Parts of Cork city have become “no go areas” with people losing faith in the gardaí, according to Independent councillor Ken O’Flynn, who was reacting to a violent street brawl on the main thoroughfare of Patrick Street which has been widely shared online.
In the video, two men are seen fighting each other, with one man throwing the other onto the bonnet of a passing car.
Cllr O’Flynn, of Cork North Central, told Newstalk Breakfast that members of the public just want to feel safe as they go around their business in the city.
“When I say there are certain areas that are no-go, there are certainly parts of the city that people feel at-risk in and feel worried out. I have constituents contacting me, texting me or engaging in social media with me telling me how they feel unsafe in the city, how they’re afraid for their children going into the city at night, how they’re afraid for their elderly parents going into the city doing their day-to-day business.”
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He called for more visibility of gardaí on the streets of the city. “Unfortunately we’re not seeing them out on the beat... people have lost faith in the services that the gardaí can provide. Gardaí on the ground are doing a marvellous job, but I speak to gardaí every day of the week nearly engaging on different issues. And they’re telling me ‘Look our pin is to the collar, we don’t have enough resources, we don’t have enough people on the ground.’”
He said Cork had seen an increase in violent behaviour. “This is not an isolated incident on Monday... We’ve had a stabbing a couple of weeks ago in the city centre in the middle of the day. We’ve had a situation where we’ve had violence breakout in the middle of traffic again in MacCurtain Street about two weeks ago, and I’ve witnessed myself open-drug dealing.”
