Month: August 2020

• 

I was a big fan of cop shows on TV back in the day and those of my vintage will remember the likes of Hill Street Blues, Ironside, Kojac and The Streets of San Francisco. If you watched Hawaii Five-0, you’ll know that Steve always told Danno to ‘book em’ while “Dirty Harry” maintained law and order with his trusty Magnum 45.

These programmes had a few things in common. The cops were the good guys and they always triumphed over the bad guys. There were plenty of ‘Punks’ to be arrested so you were guaranteed lots of shooting and car chases but there was never much blood. If the bad guy got shot, he almost certainly died while the good guy always survived no matter how much lead entered his body.

After a few days in hospital, the cop was right as rain and fit to return to work to continue the fight against crime. He didn’t have time to be sick.

Modern shows are more graphic. There’s no shortage of violence, blood and swearing and some of the cops make Dirty Harry look shy and retiring but maybe they’re only reflecting the violence evident in today’s society. In the real world, American police officers are gaining a reputation for being overly aggressive and recent events have shown they don’t always cover themselves in glory.

There was a video circulating on social media showing a police officer in the States stopping an older lady driving her car. She was asked for her driver’s licence, but she didn’t want to produce it and an argument ensued. She was obviously agitated and she certainly overreacted. The police officer was very professional initially, remaining calm and reasonable while being assertive at the same time, until the lady drove off.

After a short pursuit at normal speed, the car was stopped again. The argument continued and the officer pulled his gun and ordered her out of the car. While watching this unfold, I found myself telling the officer to put the gun away and just have a chat with the woman to see what’s really bothering her.

That didn’t happen though, and the lady continued to protest until she was physically removed from the car. Then there was a bit of pushing and shoving which led to her being tasered and she ended up on the ground. She was threatened with being tasered a second time and after a brief struggle she was handcuffed and taken away.

I wasn’t there so, obviously, I don’t know the full circumstances but to the casual observer, albeit one who spent thirty-five years as a policeman, this officer’s reaction was over the top. At first, he appeared to be in control, but then he allowed the incident to develop into chaos to the point where he was grappling on the ground with an elderly lady.

OK, so she wasn’t cooperative, but she wasn’t offering violence either. Judging by her behaviour, the woman had issues. She was definitely overly excited and unreasonable, but the officer didn’t appear to be in any danger. The situation got out of hand though and that made me wonder about his training.

If something like that were to happen in our jurisdiction, it would be dealt with differently. The emphasis would be placed on resolving the issue without resorting to force. That’s not always possible but initially she would be engaged in conversation to the point of exhaustion while family members were contacted, or medical attention was sought. An arrest would be the final option whereas in the US, it seems to be the first port of call.

The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis also raises questions about training. A police officer was filmed kneeling on the neck of the suspect for eight miniutes while he was in custody and that man subsequently died.

That led to clashes with police and the destruction of property in many cities across the country. Police tactics faced criticism after incidents of heavy-handed action triggered violence which created casualties on both sides.

Four officers were shot in St Louis, Missouri, one officer in Las Vegas was shot in the head and another in New York City was in serious condition after being hit by a car. In Atlanta, two police officers lost their jobs after using Tasers on two college students who had been sitting in a car. Six other officers were charged with various offences.

The relationship between the community and the police forces in some states appears to have disintegrated with complaints of racism and criminality being levelled against the very people charged with keeping the peace. Without the respect of the community, the police are facing a difficult task, and law and order will continue to be under serious strain.

We’re lucky to have a mainly unarmed police force in Ireland and one that still has the support of the community. Most of them anyway. That connection between the people and An Garda Siochana is a privilege and shouldn’t be taken for granted. It forms the backbone of policing in Ireland.

That relationship is fragile though. We saw that in the eighties when it broke down and the result was rising crime rates, large scale joy riding and criminal damage. Community policing was introduced to get us back on track and it worked but it didn’t happen overnight.

Mutual trust is a key ingredient in any relationship, and that takes time to develop which is why community engagement requires a long-term strategy. It’s well worth the effort though because properly trained and resourced community policing personnel will make it work. We know that from experience.

We don’t want to end up like our friends across the pond, fighting each other in the streets so let’s just keep talking.

