ANTI-DRUG activists in Dublin are to meet on Friday to decide whether they should abandon cooperation with the Garda.
Activists are divided on whether gardai should be refused access to their meetings or information about marches, following what they say has been a period of "harassment" of campaigners by the force. However, a large number of them now appear to believe that co-operation should be ended.
The Garda's Assistant Commissioner responsible for the Dublin area, Mr Tom King, said last night there was "no question of harassing anybody who is not breaking the law" and he wanted continued co-operation with anti-drug groups.
The Sinn Fein councillor, Mr Christy Burke, said the Garda had turned against campaigners and any co-operation with the force was over. "That's it, it's all off," he said.
Mr Tim O'Brien, chairman of the Inner City Organisations Network (ICON), which leads the anti-drug movement in the north inner city, said gardai were "putting a wedge between themselves and the communities".
Mr Tony Gregory, the Independent TD for Dublin Central, said Garda actions had "placed a question mark over ICON taking part in any inter-agency drug projects". He said he could not understand why gardai were making so much effort to target anti drug activists, and had done so little to tackle drug-dealers. "People have time and again gone to the gardai with complaints about drug-dealers, and nothing was ever done about it."
Mr King said co-operation between campaigners and the force was better in some parts of the city than in others, but policing depended on the co-operation of the people.