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Machine Pistols everywhere – But different consequences!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Machine Pistols everywhere – But different consequences!

There were two machine pistol-related articles in TheJournal.ie last week and there are two completely different consequences coming from the discovery of these guns.

The first article on Wednesday explained that a “member of the public” FOUND a fully-loaded submachine gun belonging to no other than the Garda Siochana. The gun was in a bag in the boot of an armed Garda unit car and it fell out of the car for currently still unknown reasons. The gun was luckily brought to Store Street Garda station and was handed in.

As a consequence of the incident, “A senior Garda officer has been appointed to examine all the circumstances relating to an incident involving an armed unit in Dublin city centre today.”

The second article on Friday described that also on Wednesday a car was stopped in Drogheda and the driver of the car had a large amount of prescription tablets. She was arrested and during a follow-on search a machine pistol and a ammunition were found in a parked car in Drogheda.

The consequence in this case is that the woman will be in court tomorrow and will be charged in connection with the discovery of the machine pistol.

The two stories have nothing to do with each other. In one case it was seemingly a criminal and/or dissident republican that had the gun and ammunition in the car to be used for illegal activities. In the other case it was the law enforcement authorities that had the pistol, but lost it.

Interestingly, though, both sides have very similar weapons and I would always prefer that the law enforcers have better and a lot more weapons than the criminals. The other interesting aspect is that a large part of the Gardai (is it still the majority?) are not armed at all, while the criminals have machine pistols in their cars. Is that a good situation? Me thinks: NO!

And the final aspect: Imagine that Garda machine pistol had been picked up by the “wrong” person. I’d say the Gardai didn’t even realise that it fell out of their car until MUCH later … with no idea where exactly it fell out. :-O Clearly machine pistols are popular in Ireland and finding one on the streets of Dublin is like winning the lottery for the right criminal.

About the consequences: Clearly the Gardai were authorised to have the gun, but the loss of it will hopefully have some consequences for the careless Gardai. And the woman in Drogheda? I wouldn’t be surprised if she will be released again “and a file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecution”. If that happens you really have to wonder what a stupid legal system we have in Ireland.

Irish, Justice, , ,

Are Irish judges idiots??

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Are Irish judges idiots??

It seems that there is no end to astonishing decisions by judges in Ireland. This could be a case where drunk driving gets a little slap on the wrist or where the theft of social welfare money will be “rewarded” with the thief getting away with no punishment at all.

Last week another amazing story made it from the courts into the newspapers. The court decision that is absolutely unbelievable is already from 2013/2016 and the reason why it is appearing now again is because thankfully the losing party has appealed the decision to the High Court and I can only hope that the 2016 decision will be overturned.

According to an article in the Irish Independent, this is what happened:

A guy entered a pub in Rathmines one evening in April 2013. He ordered a pint and put EUR 10 on the counter. The barman picks up the EUR 10 note and says that this note is fake and possibly 10 other people in the pub heard that. The customer claimed that he got the note from the post office and therefore the note was not fake. Then the customer claims that he went to the Rathmines Garda Station, the note was tested and he was told that it is perfect. He then returned to the bar and told the barman what the garda said. The next day the customer went to his solicitor and sued the pub for defamation.

Sounds like a simple story, but I am still waiting for where the customer was defamed. The Circuit Court was totally on the customer’s side and awarded EUR 5,000 to the customer.

This is a super odd case, so keep reading, it gets a lot more interesting.

But let’s look at the definition of defamation first. A defamatory statement is one which tends to injure a person’s reputation in the eyes of reasonable members of society. So if the pub had been empty, the customer would not have been awarded a cent. But because there were some people in the pub that MIGHT have heard that the barman stated that this was fake money, it could be defamation. But it is ONLY defamation if the statement “injures a person’s reputation”. With the huge amounts of fake money going around, I think a lot more people than we know have handled fake notes. And if we assume that you might get a fake note as change and because most of us do not check every note we get, I think it is not certain that a person’s reputation is automatically damaged if somebody thinks that the money you have is fake.

We can all FEEL to be defamed, but that doesn’t mean our reputation actually did suffer!

But it continues!! Oddly, it turns out, that the customer did NOT go to the Garda Station in Rathmines and NO Garda confirmed that the money was “perfect”. The two gardai on duty that night said that nobody came with a potentially fake note and that they also don’t have a machine to check money. Wow! So did the the customer tell a big fat lie?

Could that also mean that he did not get this note from the post office? Not that getting a note from a post office is a guarantee that it is not fake, but possibly the money was NOT from a source that is perceived to be reputable. Allegedly he told the barman that he got it from a “bookies or a shop” but in court the customer claimed that he said he got it from the Post Office.

