Don’t antagonise the guards by calling them pigs,…

national | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Thursday October 02, 2003 17:01 by Lola

Point out to them their acts of hypocrisy and put them in their place.

Don’t antagonise the guards by calling them pigs,…
Point out to them their acts of hypocrisy and put them in their place.

While walking home last night, Wednesday 1st October, approx 8 pm, as I turned off Liffey street onto Abbey street, heading towards O’Connell street, I noticed a young guard taking a can off 3 young lads sitting on steps in front of the Epicurean food hall.
I’m quite partial to the odd can of Dutch gold so I empathised with the poor scoundrels as the guard poured the contents of the can into a drain, crushed it in his left hand and continued on his ‘Beat’.
As I passed the three sour faced underage drinkers and crossed the street I saw the guard look around and put the can on a step and walk on.
I decided at this point to follow the guard, although not entirely certain of what I was going to do but ushered on by his complete disregard for littering laws.
As he turned from O’Connell street onto Henry street I decided to take action and stepped up to him explaining that I wanted to ask him a few question for a sociology project I was doing on the current state of the police force.
First I told him that I’d witnessed him remove the can from the 3 young lads and I asked him why he did that. He explained that it was against the law to drink on the street, I pressed on asking what that Law was and he commented that it was a By Law.
Satisfied with that response I continued and asked him why he put the can down 30 foot on from where the young lads were still sitting when there was another law in place to prevent littering, He mumbled something in agreement as his earlier stance of authority quickly morphed into one of embarrassed guilt, any righteousness remaining draining from his shuffling feet.
“I’m not sure”, he responded guiltily after I queried the name of the littering law in place that ought to have prevented him from leaving the can on the street.
I then asked him for his badge number [215], thanked him and continued home.
It seemed this fresh-faced figure of authority had no interest in abiding or even knowing the same laws he was so quick to enforce.
This is not an attempt to slander the Gardai Siochana. This is a call to arms for us all to become ‘Keepers of the peace’.
Lets not see the Police as the enemy but rather a tool to protect us in times of need (i.e. intervening in domestic violence situations when authorised, picking up drunken bodies off the street, comforting victims of theft or rape), and this tool like all will occasionally need to be repaired or revised.