THE independent TD Mr Tony Gregory has attacked the Garda's "total failure" in dealing with Dublin's drugs problem.
At the weekend Drugs in Dublin conference, organised by Dublin Corporation, he accused Assistant Garda Commissioner Tom King of indulging in public relations.
"I've been listening to this stuff from Tom King for some time now," he said, "but we have been living with this nightmare in the north inner city this past 15 years" and the Garda "just did not put in the resources". The area had been "devastated" by drugs. The people responsible had not been caught and were "living in England, Amsterdam, or Spain".
"One hundred young people" had lost their lives due to inaction "by all the State agencies", he said. "All this trendy PR sounds great," he continued, "but it hasn't percolated down through the ranks of the gardai." Superintendents and chief superintendents "had driven by" ignoring the problem "until the community itself stopped it". Gardai were "claiming credit", saying Dochas was what made the difference, he said.
He also criticised the system whereby allegations that anti drugs activists were beaten by gardai were being investigated by gardai.
Mr King apologised if the words he said "came over as PR". He was not in the business of PR, I am in the business of community service", he said.
A Sinn Fein councillor, Mr Christy Burke, criticised the Garda's focus on activists, 23 of whom had been arrested in the north inner city. He also said that over the Christmas period, gardai, appeared to have taken a break from their Dochas activities, with the result that local confidence in the force was low. "Elderly people [in the area] are now reporting crime to the local drugs groups.
Mr King said there had been no relaxation in Dochas over Christmas, and he asked Mr Burke whether gardai should ignore it if anti drugs activists engaged in criminal activity. He quoted an instance where gardai had recovered 17 bottles full of petrol at the scene of one anti drugs protest.
"We want drug pushers, murderers, harassed," said Mr John White of Inner City Organisations Network, "we don't want activists harassed."
Mr King also spoke of Garda difficulties "with a small band of people", whom he knew by name, who "wish to divide us" (the gardai from the community).
During a question and answer session at the end of the conference, Mr Kieran Browning, from Hardwicke Street, said "a known drug pusher" was being given 24 hour Garda protection. This man had been "banned from driving for life", he said, and "is being chauffeur driven around the city by police". He wanted to know "who are the police working with, the drug pushers who sell death to our children, or the community?"
Mr King said he knew who was being referred to. He has asked that the matter be investigated but added that "this man's life must be protected".
Father Edmond Grace SJ, chairman of Hardwicke Street Tenant Association, said people in the area "realise our criminal process has failed". "How do we do what justice requires to this man, he is a known criminal?"
There had to be some way of "fast tracking" ways of dealing with organised crime, he said. "People want to see the beef." He spoke of the sense of "trauma and betrayal [felt] by a socially ghettoised city" which had been "alienated by 20 years of abandonment by government". What was happening in those communities now, the "situation of rage and anxiety", was what happened when tyranny was overthrown.
