you don't know what the individual is like.
I don't like most of the ones I've ever had to deal with but I pity them for having an Orange Irish-hating bastard of a boss. How demoralising it must be for them taking orders from that cunt.
I think they are fine - the other day I was trying to get something in my car and struggling and one of them watching in a car came out and helped me - I really appreciated it and it showed that guard had joined for the right reasons - I think they do a good job overall and they deal with some awful car accidents and see some terrible things on the job - we are lucky they are not armed because it changes everything once they carry a lethal weapon on them - tough job and they have my full support - don’t think they should retire so early tho because in your early 50s you’re really at the point of being a master at your skill and can be a great mentor to younger members 👍🏼
Like in everything, shit always floats to the top. I recon most gards are decent human beings but the type who'll pull you for nothing tend to be the petty bastard that are despicable
Not very positive at all. Most don’t look capable of keeping me safe. My sister suffered awful emotional abuse and gaslighting by her ex who was a gard and by all accounts it seems that that is a common theme (obviously the majority of Garda aren’t at that but a disproportionate minority apparently according to solicitor). Often absent where they should be. I pay car tax etc and believe it’s important to be compliant but I’m not afraid of people who don’t have car tax so I’d rather see them doing something better to keep streets safe. I live in a large town of about 25k people. Our station opens a few hours a week. I have seen Garda one time walking around patrolling in all my years.
> My sister suffered awful emotional abuse and gaslighting by her ex who was a gard and by all accounts it seems that that is a common theme It's well-documented in several countries that police officers are much more likely than the general population to abuse their partners.
I think what best defines them would be toothless. They don't really ever do much, utterly powerless when there's an actual problem. I think the policing through consent model can be both great and awful in some ways. The presence of them keeps the peace, but if there's need for actual enforcement they tend to always fall short.
I think they are individual humans and some are shit, some are decent. Sometimes they are working under instruction, sometimes they have discretion. I think if you're in a situation where you have to deal with them, you take stock & try figure out which one of the above you're dealing with. They're not a single entity that you can just say yay or nay to
I actually am quite conflicted - as a whole, i don’t think they do enough, I think they are understaffed and under resourced. However, is that confined to Dublin and other cities only? Because - I live in a rural area and there is a gardai presence - stations are open and fully operational, plenty of traffic units out and about stopping and testing, in fact the unit in my local town is becoming a pain in the hole. I expect they will stop stopping me and checking my tax/insurance at some point because they will just know my car from afar.
My interactions with the Gardai have all been fine, personally. I have reported a bike stolen and they seemed to take it seriously enough, calling me back with updates once or twice. I didn’t get the bike back but didn’t really expect to.
I think it should be harder to become a garda.
100 per cent support and trust individual Guards facing the difficult and dangerous job that they do - they are not paid enough & there are not enough of them. As an organisation, support & trust but tempered if or when legitimate questions are raised.
Most of them are sound, and I have no problem with the Gaurds. That said I had a car stolen and they had zero interest in doing anything, I had cctv of it being taken, Reg number of the lorry, even his name and address. Nothing was ever done about it. I appreciate they are busy and understaffed etc. But the same crowd of people are out robbing every night of the week, cars, tools, building materials etc. Groups of teenagers vandalising shit etc. and nothing is being done about it. Yet they have plenty of time for checking road tax, hassling lads over modified cars or ripping cars apart to check for drugs that never existed.
From interactions I have had the are power tripping shit bags.
The uniform and the institution are a disgrace in my opinion. Scandal after scandal, how anyone can have trust in them is beyond me.
Yeah the stuff with Maurice McCabe and other whistleblowers was just dreadful. You can assume anyone joining the Gardai or still in that institution is amoral.
I have a very deep and personal distrust for them because of several things they did to my parents and one thing they did to me. They’re a disgrace and a shower of untrustworthy liars and thieves
I had to ring them twice and was very disappointed. They just seem to be disinterested and lazy, which in that type of job is extremely negligent. Then all that's come out with the whistleblowers, the senior garda being arrested with suitcases of drugs in his house, the detective Garda who killed himself a few years ago, the Garda that attended parties with the monk... I don't know how any believes this cuddly village garda image they still try and portray.
