to think these Gardai (Police) are the scum of the earth?

[MadMags]

Hello all,

First time posting. I'm that horrified that I've come out of lurk-land for this.

Background:

Gardai (Police) in Mayo, Ireland arrest 2 women who are protesting at the site of Shell Oil. One of the women had a video camera. While the women were being escorted to the station in Gardai cars, the video camera continued to record in a car which held a Sergeant as well as other policemen.

When the woman got her camera back the next day she reviewed the material and heard the entire conversation from the car, although the screen is mostly back since the camera was in a bag. The gardai, instigated by the sergeant make several references to raping one of the women!

Bascially, along the lines of Sergeant: "give me your name and address or I'll rape you". Garda: "Ah now Jim, she's been living in that crusty camp, you wouldn't know what you'd catch".

And several other comments along the lines of "give me your name or I'll rape you" and "I'll rape you anyway".

There is a video and the conversation in question is at about 13 minutes, 30 seconds in.

vimeo.com/21952231

Sorry this is so long but I am OUTRAGED! This is disgusting. I'm shocked and can't help but feel that I would hate to have to report a vile, sexual assault to these "men". I'm not sure yet what will happen to the gardai in question.

I am surely not BU!

I assumed it was the X case which was being referenced, hence my confusion now. As you say in that case the supreme court upheld the girls constitutional right to travel.
Mentions of the House of Lords has thrown me now though as to exactly what njinsky is referencing

Maybe she means the Senate?

Jesus christ I live in Mayo! Those poor women :( The Gardai are vile creatures!

The Senate doen't decide any cases though.

i think she may be talking about the x case but doesn't have her facts straight as clearly indicated by her original post on the issue

nijinsky - you are being offensive and racist

njiinsky could you clarify as to what case you were referring when a) the Irish courts prevented a 12 year old girl from travelling to get an abortion and b) what Irish case you believe was presided over by the HOL "a few years back"

Shocking! I am relieved it was tape recorded.

I can't find the reference without doing major research because it is an Irish case. It seems there were two cases. I am referring to the one perhaps 15 years ago which prevented a 12 year old girl travelling to the UK for an abortion when she was pregnant through rape. It seems there is another later case on a similar point. My bad - I just don't have the time or resources to fully reference these cases, but it does seem that there were two such cases?

How on earth can a modern country treat children who are raped in this manner? Even if it happened 20 years ago, its still just as likely to happen today. Considering how women in Ireland obtain abortion, how can you expect people to believe anything other than that it is not a misogynistic, old fashioned country?

it is less shocking when you realise they weren't actually talking to teh women. just be boors amongst themselves

But there's no case where the courts have stopped a child from travelling to obtain a rape. The major case was the X-case, where the girls right to travel was vindicated by the highest court in the land as a constitutional right. You can't get more vindicated than that.

No other case comes to my mind, and the fact that you are saying it was being dealt with by the HOL makes me think that no such case exists in Irish case law.

*obtain an abortion due to rape

i think they have to be fired, tbh: threatening corrective rape is not banter. the behaviour of the protesters in mayo is neither here nor there, the function of the gardai does not include assault on the citizenry. i can't even to begin to explain my alarm at the mindset this tape reveals and i think the only way to reassure the public that the gardai in no circumstance think that rape is anything other than a heinous crime, is to sack these officers at the earliest opportunity.

i am not holding my breath, however.

they didn't threaten anyone. (i am not condoning them btw)

you think the person to whom a threat is directed has to be present for it to constitute a threat?

Mayorquimby - speaking purely from memory, I do not think that the older case to which I'm referring went to HL. If it did, it would have presumably been too late for a safe abortion. Your reference to the Supreme Court re the other case confused me, as I knew it couldn't have been the Supreme Court at that time.

You seem to know more about Irish law than me. Is it the case that a child raped in Ireland would have to appeal to the Supreme Court for an abortion, or would it be granted now as of automatic right?

And do you think that the remarks of the type by these police officers are not a breach of the common law duty of trust and confidence owed by employees to their employers? Therefore theres little issue of precedents being set, because this duty is as old as the hills?

Duplicitous Bitch "it is less shocking when you realise they weren't actually talking to teh women. just be boors amongst themselves"

I don't know what shocks me more. The actual remarks by the officers, or the people making excuses for them and suggesting it should all be treated as a big joke.

nijinsky the most polite thing I can think of is you have your facts all mixed up. The only case remotely similar to what you are talking about is the X-Case en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attorney_General_v._X

As for 'I can't find the reference without doing major research because it is an Irish case' -what are you talking about? Time or resources? Google and Wikipedia take seconds to search. I posit you can't find the case because it doesn't exist!

As for 'my grandfather was Irish, and told me about it.' -that's pretty weak. heresay much?

And the rest of your post was pretty offensive. You went to a Uni where all the Irish lads were drunkards, half mental and treated women like shit???

I've lived in Ireland all my life and never found any such thing.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attorney_General_v._X

Nijinsky, it sounds like you are describing many of the posters in relationships. The attitudes that you describe come up on MN again and again, yet it has never occurred to me to assume this is relates to nationality. Either M is overrun with Irish people, or maybe there are a lot of misogynists and poor sexual encounters and relationships out there. How large would you say your sample is? What makes you believe it is representative? Your use of the term 'them" sounds very generalising to me. I know a lot of Irish men, and a lot of English men and I couldn't generalise about either nation on the basis of those I know. I feel that there's been a lot of tall talk contributing to your prejudices. It's interesting you mention alcoholism and depression yet clearly don't see these as problems for the Scots, who have stastically as many issues in this regard. The anal sex comment is just weird. I am surprised you consider your views to represent those that would be considered ok by an educated person, and I wonder how this might relate to your experience of your university peers. Your own views are pretty simplistic and reprehensible and perhaps you keep poor company.

i am not making excuses i am just stating the facts. i was really horrified when i thought they had actually said it to the woman but less so when i realised they hadn't.

nijinsky what a load of offensive bollocks. I'm Irish and know many lovely men who are horrified by this case. Of course there are twats too, but having actually lived in both the UK and Ireland I'd say the proprtion of arseholes is about the same in both countries.

working9while5 - I'm not speaking in a professional capacity and am free to give my own opinions on this - its only an internet forum after all! (and since I'm self employed I'm not that restricted). I can only comment from personal experience, and that personal experience has been of misogynism.

It doesn't affect anything I do. Its more of a personal awareness, a waryness of a difference in attitudes, which I have about me as I travel quite a lot and meet a lot of people from different places.

(I know Scots men have their problems (who hasn't heard of the west coast wife beating stereotype), but they don't generally afflict highly educated individuals to the same degree - its less widespread and more easily avoided).

nijinsky

Your long post reminded me of a old teacher we told us never to sit next to a black man on a bus as they he might follow you home and bite your neck (????) bit sad to know her kind of silliness is alive and kicking.

People are people there's good bad and indifferent in all races.

Here is a transcript of the tapes (Irish Times Tuesday, April 5, 2011)

Transcript