An Garda Síochána has been all over the news in recent days but two elements to their work demand specific attention, and in both they are under serious pressure not of their making.
On Wednesday it was announced that the DPP had determined that no charges would be brought against any garda for the shooting dead of George Nkencho. Mr Nkencho, who had a history of mental health issues, was shot dead outside his home in west Dublin in December 2020. He was earlier involved in an alleged assault in a shop and the gardaí had used taser and pepper spray in an attempt to subdue him. He was shot a number of times after he appeared to lunge at gardaí with a knife.
The decision comes after a long Gsoc investigation from which a file was compiled and forwarded to the DPP’s office. Mr Nkencho’s death was a terrible tragedy but whether it was avoidable under the circumstances is unclear. His family certainly believe that it was. Undoubtedly the case raises issues about mental health services, particularly in disadvantaged areas. There may be questions around how the gardaí dealt with the case in the run-up to the final tragedy. But the DPP has come to the conclusion that no individual garda is potentially criminally culpable for the killing.
Flyers with a poem outside the grounds of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, Huntstown, Dublin, for the funeral of George Nkencho, in 2021.
It should be noted that the DPP — and Gsoc — have in other cases shown no reluctance to pursue gardaí against whom a statable criminal case exists.
The sensitivity around this case was heightened by the fact that Mr Nkencho was a black man. Problems of police forces targeting and discriminating against minorities are a common feature in western countries. In the aftermath of deaths at the hands of police — most prominently in a series of cases in the USA — there has been often entirely credible claims that racism was a factor in the killing.
Quite obviously, the DPP doesn’t believe there is any such evidence in this case. That hasn’t stopped some claiming that there is something rotten in the outcome of the investigation. In the Dáil on Thursday, People Before Profit TD Mick Barry took this stand before the Ceann Comhairle intervened and felt compelled to suspend the House on the basis that Barry was contravening the separation of power.
Barry pointed out that Ireland was no longer “the land of 100,000 welcomes for migrants or for people of colour … what message does the decision to not even send this case for trial send?”
So he is suggesting that one or more individual gardaí should be sent for trial on this matter, irrespective of any assessment by the DPP, on the basis of their status as policemen and that of Mr Nkencho as a member of a minority community. This would amount to justice by narrative, by perceptions of racism, rather than on the basis of facts about the incident that can be determined. It would effectively be a show trial. One suspects that Barry’s notions in this regard are held by a small but vocal minority.
In such a milieu, it is more vital than ever that verifiable facts are repeatedly stated in order to counter the kind of agendas being driven by far left or far right to polarise, propagate and import elements of culture wars. As far as Mr Nkencho’s family is concerned one can only hope that the answers they seek are addressed satisfactorily in the inquest that was delayed while the criminal case was proceeding.
The last ten days also saw the difficulties the gardaí are facing from protests and disputes around the accommodation of asylum seekers. The show of strength by a group of balaclava-wearing individuals outside the home of Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman was, by common consensus, disgusting. To describe it as a protest would be to conflate it with legitimate protests of all kind.
Social media footage suggested that the gardaí arrived and allowed these individuals, who had erected large, offensive posters around the residence, to carry on. In one clip these people are seen to stop a vehicle on the road not far from where a squad car was parked.
The apparent scenes on social media attracted a lot of criticism for the gardaí. Both individual members and commissioner Drew Harris have disputed the narrative, pointing out that when gardaí arrived the individuals were told to leave and did so.
“The video footage being sensationalised on social media qualify as disinformation in that it only shows a part of what happened, not the full timeline of events,” Garda Mark Ferris said at the Garda Representative Association conference last Monday.
The main question is why were the individuals in question not arrested. Despite comment during the week from politicians and others about the law, the provisions of Section 6 of the Public Order Act are quite clear. It is an offence to “engage in any threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to provoke a breach of the peace”.
Despite that, to be fair to An Garda Síochána, it’s a difficult path they have to negotiate. Do they arrest, possibly after resistance, and inflame the situation both on the ground and through the spreading of further disinformation? Opinion, much if it totally uninformed, is divided on that.
Mick Barry was prevented from getting his point across in the Dáil.
On Thursday evening in Newtownmountkennedy, there was an apparent change of tactics deployed. After coming under attack gardaí deployed the public order unit and used pepper spray and forced to disperse the crowd. Social media predictably reacted in outrage. “The Government is at war with its own people,” Senator Sharon Keogan tweeted. “This is not democracy.”
There will inevitably be complaints to the garda ombudsman and it will be interesting to see how they develop.
On Friday, commissioner Harris visited the scene, a new departure and one intended to signal that those who acted on the ground had his full support.
This new approach has come after a series of incidents in which the garda tactic of relative restraint came in for sustained criticism. Should there be further flashpoints there is every possibility that individuals will be hurt. Some might go out of their way to get hurt in the name of fake martyrdom, but there may be others, peaceful local protestors, simply caught up in the violence.
This is new world that An Garda Síochána has to operate in. It is highly political. There are elements, both far right and far left, who will use the gardaí, and how they operate, to further political agendas.
In that respect, the behaviour of gardaí is now both under intense scrutiny and potentially subject to serious disinformation campaigns.