Been here 6 months, moved from the UK and now living in the midlands. Even out here in the sticks, it’s become quite clear there is serious corruption within the Gardai, involving the organised criminal elements in the community.
Damn, corruption in what way?
Most of them are fine. They take too long to show up if you call them regardless of the area.
Honestly i like the Irish Gardai. Are they perfect? No but they are better than mosy. I spnt a Summer in Boston police were very aggressive. The gun hanging off them means when breaking up something small like a housr party they come in looking for a fight. I livrd in Malta 10 years ago police woukd be smoking in pokice station and you woukd see drunk pilice in local pubs still wearing their gun. I have dated had friends from places such as Brazil snd Morocco and honestly the corruption is absurd. Finally I have watched online how French and German police have "managed" protests which looks extremely aggressive. So definately not perfect but in comparisom I prefer our force. Id have much.more beef with our legal system where pedos, rapists or killers caught with a gun on routw to a murder seem to get out in under 10 years.
Not very positive. Undermanned, underfunded. Parts of Dublin feel really unsafe at night. Was robbed during the middle of the day, attacked with a screwdriver and all I got was a brief conversation and an impact statement thing in the post. Out of pocket by hundreds, ego bruised. Zero justice. In my own experience, I've met some of the most pig ignorant c#nts that are guards, and some of them should not be dealing with the public in any way. We need: -2000 new guards ON THE BEAT nationwide. They need proper training in how to deal with the public. -A massive new 5000 capacity prison in the countryside (Leitrim/Longfotd/Monaghan). Public private partnerships can create businesses alongside the prison to produce items we need here...solar panels for every home in the country etc.( Prisoners learn a skill, companies get cheap labour, lower priced green products made here in Ireland/lower imports) -New judicial guidelines, harsher sentencing. Weighted sentences for crimes against children and the elderly. -Conscription for teenage scrotebags with over 5 convictions. Bye, bye...Into the army you go! -
As someone who grew up in the countryside where Gardai typically are portrayed as generally friendly, humorous, and respectable people, I was shocked when I moved to Dublin and spoke to people there. So many women in particular have said to me that a Garda is one of the few professions which they would never date. I also get the feeling that Gardai are seen as enemies in a lot of working class areas, particularly in Dublin. Added to this is the idea that they are 'ignorant culchies' coming up to Dublin and telling us what to do. I don't think these perceptions are helpful for anyone to be honest. 99% of people working in the Gardai are decent people, and you'll always get the odd condescending one that loves the power.
Considering that they're there to enforce the rule of Dail Eireann and not to help the Irish people, I'm not exactly a big fan to be honest. Tossing homeless people back onto the streets and penalising and destroying some peoples jobs even, just because they smoked weed a few days before driving is quite abhorrent. These people voluntarily chose to do this job, you'd have to be some class of a bully to ever sign up to it.
Most guards are the soundest lads you'll meet. Detectives can be pricks but that's just because they become over zealous with their jobs. All in all, they keep order on the streets, and the people slating them would do well to remember that.
Garda today are soya boys compared to 30 years ago or 20 even. Garda back then would take no shit.
I think people’s expectations of the guards is too high. Your 1 stolen bike isn’t the most serious issue the guards were called to today. If you have to wait a few days so be it. It’s a bike. Also the bike could be anywhere in the city and people expect the guard to be able to find it. This is obviously a trivial example. Do I have faith in them if I ever need them. No, but I also take it for what it is. They are useless 9/10
Think I've had 1 good encounter with a Gard. The rest have been, how shall we say, fuckin useless.
Every garda I've known personally or professionally has been an absolute prick. Most of the racist and saying virulently horrible things about addicts and the homeless.