• 

Paddy O’Gorman was interviewing people on RTE radio as they were coming and going from the local district court in Dublin. He wanted to get an insight into their personal lives and how they ended up appearing before a judge.

One guy told Paddy he had just spent the night in a cell in his local garda station. He had been arrested the previous evening for ‘burglary and breakin and enterin and things like that’.

He wasn’t sure what the specific charge was, but that didn’t bother him too much because he had more pressing issues with the justice system. He complained that the blankets in his cell were dirty and he thought it was a disgraceful way for him to be treated.

Another character Paddy spoke to was equally unhappy because his partner was sent to prison for thirteen months and that was making his life difficult. She was caught stealing and because she was in jail, he couldn’t go to work. He had to stay at home to mind the five children but that wasn’t the only thing bothering him.

He brings his kids to the prison to see their mother every Sunday and he had a grievance because the kids have to take their shoes off and face sniffer dogs as the prison officers try to prevent visitors smuggling drugs into the prison. It’s hard on his partner too because she finds it difficult being away from her family. Maybe she should have thought about that a bit sooner.

There were others with similar stories, and the common denominator was the unfairness of it all and how badly the system was treating them. It wasn’t their fault so there was no question of them accepting any responsibility for the situation they found themselves in. The world was against them.

That’s the thing with criminals, they’re a selfish bunch. They have no respect for law and order and couldn’t care less about their victims, their neighbours, or their community. They refuse to accept responsibility for their actions because they see themselves as the real victims.

Some are I suppose. If there is a history of criminality in a family, then it will be more difficult for kids to avoid it. It’s part of their DNA so there’s an inevitability about it. Others come from disadvantaged backgrounds with little education and simply drift into that life by falling in with the wrong crowd and making bad choices.

I came across many guys in my time who dedicated their lives to crime and in most cases, they ended up with nothing to show for their efforts. Even those who had some level of success were still missing a decent quality of life.

Most of them had issues with alcohol, drugs or gambling or a combination of all three. They had no long-term strategy and the money they got from their illegal activities was generally blown on feeding their habit. There was no such thing as saving for the rainy day or providing security for their families.

Their ill-gotten gains disappeared as quickly as they arrived, up their nose, down their throat or on the back of some useless horse. It’s probably still the same.

At first glance, it might seem as if they don’t have such a bad life. They hang around all day doing nothing productive with no responsibility. They don’t work so they’re free to come and go as they please and like bats, they come out at night to annoy the rest of us.

Occasionally, they might do a little time in prison, but they’re soon back out to carry on as normal. Their time inside gives them a new notoriety and the opportunity to sport a few bad tattoos as proof of their incarceration which adds to the tough guy image.

It’s only an image though because real life is different. They like to give the impression they don’t have a care in the world, but that’s far from the case. They’re not as tough as they think they are, and the reality is that many find it difficult to cope with their chaotic lifestyles. Deep down, they’re tormented, and it bothers them because they know they’re going nowhere. Their lives are a mess.

For example, Aaron Brady’s, recent trial for the murder of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe gave us a small insight into the distorted mindset of these people.

Brady was known to gardai as a petty criminal prior to becoming involved in the robbery of Lordship Credit Union in Dundalk in 2013. During the robbery, Brady, who was armed with a shotgun, ran to  the garda car as it arrived on the scene and shot Detective Garda Donohoe in the face at point blank range as he got out of the car. He died instantly.

Brady fled to New York and claimed he was having a great life and making lots of money on building sites. Living the dream. But that wasn’t the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

His true feelings were often expressed to his local barman after a feed of alcohol. He admitted feeling sorry for himself because he could never return home. The guilt of the murder was getting to him. He was a wanted man and longed for someone to pity him. “You wouldn’t know what it’s like to do the things I’ve done,” he told the barman.

On the other hand, Brady couldn’t keep his mouth shut and that proved to be his eventual undoing. He told anyone who would listen that he was the man who had killed the garda. He liked the notoriety of being a gangster.  

In the real world, he’s a nobody, probably facing life in prison where hopefully, the blankets will be to his liking.

• 

Suppose you lived in a country that permitted capital punishment and one of your kids came home from school one day and said, “Hi mom, dad I know what I want to be when I leave school. I want to become the official state executioner.” I don’t know about you, but I would probably head straight for the whiskey.