Looks to me that the customer’s statements might not be the most reliable? How can the Circuit Court in a situation like force the pub to give him EUR 5,000?

Was that Circuit Court judge asleep? Odd!!

Dublin, Justice, Odd, , , , ,

The Tide has turned: Eighth Amendment!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
The Tide has turned: Eighth Amendment!

The Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution from 1983 puts the right to life of the unborn on an equal standing with the mother’s right to life and is a hard fought over legal clause. The opponents are mainly the “Pro Choice” campaigners and the group that fights for the keeping of this clause are on the Anti-Abortion side. Interestingly though, that clause doesn’t mention abortion at all and its removal would not automatically mean that abortion is legalised, but as long as it is in the constitution it indirectly makes abortion illegal.

For that reason – and this is the only point the two groups agree on – the Anti-Abortion campaigners are convinced that a change of the Eighth Amendment will open the doors for abortion, something they are determined to fight as hard as possible. The Pro-Choice side also is of the opinion that the change (or removal) of the Eighth Amendment will legalise abortion.

In April 2017, the Citizen Assembly, a group of 99 Irish citizens who had the job to decide about what to do with this clause in the constitution because the political parties were too cowardly to make a decision, voted that the clause should be replaced or amended, but not removed. They further decided that abortion should be regulated in the normal body of law and NOT in the constitution. This was a very sensible approach many think. It is not at all an automatic legalisation of abortion, but removes a clause from the constitution that shouldn’t have never been put in there, because constitutions should be a lot more on a foundation level and not get into details.

The public opinion is very much divided about abortion in general and the two sides are so deeply opposed that no compromise will ever be possible.

A referendum will have to decide what happens with the Eighth Amendment and that referendum will happen in the summer as it seems. Most importantly it will NOT be a referendum about abortion, but only about the future of that clause in the constitution.

Until now it was very unclear what the outcome of the referendum might be. Opinion polls seem to indicate a majority for a form of repeal of the clause, but opinion polls can be very unreliable and since the main politicians hadn’t declared their opinion about it, there were still a LOT of question marks over the decision of their party followers.

It seems however that the tide has turned now! Michael Martin, the leader of Fianna Fail, has changed his opinion and is now in favour of removing the clause and Leo Varadkar, the leader of Fine Gael and Taoiseach, has indicated that he also supports the removal of the clause. The opinion of the two party leaders doesn’t mean that the referendum is now more or less decided. The opinions in the public don’t usually swing with the political leaders and they both have made clear that they will not tell their parliamentarians how to decide, but will allow a free vote. On the other hand, though, the clear declaration by both in favour of removing the clause from the constitution is a significant event in the process.

It should be noted for people that are not fully aware of the “Irish solution” to the abortion problem, that the clause never stopped abortion! Instead, women who felt that an an abortion was their only option, travelled to the UK for it. So it was a totally ineffective clause in the constitution!

Please note that the above description focuses on the Eighth Amendment and does NOT discuss the pros and cons of abortion AT ALL, I am also intentionally not taking any sides on abortion it is a MUCH to complex issue for this publication and this section. But I realised in the last six months through questions that people who only came to Ireland in recent years asked me, that the confusion about the Eighth Referendum is HUGE and since it has always been an oddity to me that the constitution covers this one singled out topic while while other very relevant aspect are not considered there, I decided to write about it.

If you asked me, I would be happy to state that it is my opinion that the Eighth Amendment should be removed because I think the laws of a country should deal with all legal issues and abortion belongs in this category.

You disagree? I 100% respect your opinion and I hope you respect mine. The good news for you – if you disagree – is, that I won’t be allowed to vote in the referendum. So don’t worry about me or my opinion. :-)

You can send me your opinion if you feel like it, but don’t expect an answer from me. I am not interested in discussing the pros or cons of abortion!

Irish, Justice, Politics, Society, Taoiseach, , , , , , ,

ID Cards for Ireland? – Storm in a Tea Cup

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
ID Cards for Ireland? – Storm in a Tea Cup

There are passports in Ireland and most people have one, but for some strange reason some people in Ireland are totally and passionately against any type of ID Card system and currently there is a huge amount of panic amongst that group of people. I really can’t understand why that is! But then I read something that worried even me!

It all started with a report in the newspapers about a woman who’s pension was withheld because she didn’t agree to getting a Social Services Card. We are told that there are currently close to 3mio Social Services Cards issued to people in Ireland and with all children excluded and a population of around 4.7mio, that seems like a huge amount. The card was initially used to combat Social Welfare fraud, but it seems it is now unnecessarily also used for lots of other things and that seems to panic people.

