Nov 10, 2010

Students protested, gardaí brutalised and the media covered it up

Last Wednesday 25 000 students marched on the Dept of Finance to protest the proposed doubling of "registration" fees. Various news outlets reported that Eirigi and extreme lefty organisations attacked gardaí and spoiled the day for everyone. Gardaí reported injuries.

Irish Times

Gardaí began removing protesters they had previously trapped in the lobby. There were physical altercations between them and a female garda was struck. Some protesters put up strong resistance to gardaí, kicking out as they sought to remove them. Some of the protesters exited the building with evidence of a beating on their faces... One hoodie-clad youth alongside picked up a piece of timber and threw it at the foyer, from where the protesters were being removed

Independent 

When those pensioners stood up to a Government threatening them with cuts they were regarded as being brave and merry. Yet when students embark upon the same journey they are branded as disgraceful and violent.


RTE

A number of people were injured during scuffles with gardaí on Merrion Row, while three gardaí received medical attention after being injured by objects thrown by protestors. One garda was admitted to hospital with a broken nose, the other two gardaí were treated at the scene for minor injuries.

TV3

Witnesses said a brick and eggs were thrown at the building and that a group of about 15 students made it inside. Gardaí later ejected them.

USI president Gary Redmond condemned the violence loudly and on every media outlet he could get on. And the whole thing was dismissed.

Until modern technology showed what actually happened. YouTube videos show the excessive violence used by the gardaí. Violence starts about 3:00







If you don't want to watch them all, here are some stills

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There are plenty of questions that need answering.

Why did the riot police advance on a peaceful crowd?
Why did gardaí bludgeon people sitting on the ground?
Why were horses raced into a departing crowd?
Why did the media not mention the police brutality?
Why did the media focus only on the eggs thrown by the students?
Who authorised excessive force?
Who is making the incompetent decisions?

Who seriously sends riot police, K9 units, mounted gardaí and guards on wheels into a non attacking crowd? That often lead to deaths and serious injuries. Clearly the powers that be have been anticipating a rioting populace. This time it was students protests hikes in registration costs. What will happen when it is a group of people who have nothing left to lose, can't feed their families and have been evicted?

Fachtna Murphy should not be allowed to retire. He should be fired by the Minister for Justice. But the Irish government does not read the writing on the wall. The fundamentalist Minister for Justice is too busy passing restrictive, mediaeval blasphemy laws.


In Thud, Terry Pratchett, now the adjunct professor in the School of English in TCD, wrote quite a bit on the relationship between the police force and the people

You see your people looking at you and wondering whose side you're on, yes? Well, you're on the side of the people, which is where the law ought to be. All the people, I mean, who're out there beyond the mob, who're fearful and puzzled and scared to go out at night. Now, funnily enough, the idiots who're out there right in front of you getting their self-defence in first are also the people

The people that the gardaí were battering and brutalising are the same people whose human rights they are supposed to uphold, at least according to section 2 paragraph 7.1(c) of the Garda Síochána Act of 2005. So much for the Guardians of the Peace.

ETA: Obviously, this does not refer to all the gardaí who upload the law and work with people.

2 comments:

Edufactory said...

And the issue still continues - RTE has claimed that 200 people were on tonights march to protest against Garda brutality, the Irish Times says 500.

http://free-education.info/photos-student-protest-against-garda-brutality/

One Man said...

IT’S TIME FOR THE IRISH PEOPLE TO RISE
11 November 2010 by TPC