Killing people isn’t exactly the profession I would want for one of my kids and if they insisted on pursuing that particular occupation, I wouldn’t want to know about it. They could lie to me and keep the tools of their trade out of sight. That would work for me as long as they kept me in the dark. Secrecy is good sometimes.

I came across an obituary in The Washington Post recently, written by Harrison Smith and the subject was a guy called Jerry Givens. He was 67 years old and died last April at a hospital in Virginia from complications associated with Covid-19.

The name didn’t mean anything to me, and it probably won’t mean much to a lot of other people either because for many years he kept a low profile. He was so secretive about his work that even his own family didn’t know he was Virginia’s chief executioner.

Givens had been working as a prison guard and assisted with the occasional execution but in 1982 he fell into the official position when the previous incumbent retired. One of the conditions of employment was that he keep his role a secret.

Givens had witnessed violence as a teenager and saw a young woman shot dead randomly at a party in his neighbourhood, just as he was planning to ask her to dance. For years, he believed that her killer deserved nothing less than the death penalty and each time he carried out an execution, he thought back to that killing.

He took it all in his stride initially. As far as he was concerned, it was justice and he believed killers deserved to be killed. He got a day or two off each time he ended a life to get over it and that was that. 

He held the position of executioner for 17 years and during that time, he put over 60 people to death until circumstances led him to become a prominent activist against capital punishment.

In 1985, Givens was scheduled to execute Earl Washington Jr., who had confessed to raping and killing a 19-year-old mother of three. Washington had been diagnosed with severe learning difficulties, and just nine days before his planned execution, his lawyers secured a stay.

In 1993 DNA testing revealed that he was innocent, but he wasn’t pardoned until 2000 and ultimately became the first person on Virginia’s death row to be exonerated because of DNA testing. That sowed doubts in Givens’ mind about the justice system.

Givens left the service but was convicted of perjury and money laundering soon after. In 1999 prosecutors said he bought a car with a friend using money that Mr. Givens knew came from drug dealing. He maintained his innocence but spent four years in prison, reading the Bible and thinking about Jesus’s teachings on forgiveness. He decided the death penalty was unethical.

After his release from prison, he supported himself by driving trucks for a firm that installed and repaired highway guardrails. “I’m no longer taking lives,” he said. “I’m putting up equipment that will save lives. See? This is how God works.”

Closer to home, Albert Pierrepoint was another executioner. He operated in the UK between 1932 and 1956 and what William DeLong wrote about him would lead one to believe that unlike Givens, Pierrepoint had no qualms about performing his duty.

On July 15, 1953, notorious British serial killer John Christie was about to be executed at London’s Pentonville Prison. Immediately before he was to be hanged, Christie, his hands tied behind his back, complained that his nose itched. The executioner then leaned in and told him, “It won’t bother you for long.”

During his career it is estimated that he killed around 435 prisoners, but he once claimed himself that the real number was closer to 550.

Albert Pierrepoint was born March 30, 1905 in Yorkshire and at the age of just 11, he wrote in an essay, “When I leave school, I should like to be the Official Executioner.”

His father and uncle were both executioners and he wanted to continue in the family business. His father died in 1922, and Pierrepoint inherited the notes, diaries, and journals he’d kept on how to hang people.

In 1932, he attended his first execution in Dublin when he assisted his uncle, Thomas Pierrepoint, and got to observe and assist in other executions after that. He eventually earned a reputation for being extremely quick, calm, and efficient during his executions.

At the end of World War II, his workload increased immensely. Britain’s most famous executioner made a name for himself by hanging 200 war criminals. Between 1945 and 1949, Pierrepoint travelled to Germany and Austria many times to execute some of the most disturbing Nazis to have committed atrocities during the war.

After that, Pierrepoint became famous as a sort of quasi-war hero and made enough money to buy a pub named The Poor Struggler and people flocked to the pub to be served a pint by Britain’s Nazi executioner.

But in 1950, one of his pub’s regulars was sentenced to death for the brutal murder of his girlfriend. He got drunk at Pierrepoint’s pub, and even sang a song with Pierrepoint, before heading home to commit his crime. He was sentenced to death and Pierrepoint performed the execution, the only time that he regretted doing his job.

