Vigilantes.

[sheelbee]

With the breakdown of law and order and the understandable disinterest of police and judiciary due to the revolving door policy is it time for citizens to enforce common law ?

[Red Biddy]

I dont think so

[sheelbee]

I dont think so

Today I spoke with a dear friend whose house was ransacked while he and his wife slept (thank god they didn't wake). I spoke with another friend a Guard who had 3 colleagues badly beaten by a gang of louts, 1 guard had to leave the force due to his injuries, a family friend (newly appointed Judge) confided in me that he had no confidence in the system. He had sent a thug down for 6 months for a serious assault and was aghast to see him at a bus stop 2 days later. Yet our system sends 7,500 to prison for non payment of fines.............

[Napper Tandy]

With the breakdown of law and order and the understandable disinterest of police and judiciary due to the revolving door policy is it time for citizens to enforce common law ?

So what are Irish crime rates like these days say compared with 20 years ago?

I have to say I am against vigilantes because it often attracts very shady people when a back ground check is run on them or people pushing an agenda more than keeping the crime rate low in their area. Balbriggan had a break in problem last year and with the wonders of social media it sounded like a bad day in Kabul everyday for a week or two. A "concerned citizen" group was organised to help patrol the estates but I couldn't help noticing some of the chief spokes people were either involved in security business as bouncers with republican connections or selling cctv. How do you ensure vigilanty groups are run by fit and proper people?

[Womblemum]

So what are Irish crime rates like these days say compared with 20 years ago?

I have to say I am against vigilantes because it often attracts very shady people when a back ground check is run on them or people pushing an agenda more than keeping the crime rate low in their area. Balbriggan had a break in problem last year and with the wonders of social media it sounded like a bad day in Kabul everyday for a week or two. A "concerned citizen" group was organised to help patrol the estates but I couldn't help noticing some of the chief spokes people were either involved in security business as bouncers with republican connections or selling cctv. How do you ensure vigilanty groups are run by fit and proper people?

I agree Napper. It is a worrying situation. I think back to when we had COCAD...community against Drugs...it turned out that lthe driving force behind many of the groups were had strong republican links and while it seemed to work and get rid of the dealers they were quickly replaced by dealers with republican links!!!! I know times were different then but the point being that it is the judicial system that needs to be bulked up. If a judge hands down a sentence it HAS to be enforced otherwise what is the point of the Gardai using time to bring someone to court. If I refused to accept the ruling of the court I would be held in contempt so why is the Minister of Justice who signs the release warrant not equally guilty of contempt? He is NOT upholding the decision of the court.
I do think that the "text alert" system which is in place is some areas down the country is a brilliant idea. They have had great results using it where my daughter lives and break ins have gone down to almost zero as a result.

[Capt Patch]

Difficult one this ... I know there are times that you would just love to wallop (or worse) the "offenders" but it raises so many other problems that it's almost as bad as what yer trying to fight. My solution when the need arose was to met out my own retaliation without assistance or without the reciever being aware that it was me..... not that they could prove like.

So to this day , I've had the satisfaction of "an eye for an eye" but I've no idea wheather the wrongdoer has any idea if he was gort at by me.

If a neighbourhood is being abused the best you can do is to have a visable presence of citizans on the streets with cameras. Take a photo of suspicious conduct be it people or a car parked suspiciously or whatever but let the "victims" know that they have been photographed .... worked for me a few times (I think).

[tolka1]

With the breakdown of law and order and the understandable disinterest of police and judiciary due to the revolving door policy is it time for citizens to enforce common law ?

I have simple rules.....you do something on me or mine out of order i dont care about the "law" if the law didnt take care of it.
We had a guy owed a lot of young immigrants money which they had worked hard for and he wouldnt pay.
A travelling man from derry? asked if he could be of assistance to get our money and he got the o.k.
He got the money and it was divvied up among all the guys according to the hrs they had worked(long story).

We could have gone to court but would never have gotten all our money as thats the way the system works here just like in ireland ,the british system.

