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| Street Party in Dublin national | miscellaneous | news report  Tuesday May 07, 2002 23:24 by Anna Banana Around 800-1000 people converged on Dublin's city centre to participate in a 'street party' and to help us 'imagine what a city without cars could be like'. From the well-publicised meeting point at the GPO, the crowd moved to Burgh Quay where a barrier had been placed across the road. The fire brigade were brought out to break the barrier but it was there just long enough for the party to begin. A motley crew of actors, acrobats, performers, musicians, dancers, body painters, and children succeeded in creating a community space where normally there are cars and trucks belching out pollution. Most of the party-goers had dressed for the occasion and many had brought flags, banners, subverted signs, gardening materials, bondage outfits, faeries, dryads and other tree life. At this point the Gardai were on the whole amiable enough. When an old car (previously prepared) was wheeled onto the street for a symbolic execution the police moved in, effectively to rescue the banger, and there was a stand-off for half an hour with minor scuffles and a few arrests. The police eventually got their car and everyone returned to the party. Gardai attack party-goers With the party on the quay coming to a close, th participants started to make their way to the garden of the Civic Offices on Wood Quay to disperse. There were protests at the attempt by an unmarked Garda car to drive through the crowd at high speed. Shortly afterwards, the crowd was pushed on to Dame Street where Garda vehicles were coming from all directions. Gardai were jumping out of cars and vans and drawing their batons. About 200 people, including passers-by, were penned in on the footpath and then attacked by the baton-wielding Gardai, as bus passengers and families in cars watched in disbelief. In all, 22 people were arrested (including an Irish Independent photographer) and over a dozen hospitalised. There were wide reports that Gardai involved in the violence removed their identification numbers (which is illegal), though the Garda Press Office claim that some of them may not have had time to collect their jackets. Legal Defense Group A legal defense group has been set up to deal with issues arising from the behaviour of the Gardai, and a solicitor has been retained to persue legal action against them. All those who were assaulted by the Gardai, or witnessed an assault, are being urged to make contact (see related link below). |
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Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4I'm sure most people will remember the taxi strike which brought most of the city to a standstill and put children into the front lines passed virtually unhindered by police.
Same goes for the Farmers protest last year, and the hauliers "go slow" protests.
The only damage to property I saw was a flag and some banners etc broken by police. Also, they herded people along the streets making it dangerous to go in the opposite direction. Do these fools think that traffic control on a bank holiday is more important than the democratic right to protest?
Evidently so. And if that nutter without shirt, cap or number on college green looked bad, imagine being interrogated in a closed cell with this person? I'm sure its happened and bears further investigation, the "no comment" stance reminding me of a certain other inassialible Irish institution.
Neogeo,
you make an excellent point. If the Gardai are prepared to behave like this in public then one can only imagine what they are like in private. It's a pity that the people out partying in the street weren't busy trying to subvert the planning system or sell Irish passports or engage in any criminal activity: if they had been then the Gardai would have been kow-towing to them and sending Garda outriders to beat the other citizens off the street.
Seriously though, it's time for prisoner support, for the Globalisation movement to expand its remit to taking care of the marginalised in our own society: prisoners are frequently abused and mistreated and get little or no support. This situation is left un-commented on, in the same way that sexual-abuse by priests, sexual-abuse in the family, forced-pregnancy, discrimination against Travellers and other horrors are ignored or condoned by our "Christian" society.
Let's spread our movement to take care of people that are treated far worse than we were during the party.
The pigs don't know what they've started.
A couple of things sprang to mind -
We don't have the right to a telephone call when arrested as in the US.
Ireland is still has a very rigid social structure. Nearly all our political parties would be considered right wing or centre by Nordic/Euro standards. Taxi Drivers et al, are more "respectable" in the eyes of the police. Also, they are disused to legitimate civil disorder of any kind (not that this is what this was) and so tend to prefer brute force, as they would in dealing with hooligans or drunks. In short, if a guard asks you to do something, you do it. And fuck your civil rights - well that's the attitude I've encountered. "Peaceful protest" is NOT in their dictionary. You are either moving off pretty quickly or can expect a knock round the head.
If they had left the protest alone it would of dispersed of its own accord, probably earlier and without incident. Hardly surprising, the certain muck savage element within the police have little time for alternative dublin types.
In short, no public or private institution should be left to police itself - and we see with the church what happens when one is. And if the police treat people like scumbags, what can they expect in return?
Anyhow, this is still a very conservative country, and the day when a guard thinks twice about bashing a protester about the head is a very long way off.
Hmm.... Maybe David Trimble had a few points
Ireland IIRC was described as one of the most centralized and authoritarian countries in the EU in a EU-commissioned report about local government a couple of years ago.
That type of control machinery forces people to comply with it and become corrupt and authoritarian if they want to advance materially (or else they have to overthrow it).
I notice that there's a lot of ire channelled specifically and only toward the lanky skin-head with the baton beating the crap out of the person onthe ground. I understand that and support the anger towards that animal, however, we must remember that his bosses (some present, some not) also bear responsibility and facilitated this criminal assault just as much as that individual Garda. Any punishments, investigations, changes have to hit the senior ranks of the Gardai and their political masters as well as those that DIRECTLY carried out the criminal assaults.