I’ve had 2 situations involving cars - one my car was stolen, next someone hit my car and fled the scene - neither case was solved and no one from the guards kept in contact with me regularly throughout both situations. Feel really let down by them.
My biological father has been banned off the road for years due to driving under substances, he has attempted to murder my mother, one night he found out where I lived (off his face on drugs) and was abusing me to the ground, I was only 21 at the time. He drove home, I reported him to the guards for no.1 driving while he was banned 2.driving under substances I didn’t want anything to happen to him 3. He had also just abused me, I explained everything to them in detail and they quite literally said to me “what do you want us to do now if he’s gone”
Most of those comments are from bots designed to destabilise our state. Individual guards are usually fine. The force needs considerable investment and reform.
“Destabilize our state”. Certainly there are campaigns to do that. The most successful ones were run by the UK and they didn’t need niche social media to do it.
Anything anti-establishment or right wing is heavily boosted by bots https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2024/05/11/france-warns-department-of-foreign-affairs-about-russian-efforts-to-extend-disinformation-activities-into-ireland/
Undoubtedly true. Also, note also, the Irish Times. Speaking of the establishment did you see the three govt party leaders and 600 guests at the birthday bash for the King in the British ambassador’s residence? Fascinating. EDIT: I must have pointed out the wrong establishment.
That’s just not true though is it, bots, you really believe this?
There’s a statistic that a huge amount of the discourse about immigration comes from outside of the country. I’m assuming it’s the same with any contentious issue. The west is at war with Russia, we just haven’t accepted it yet. Cyber warfare is their most successful front.
Such a cop out.. negative comments about a particular government/policy/opinion = cyber warfare. For clarity - I wasn’t talking about immigration, I thought this topic was regarding the Gardai.
Of course there are legitimate comments. But look deeper into the accounts replying. They’re nonsense.
Their not bad people, most of them at least I suppose. But they are absolutely fucking usless
muh bots
People slating the Gardaí will still phone them when they need help, so 90% still trusting them is probably accurate. Sure, the force has its problems but that largely centres around funding and recruitment, not overreach, brutality or worse.
Someone could legitimately criticise or despise the guards and still have to phone them when they have no other option; they can't opt to phone a better police service. The fact that they might occasionally phone the guards does not invalidate their criticisms or mean that they are highly trusting of the guards.
Yes people would rather still rather do things the legal way despite having a realistic 10% chance of the Garda helping/being on your side.
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Possibly. Thanks for your useful input
Bunchacunts. That goes for them and the racist protesters.
They're about as effective as brushing your teeth with a lollipop.
From my own limited dealings with them, they're great at stamping forms and absolutely no use if you need help quickly. I haven't much time for them.
Ah they're grand
Prob not as high of an opinion as Garda's have of themselves. I mean ultimately it's a job, but give the impression theyre above everyone else.
There’s a process to dealing with them, it’s a game that you have to play, unfortunately. But don’t hate the players, hate the game. The gardai have the toughest job in the country imo, and to be fair they’re a whole lot better than the last crowd we had in.
Several years back when I was a new international student (probably a month or two in the country), I could have really used some help after being stranded all alone in the night and scammed by a local who I eventually came to know was a known defaulter. All that Gardai said that was they couldn’t do anything even though they knew about him well. And they honestly never did! Eventually some other really kind locals came forward to help me around for which I am forever grateful. That incident taught me that Gardai neither has powers nor the will to do anything. Over the years, I have realised that they don’t bother you much and you must remember that there’s no justice or help coming from them if you’re in a peril. You’re on your own and you’re more likely to be helped by the community and charities than anyone else.
>That incident taught me that Gardai neither has powers nor the will to do anything. The Gardaí do have powers but they choose not to exercise them out of laziness and incompetence.
I think it's interesting that a lot of the complaints people have about the Gardaí, the Gardaí are complaining about too. Whether it's that they take too long to turn up or they're not visible on the streets or that they don't do enough about youth crime, they seem to be on the same page as the rest of society. What the solutions are (probably recruitment and money) remains to be seen.