Albert Pierrepoint died of natural causes in 1992 aged 87.

• 

Dr. Ciara Kelly is a broadcaster on Newstalk radio and every Friday, she does a show that’s live and unscripted, and the topics are determined by the listeners. Anything can happen. I tuned in last week and I heard her opening the show with a call to the nation; She was asking her listeners to send her tampons and she wanted as many as possible.

That grabbed my attention because I thought the woman was having a crisis. It turned out she was collecting the tampons to bring them to the offices of the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) to protest at a recent decision they took to ban an advertisement on TV. She said she would donate them to charity afterwards.

The ad in question had been running on the TV for a while and featured two women on a pretend talk show, with the pretend host explaining the importance of ensuring that a tampon is inserted correctly to avoid discomfort. The pretend host demonstrated to the pretend audience how the tampon’s applicator worked and told them; “You gotta get ‘em up there girls.”

The ASAI received 84 complaints about the advert and upheld the claim that it had caused “general offence” so they pulled it. Dr. Kelly was outraged and said thousands of people had contacted her show to rail against the decision and she wanted to send her collection of tampons to ASAI to show that more people were in favour of the advert than were against it. She wanted them to reinstate it.

ASAI Chief Executive Orla Twomey told RTE’s Drivetime that in the previous four-and-a-half years there were only seven advertisements that had generated 60 or more complaints, so 84 complaints suggested it caused widespread offence. Most of the complaints were from women.

I saw the ad myself several times but didn’t take much notice of it. That’s understandable because it wasn’t designed to attract my attention, it was intended for the female audience. I didn’t have an opinion about it either way, but it certainly didn’t offend me. It obviously bothered some though because they went to the trouble of lodging a complaint.

84 complaints indicated widespread offence according to the ASAI, but the number of viewers who saw the ad must have run into the hundreds of thousands if not millions. I was never great at mathematics – sums to you and me – but even by my calculation, 84 is hardly a significant number.

But what do I know? The cynic in me says this is just all about clever marketing because the real winners are the manufacturers. Everyone is talking about their product and it got top billing on most talk shows for a week. Not only here but in the UK as well. That’s what advertising is all about so, as ads go, this was a humdinger.

There’s another issue though. The ad was also designed to educate women, younger women in particular, on how to use the product properly and safely. According to the messages Ciara Kelly received, it seems there are many girls who are unsure about how to use a tampon correctly and they found the ad very useful.

It’s all irrelevant now anyway because it has been consigned to the cutting room floor never to be seen again which just goes to show that issuing safety advice can be a tricky business and can land you in a world of trouble. Sometimes, doing the opposite can land you in hot water too. Not issuing safety advice cost one company close to €50,000 in damages and legal costs when they failed to show an employee how to polish a wine glass safely.

An article by Personal Injuries Team Ireland reported that a judge in the Circuit Court recently determined that a waitress should have received training in the safe way to polish wine glasses. He was satisfied on the balance of probability that management was negligent by not providing training and she was awarded €25,000 damages and her legal costs.

A forensic engineer was employed to give evidence in the case and he said the injured party had demonstrated how she had been holding and polishing the glass with a towel when the accident occurred and in his opinion she hadn’t been doing it correctly. She should have been stopped by her employer and shown how to do it safely.

She had demonstrated in a photograph provided to the court, how she held the base of the wine glass in one hand while polishing the bowl with her other hand in a twist and turn fashion when the stem had snapped.

Had she been shown how to do it safely she would have been cupping the bowl of the glass in one hand while using the polishing cloth with her other hand. Having polished the glass in such a manner it would have been highly unlikely on the day that the stem would have snapped and injured her.  

I’m not a trained glass washer but I can still manage to dry one without losing a limb. That’s because it’s not rocket science. It’s obvious the stem is the weak part of the glass and the clue is in the design. It’s skinny, it’s made of glass and it looks fragile, so be careful when handling it. My kids have cleaned wine glasses and they’re still alive too.

All this proves that life can be complicated. On the one hand, instructing young women on the correct use of tampons to prevent causing discomfort can upset people. On the other hand, you are likely to incur the wrath of the law if you fail to teach someone how to clean a wine glass safely. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

• 

Our household has had some benefit from the Corona Virus. With all that time we had on our hands during the lockdown, the house was never so clean. As soon as a piece of dust drifted towards the floor, there was a scramble for the hoover. It was like a Special Forces operation, swooping to repel the invader with high fives all round when the threat had been eliminated.