CAUTION............................Just make sure you are ABSOLUTELY certain you have your ducks in a row so you dont fluck up.

[Mykidsmom]

I agree guys, meaning captn and Tolka....ive used the eye for an eye system myself over the years.....willie is a lot more hmmmm how can i say it....grey comes to mind.........cos he tries to use the "system" mind you i see changes in him recently and the system is getting kicked back, this past 20 months have weaved their tole on him... lol.....i think my problem is ive no patience for the wheels of justice....
or faith that justice will prevail......
but regarding vigilante groups..nope i dont agree with them......

[judy]

the prison system is a joke here, it is time that they privatized the prisons so they could be run on a more efficient way, spike island should be opened up again for young offenders, i think a sentence should mean a sentence and must be served, but how can they do that when Mountjoy is over crowded and 100 years out of date, it is time they brought our prisons into this century

[Womblemum]

Maybe this could be tried?????



Sheriff Clint Low, in Mason County, Texas, was looking to cut down on repeat offenders in his small-town jail. Not only did he put all inmates in pink jumpsuits, he put them in pink shoes, pink underwear and pink socks. He painted cell walls pink and put in pink sheets and towels.

The effect: a 68% reduction in return customers, Low said.

"It's not about trying to humiliate people. It's simply that with them not liking it, they're embarrassed by it, and they don't want to come back," Low said.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Phoenix is a pioneer in the properties of pink. He started dying prisoners' underwear pink because they were smuggling them out to sell on the black market for the jail logo.

"Why would I give them a color they like?" he said. "They're in jail."

There may be more to the pink effect than outlaws not liking the color, according to Alexander Schauss, who first documented the effects of pink jail cells in the 1970s.

Before painting "drunk tanks" pink at the U.S. Naval Correctional Center in Seattle, the facility had an average of one assault on staff per day, said Schauss, senior director of natural and medicinal products research at AIBMR Life Sciences, in Puyallup, Wash. After it went pink, there was only one assault over the next six months, he said.

East St. Louis, Ill., has seen dramatic drops in vandalism and assaults by painting buses pink, and at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, violent inmates placed in all-pink rooms became less aggressive, Schauss said. Even thinking of pink has been shown to have a calming effect, he said.

© Copyright 2007, USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co., Inc.

[judy]

how about that, that's amazing, could you just imagine painting the inside of Mountjoy a bright pink and all the prisoners dressed in pink,does not bear thinking about lol

[Rashers]

Maybe this could be tried?????



Sheriff Clint Low, in Mason County, Texas, was looking to cut down on repeat offenders in his small-town jail. Not only did he put all inmates in pink jumpsuits, he put them in pink shoes, pink underwear and pink socks. He painted cell walls pink and put in pink sheets and towels........

He also allows cable television for the prisoners...... one channel, the Disney Channel.

[Womblemum]

He also allows cable television for the prisoners...... one channel, the Disney Channel.

No thats a different guy Rashers......his prison is a compound like a P O W camp and when the inmates complained that they had no tele he got a TV but only Dsney Channel on it lol. He also charges them for the food and laundry privileges. He has no repeat offenders!
There are quite a few jails in US that employ the "pink" ethos to varying degrees.

[Mykidsmom]

id go for that........pink everywhere.....

the prison system here is a joke.....the guy who murdered my g/friends sister is now out after 9 years, hes got a degree, housing, job training, free legal aid, his children being shipped to where ever he is for visitation......and the family who lost their sister, are almost bankrupt with legal fees dealing with online threats from him, having to move to avoid him showing up at their door, getting restraining orders to keep him away........as i said...a joke..

[Rashers]

No thats a different guy Rashers......his prison is a compound like a P O W camp and when the inmates complained that they had no tele he got a TV but only Dsney Channel on it lol. He also charges them for the food and laundry privileges. He has no repeat offenders!
There are quite a few jails in US that employ the "pink" ethos to varying degrees.

That must be the one who has a flashing neon light over the gate that says, Vacancies.... because in his jail 'guests' never return.