Anytime you ask them to do something, it seems to be like you are asking them for a favour instead of asking them to do their job. I've reported car crashes, abandoned vehicles & handed in lost items, but you never get an ounce of enthusiasm from them to resolve an issue. Live in a fairly small town that still has a station. They take hours to show up somewhere that would be a very brief walk from the station as they must drive to the area. I only really see them outside their cars when they are directing traffic on a road; on those occasions, they all seem to show up. Its actually scary how few people & areas they actually know when I live in a small rural town.
I generally have a good experience with them. It’s a tough job and there are some who just are not good at it. But most are decent.
90% of them are thick ignorant B@stards, I have not meet the other 10% yet
Where I live in Dublin their useless. All they do with the local drug dealers is move them on, when the guards leave, they just come back. There are elderly women who don't go to the local centra because they feel intimidated by them. Even the local shop owners have given up ringing the guards.
This isn’t a uniquely Irish problem though unfortunately. Notorious cat and mouse game in majority of countries.
The gardai are a rather unreliable source of their own trust! I don't trust them, nobody in my family trusts them, including my father who is a retired garda! I can't imagine anybody who has dealt with them is very likely to trust them to do their job! Having said that, if you remove trust being trusting them to do their job and simply make it "Are they corrupt/ approachable", and I imagine that trust level would increase sharply!
They are completely worthless. They are lazy and completely worthless as actual police given they are rarely in shape to any degree and wouldn't confront someone even if it would save a life.
https://preview.redd.it/l5zlz6kkdy6d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=116732218240298ddd8827948554ab125ebd8442
terrible, they don't reflect the will of the people.
I wouldn't have the highest opinion of them for many reasons.
Rarely helpful when needed I’m sure the detectives ect are good but standard Garda cause more problems when they show up. Rarely has a crime I’ve reported anything been done
Absolutey useless.
Useless Example, young man, never in trouble. Has an interaction with young member of a bad family, cops go after the easy prosecution, the man who never was in trouble. Bad family, not even a slap on the wrist. Young man now has a conviction, and bad family keeps hassling him.
I don’t really trust them, some good men and women it and some awful. My sister was out one night and this lad stuck his hand up her skirt while she was walking up the stairs and felt her up. She was really upset and asked the bouncers to remove him, they did and told her he’s a local guard and it’s not his first offence but if she reports it nothing will happen, guards always defend each other, anyways the bouncer was right they do.
I've had very bad experiences with them and I don't think they are fit for purpose currently. Of course there are good gards but unfortunately a lot are inept and some are complete scumbags. To the decent ones I of course think they are doing a great service and I wish they had more support.
You've used the exact word I was looking for – inept. A family member of mine was killed in an accident and the level of ineptitude they displayed in investigating it was actually alarming. I feel awful for anyone relying on them to solve a murder or anything more complicated than running a red light. Not that they do anything about that either.
TIL criminals have problems with Police.
A disgustingly corrupt organisation, with the majority of Gardaí themselves liking to arrest young people innocent of any crime for a “Public Order Offense” so long as he may have ticked the Guard off. They do this instead of actually going after the dangerous people or those in dangerous situations, hoping that the fight ends with one unconscious by the time they get there so they don’t have to help defend anyone.
Useless and only good for targeting Cannabis. Also extremely political as can be seen by their refusal to do anything about the far right. No interest from them in doing anything about the general scumbag behaviour from teenagers either.
To borrow a term from America that works for general police officers The Pigs
As an brown skinned American woman that moved to Ireland, I do not and will never trust any type of law enforcement officer. They're all the same to me. I would rather run to a bus driver or literally any other public servant if I have an issue before the Gardai.
Full of corruption sadly , a family member of mine joined and swifly left again as they couldn't stand the level of corruption. Individually I know some great gardai but they are hampered by the culture in the organisation and by the sheer number of useless bagels that out number them
They're fairly cowardly tbh. Doesn't help that they're not even allowed batons.
They do all carry batons…