Community ‘intimidated’ into silence
That’s the impact of years of threats, pipe bomb attacks, and shootings on the neighbouring south Dublin suburbs of Crumlin and Drimnagh.
“Intimidation has increased in this area,” said Susan Collins, a community activist. “It hasn’t been reported to gardaí because of the fear of intimidation.”
The co-ordinator of Addiction Response Crumlin since it was set up in 1996, Ms Collins said the area has been blighted by the problem. “The wider population are not shocked about the amount of gun crime in this area because we hear of it every weekend,” she says.
“If you have a petrol bomb thrown at a house on your road, you’re intimidated as well. Local people in the area don’t want to get involved, through fear. That means the whole community is intimidated.”
Working with drug users from teens up, ARC has seen at first hand both the impact of drug abuse and intimidation by drug gangs.
Two other community workers spoke to the Irish Examiner yesterday on condition of anonymity.
“There’s intimidation here on a daily basis,” said Beth (not her real name). “I know parents who’ve ended up on medication because their nerves are gone. They can’t sleep at night. Their houses have been shot at, their children are being threatened, or they get a phone call and [are] told what school their children are in, what class they’re in, what time they get out at.
“I tell some of them to have a chair behind a wall and to sit there if shots come in the window. There are loads of families here who have bullet-proof glass.”
With the jailing, murder, or exile of top echelons of the main gangs in the area — the Rattigan gang and the Thompson gang — a new generation of hoods have either climbed the ladder or formed their own gangs, loosely associated with the main gangs.
Little reported in the media, the area has been hit by shootings and pipe bomb attacks in the last two years and both this worker and another believe they are mainly linked to drug debts, rather than the main feud.
“The young men who are doing the intimidation are often intimidated to behave this way,” said Tom, another local worker. “They are probably doing it to pay off a debt. The actual dealers are not getting their hands dirty.”
Beth added: “You are either in the gang or you are not. If you are not in the gang you are a target. The shootings are either a way to pay a debt or being a member of the gang. It’s no different than the gangs in America and gardaí need to get a grip on that.”
Both want the Criminal Assets Bureau to work in the area. “There’s families here that don’t work, but travel to the Euros, drive Lexus cars, and own loads of houses,” said Beth.
Both expressed concern at the loss of expertise among local gardaí with the numbers who took early retirement. They are concerned at cuts in community schemes and the level of youth unemployment.
“These young men will be brought into gangs eventually if they don’t have anything to do,” said Tom.
Beth said “I think communities will have to take ownership of the community again. I don’t mean vigilantes, but we need to build up community spirit again.”
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