Pharmaceutical laboratories weren’t as sanitised as our kitchen. Surgeons could have carried out heart transplants on our island unit. The cleaning was all down to boredom and anything that distracted us for a few miniutes was welcome.

I decided to tackle the painting even though I have no interest in D.I.Y. I had no intention of going mad either, I just wanted to do enough to keep me occupied without wearing me out. So, I dressed appropriately to look the part, gathered my gear and set about touching up the hallway.

That set off a chain reaction because as soon I finished one area, it embarrassed the space next to it. What had looked fine all along, suddenly looked grubby beside the freshly painted piece so that had to be done too. The ‘touch-up’ soon developed into a full-scale redecoration.

My wife has been going around the house like a tornado since the schools closed. She’s not like me. She likes to be busy and she has endless energy so as soon as she was finished indoors, she moved outside. She chopped bushes, pruned things, got rid of weeds and did other stuff that’s beyond my interest but in fairness to her, the place looks great.

Most women I know, appreciate a bunch of flowers or a piece of jewellery on special occasions but my wife is different. If you want to make her day, giver her a power washer, a pair of wellies and stand well back. She is at her happiest when she’s removing grime and she’ll stay at it until she has no feeling left in her fingers.

Most of us were doing the same thing, so many of our homes are probably spotless by now and that got me thinking. In normal times we have a national problem with littering and dog fouling. We’ve been banging on about it for years but despite all the campaigns, signs, posters and threats of fines, it has continued unabated, but would it change in a post Covid-19 world?

I had hoped for an awakening during the lockdown because I reasoned that litter louts were hardly throwing rubbish on their own floors. They were unlikely to be discarding their cigarette butts in their own driveways or allowing their dogs to foul their own gardens or pathways. If they were, then it would be interesting to see how they survived when there was no one around to clean up after them. Not too well I reckon.

It would be great if litter bugs and irresponsible dog owners could see litter and dog fouling the way the rest of us see it, as a blight on the community. I won’t hold my breath though because the signs aren’t good.

There was a piece in The Echo recently about Fennell’s Bay, Myrtleville, and Church Bay men’s pool which were left in a state after being jammed with young people partying in the warm weather.

A local councillor complained that huge amounts of rubbish were left behind, including tents, foldable chairs, disposable BBQs, jumpers, and numerous empty bottles of vodka and whiskey. She complained they were leaving everything behind and using the beach as a toilet.

Unfortunately, that’s a common sight in other areas too. Photographs of discarded waste appear constantly on social media with similar stories of woodlands, beaches and beauty spots being treated like landfill sites and toilets. Young people are getting the blame for much for it and it has been suggested that parents have a role to play in preventing this kind of behaviour. That’s true of course but if the parents themselves are the culprits, then they won’t be fit and proper role models for the youngsters.

On my regular walk in Cobh, there is a fenced off site where a terraced house was demolished. A metal barrier was erected to block access, but people have been throwing black bags of home refuse over the fence. Some bags burst open and disposable babies’ nappies were visible amongst the rubbish. I doubt those responsible were children.

It seems to me that dog fouling is also on the increase. That’s not surprising because too many dogs are roaming public areas unsupervised, free to leave their deposits wherever they like. Those irresponsible owners are not children either.

There are serious fines for dog fouling, but my local representatives have advised me that it is unenforceable. That same response is echoed across the country but it’s a lame excuse. Without enforcement, littering and dog fouling will continue.

Many years ago, I was driving to work in Mayfield and there was a car ahead of me. A carton of leftover chicken and chips was suddenly thrown out the passenger’s window and scattered all over the road. Soon after, another box of food and a drinks carton flew out the driver’s window.

They saw nothing wrong with what they had done and were annoyed with me for stopping them and delaying their journey. It took a little effort on my part to make out a report and issue summonses, but I prosecuted them for littering.

They both travelled from Limerick to Cork after taking a day off work, and the judge added to their inconvenience by fining them which made it an expensive day out. If our local authorities were more proactive in this area, we might make some headway.

.