12" Around

When in Rome...

write a blog. 'Cos Romans love blogs. That is to say due to the efforts of Liam, Conal and Paul, I now feel the obligation to commit my thoughts to the worldwidesuperhighnet. It's been a while with this thing, and even when I did write anything it was short and sporadic. And to be honest I wouldn't expect anything better this time around. But we can all hope I guess.

One theme that has been discussed on some blogs has been the death of that guy in Dooradoyle, and I refer to him as "that guy" not as a sign of disrespect but because that's exactly what I'd refer to anyone as, that was killed anywhere else in Limerick. Unless I knew them of course, god forbid. Now I'm not belittling his death or disrespecting him by any means as I'm sure between our extended circle of friends someone was bound to have had some kind of relationship with him. And it is obviously a horrible thing to happen to anyone. My point here is that just because this guy was middle class, played rugby, was a respectable kind of guy, his death is more important than others. And to be quite honest I'd have probably not even thought about it unless I'd seen the news around the time. Because I saw a priest on from the O'Malley park area or some such disadvantaged community talking on the news or prime time or something (I know, I keeps my shit memorized and detailed), and he mentioned the fact that there had been plenty of innocent people killed in those areas but that it took this to motivate anything. He was dead right, I mean I recognise the fact that this is very close to home for all of us. It could very easily have been any of us (to a certain extent, you know what I mean), like when I was going out with Diana she lived on that estate. It was very freaky watching the reenactment on crimewatch and recognising where they were. And now Michael Noonan's all "Rararaaaa! Bring 'em in without any provocation and cut there hands off"or something like that, just because he probably knows his Dad or because he was a valued member of the community. Come to think of it, it's just like that Maddox article on Christopher Reeves. Donate to a charity that benefits you. So that's my first point, it shouldn't take something like this to happen for it to provoke a response.

The other question is, what should that response be? Michael Noonan wants wiretaps and to make being members of a gang illegal. Wiretaps, good. IF it's justified. But the way he's talking about being able to haul in anyone with a criminal record or known ties to certain people it'll end up in an invasion of civil liberties. As I've gotten older I've found that civil liberites have been a particular bugbear of mine. One thing I have wanted to discuss and may have done with a few of you is the issue of random breath testing. And I'll come back to that another time rather than going off on a tangent. I think that if I'm a law abiding citizen that happens to know somebody who's involved in certain illegalities (i really hope that's a word) there should be no reason the police could force me to come anywhere with them, they can request and it can be MY decision to do so. If I am a law abiding, tax paying citizen the Police should be seen and not heard unless I want them to be. As for the membership of illegal gangs, first of all, how exactly can you identify someone as being a gang "member"? It's not like they all get a captain planet ring is it? Or maybe that's what the sovereign rings are all about???? Anyway the question is, how does one identify a gang member? Again, could it be that they just want the ability to lock up anyone that has any loose association with crime? That, to me, is a terrible prospect. Any thoughts from my more enligtened friends and wellwishers are very welcome as I'm sure ye may have studied these kinds of issues more in depth. This is just my unresearched reaction.

So the actual solution??? I haven't a clue really. Regeneration of disdavantaged areas maybe? This is all based on how these people are brought up. If they learn some degree of respect when growing up then it will continue through their lives. Presently they don't. Also it would be great to see a greater police presence in town. People actually scared to walk the streets at night makes me sad. It would also serve to make it more difficult for scumbags in general. At present the Gardai fear the scumbags. They can't go into any of these areas. They should be able to walk in there without fear and be respected. But as I say I'm not exactly sure how this would be acheived and any of my thoughts might seem somewhat unenlightened.

Anyway I think I've kind of made my point. Dead man sad, but shouldn't be sadder than other dead mans. Again, not belittling it, just simplifying it. Comments, very welcome. So there's another blog for ye to enjoy. Hopefully more to come.

posted by alpha @ 12/14/2008 02:52:00 am