Don’t cut garda numbers

THE last time Gemma Dwyer was robbed was the worst.

Three of her staff, including a young girl on work experience, were tied up.

The raiders, a man and a woman, were not the typical drug addicts that had robbed her pharmacy 11 times before.

Usually, it’s a lone masked man, brandishing a knife or a bat, roaring and shouting for drugs, sometimes cash, who then leaves as soon as he can.

But this time, a couple came in, the woman carrying an umbrella to block the security camera, while the man threatened the staff with a knife.

“One of the staff was tied to the sink and two were tied to each other,” said Ms Dwyer.

But she said the man was using plastic ties that he couldn’t tie properly.

“They were under pressure, so it was quite traumatic,” she said.

She said the girl on work experience was “very traumatised” afterwards.

She said there was no reason to tie people up as staff never confronted raiders brandishing knives.

That robbery, at the end of last June, was the “eleventh or twelfth robbery” they’ve had at the Maple Pharmacy, in Dublin’s north inner city, since they opened eight years ago.

“They tend to come in spates, two in a fortnight and it tends to be the same person,” said Ms Dwyer.

“If they are not picked up the first time they are back the second time in the next fortnight.”

What they want is always the same — drugs, specifically benzodiazepines, minor tranquillisers like Valium, as well as sleeping tablets. Sometimes they look for cash.

The robberies take their toll on staff: “Everyone is shaky after, on edge, particularly the first couple of weeks after, as it could reoccur. You’re very nervous. Every time someone comes in the door and speaks a certain way you jump.”

She said gardaí do respond promptly, but said there’s little they can do if they don’t catch them red-handed. She said that’s why the gardaí need to be visible, as a prevention. “We need a greater garda presence, just to be around, to be seen.”

Deeper into town, just under the shadow of Croke Park, Benny Gilsenan is standing outside his small local shop, which he has run for 40 years.

He points across the road to the corner of Emmet Street and North Circular Road: “Just there. That’s where they sell drugs, all sorts of drugs”.

What really gets to him is not that the gardaí don’t do anything — they do — but that the dealers are back on the corner in no time.

“The police, in fairness, do their job. The bring them in, they go to court, but they are back out on the street in a couple of hours.

“The judiciary are not doing their job. They are supposed to uphold the law. I don’t accept a prison sentence is always right, but hit them where it hurts, in their pocket, order them to pay X amount a week.”

He said a large percentage of the rental population in the area are foreign nationals and is quick to point out he has no problem with them. But if they break the law, like selling drugs, he said they should be deported.

The main problem in the area, he said, is the amount of young people hanging around, with nothing constructive to do.

“The vast majority of youngsters are victims of the family home, they’re not encouraged in school, the parents may not have got that opportunity.

“I have to say I have a good rapport with the young people. You get the odd one robbing chocolate or a drink, but that happens everywhere.

“But when you get to the bigger crimes, like robbing cars, selling drugs, it’s much easier to get into that in this area than in areas where children are encouraged in school.”

He said there needed to be some mechanism to pick up youngsters who leave school and bring them back into some sort of education.

“I see the youngsters coming in and out of the shop, 17-year-olds, and they haven’t been in school since they were 12. It’s very unfair. They have no light at the end of the tunnel other than a life on the dole or the drugs market.”

He said burglaries were also a concern. “I’ve seen some break-ins, often they are more vandalism, but there have been some serious ones in the last 12 months, elderly people being broken into and robbed.”

A big issue for him, one replicated in other parts of the country, is the future of their local garda station, on Fitzgibbon Street.

“It’s due to close at the end of May. It’s supposed to be renovated and then reopen, but there’s no timescale, no dates and, we know, no money.”

With between 30,000 and 80,000 people attending Croke Park at weekends during the summer, the need for policing is obvious, let alone the day-to-day issues, he said.

“The gardaí overall, to be fair to them, you ring and they are quite quick to respond. They [the Government] were talking about increasing garda numbers to 16,000, they are now being cut to 13,000. That’s going to have an effect.”

Marie Metcalfe has been working on crime and local community issues for a long time. She was instrumental behind the establishment of a community policing forum in 1999 and now chairs the body, which formally brings together the community, gardaí and the city council.

She said the main issue coming up at meetings was young gangs hanging around. “They’ve nothing to do. They have an intimidating presence, causing anti-social behaviour, getting up to everything, some pushing hash, moving stuff around.”

She said they had a huge problem last year with robberies and assaults by people using head shop drugs. “They were targeting vulnerable people, foreign nationals at 5am, 6am. It was happening every day.”

But she said when they approached the gardaí they acted swiftly. “The chief superintendent and the superintendent went into all the head shops and it had a great effect.

“It was great to see that, it was an uplift for the community to see the police were policing this area.”

She said the garda performance generally had improved over the years, but added: “I would love to see more gardaí. Look at the area. They say there’s enough, but I don’t agree.”

She said gangland crime was “much worse” now, although she said the main gang feud was confined to the Sheriff Street area.

The feud erupted after an internal gang split and has claimed the lives of five men.

“The gardaí have as much a grip on it as they can,” said Ms Metcalfe. “They have had heavy policing there and if it kicks off they are back in.”

The gangs operate a lucrative drugs trade. She said local people can see them “driving in their fancy cars, the best clothes, particularly the women, and the holidays”.

She said a major garda operation in the area before Christmas, hitting the drug distribution network of one of the gangs, was warmly welcomed.

She is furious at plans to cut gardaí: “I would be definitely concerned about the future. You would think the crime rate is dropping. There are gangland feuds all across the country — look at Limerick — and then they talk about cutting garda numbers. It’s appalling.

“Every meeting I go to people always say there’s not enough gardaí. And down the road with the recession — well, with less money, there’s more crime.”