Garda chief criticised by civil liberties group

A CIVIL liberties group has attacked the head of a Garda representative body over his defence of members who failed to co-operate with an inquiry into the May Day Reclaim the Streets protest.

As some former gardaí defended the policy of not “snitching” on colleagues, the Irish Council of Civil Liberties claimed there was a culture of denial among some elements of the force that is undermining public trust in the organisation. ICCL research officer Liam Herrick, said he was bewildered by comments by the GRA chief, PJ Stone, who criticised the timing of the Garda Complaints Board report into the handling of the May Day protest.

Mr Stone said board chairman Gordon Holmes “clearly displayed a perception of bias” in his comments following the publication of the report.

Mr Herrick said: “If PJ Stone won’t accept the independence of an inquiry headed by a former Assistant Garda Commissioner, what hope is there that he would advocate co-operation with an ombudsman or an inspectorate.” Mr Herrick added that the irony is that the Garda Complaints Board has admitted it is not sufficiently independent.

The board revealed that of nearly 150 gardaí they contacted, only 20 replied to requests for assistance. None of those on duty were able to offer any information or evidence of any wrongdoing. But Mr Stone described the criticism as “unfair and unwarranted” as he claimed a “credible” internal Garda inquiry was already up and running when the board began its work. He said members were co-operating with that inquiry. One rank and file garda yesterday admitted a reluctance among some members to co-operate with outside inquiries. Another pointed to a number of recent cases where gardaí had been prosecuted and convicted. “Who do you think investigated? It was other gardaí,” he said. A number of former gardaí, speaking on a radio phone-in yesterday, defended the reluctance of members to “snitch” as they have to work side-by-side with each other in a sometimes dangerous job.