The unnecessary uses of the card are in areas where it seemingly is used as an ID Card, for example if you want to do a driver theory test or if you want to apply for or renews a drivers license or a passport. There is NO need to use a “Public Services Card” in these cases. Instead it should be absolutely find to bring your passport as ID. (The worldwide joke of having to bring some other forms of identity to renew a passport is something I will write about another time. ;-) )

There is no obligation to have a passport AND there is no obligation to have a Public Services Card, but it seems without the Public Services Card you can’t get any services so there is a form of obligation.

But let me pick the pieces apart first:
1) Is an form of ID Card justified for people that receive Social Welfare? I absolutely think so. It helps fighting against fraud.
2) Should a Public Services Card be used for all the other services I have mentioned above? Absolutely not if the person has a passport instead. Sure it can be an option to ID yourself, but only ONE option.
3) Is the Public Services Card a National ID card? No! It isn’t and it doesn’t look like one BUT it is used like an ID card and therefore the principle of “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it most likely is a duck” will apply.

Now SHOULD there be a National ID Card? I definitely think so! It does make sense to have a form of ID (instead of having to bring two household bills!!) but the use of the information “behind” the ID Card has to regulated and should be limited and that is where even I have concerns about the ability of the Irish government and state to protect its citizens.

As you know, I am German. In Germany we have National ID Cards (called Personalausweis) since 1951!! And the requirement to always have an ID card with you was introduced in 1939 and nobody has a problem with this law. I never experienced any problem due to the fact that I had an ID Card or that I had to carry it with me all the time and even today in Ireland, I always have my ID Card with me.

So what is the panic? It seems that the panic is caused by the fear of how the authorities could do bad things to you if they know who you are. BUT they can arrest you anyway if you do something bad with or without ID Card and if you don’t do anything bad then they should not be interested in you, right?

Well, in Germany (and other countries) the system seems to work and you wonder if this panic is just a storm in a tea cup!? A panic about some imaginary risk that will never happen?

But then I read the article in the Irish Times about the person that found her car registration details in the records of the Department of Social Protection. Information that they should have NO access to because every department should only have access to the information they need for their own business.

And when you realise that most likely the Irish government WILL screw this up again and will share information across all departments even if they shouldn’t. Then suddenly you wonder if the worries of the panicking privacy defenders and ID Card opponents are maybe a lot more plausible than it should be?

Irish, Justice, Politics, Society, Uncategorized, , , , , ,

Senior gardai will get honesty lessons!?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Senior gardai will get honesty lessons!?

Senior gardai will get honesty lessons!?

The gardai in Ireland were part of more scandals in recent years than they should have been. There was the corruption that was revealed by whistleblower Sergeant McCabe, then he was bullied and accused of a lot of things incorrectly. penalty points were deleted by gardai and more recently totally wrong and over-exaggerated number of alcohol tests on Irish roads were published.

The amount of scandals are seriously worrying and something has to be done about it. But it is shocking nevertheless to see that the solution is to give lessons about the nine points of the Garda Ethics Code.

The Garda Ethics Code was launched seven months ago by Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald and was described as a “as a beacon to guide ethical behaviour in An Garda Síochána for years to come”.

It is clearly an example of “whatever you do is wrong”, because if nothing was done about the problem we would all shake our heads and complain. But when something is done, we also shake our head and complain. …just for different reasons.

My biggest question is if anybody really thinks a “Code of Ethics” will make a difference. A good, honest and upstanding Garda will be exactly that (good, honest and upstanding) before and after the training and why would he need that training?? And a dodgy and dishonest garda will not suddenly out of the blue repent and turn his life around and become honest. So, is that Code of Ethics just a joke? Pretending to do something?

How did this make it into the news? The Office of Government Procurement is looking for a suitable provider who will give classes about the “Garda Code of Ethics” to 1000 gardai. That Code of Ethics is about upholding the laws, acting with honesty and integrity, speaking up and reporting any wrongdoing or corrupt, unethical or unprofessional behaviour of colleagues.

All topics seem to be exactly the traits that you expect as natural and minimum requirements for someone who is a gardai and it is not a good sign that all senior gardai need to be trained on it. It is also not a good sign that only the senior gardai will be trained. Is it expected that they will brief the rest OR are only senior gardai not honest YET OR is there no hope for the rest?

And why did it take seven months from launching this Code of Ethics until teaching the 1000 about it?

Quite odd this whole situation and definitely not what we would have thought our gardai to be.

Justice, Politics, , ,
 
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