Gangland violence - Public want action, not promises

AS the Government moves to crack down on gangland thugs waging open war on society, it is alarming to hear that children as young as nine and 10 are turning a once peaceful community into a living hell for elderly people.

Today’s dramatic picture illustrates the depths of lawlessness to which some children have descended in the Southill area of Limerick where the homes of elderly people are being targeted in a systematic fire-bombing campaign.

As local parish priest Fr Pat Hogan put it, the once desirable Astor Court area has been turned into “a war zone” with rampaging children laying waste to a whole neighbourhood. Inevitably, the result is that many elderly couples, some of them in their 70s and 80s, have been forced to flee their homes in recent months.

To be commended for his forthright stance, Fr Hogan attributes the situation to “criminal” rather than “anti-social” behaviour.

This scenario throws into sharp relief the acute sense of urgency behind yesterday’s meeting involving Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Tánaiste and Justice Minister Michael McDowell and Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy.

While the commitment of the Tánaiste to root out crime is not in doubt, it is hard to dispel the impression that the Coalition’s response to the present orgy of violence by criminal elements amounts to a form of fire brigade action that will soon fizzle out.

Even as the three policy makers were considering how to tackle the orgy of murder by so-called drug barons and crime lords, the representatives of 10,000 gardaí were openly questioning the Government’s resolve to crack down on violent crime.

But it is debatable whether the kind of pre-emptive legislation being sought by gardaí, to enable them tackle organised crime, would survive the acid test of the Supreme Court.

While the opinion of a garda officer may be acceptable in the Special Criminal Court, which was specifically formed to combat the IRA, it would be no substitute for the hard evidence required to bring other criminals to justice.

The high level meeting was set against the backdrop of last week’s double murder of innocent victim Anthony Campbell, a plumber who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, gunned down as he worked at the Dublin home of drug dealer Martin ‘Marlo’ Hyland, who was also shot dead at the scene.

Adding to the growing sense of urgency, the gardaí in Limerick are investigating the murder of a part-time Limerick security man shot dead outside his mother’s home early yesterday morning, apparently mistaken for his brother who is on a feud gang hit list. It is the third feud-related murder in Limerick this year.

It is frighteningly clear that in certain parts of both cities, the situation has deteriorated to the point where criminals are blatantly giving two fingers to the forces of justice.

Mr McDowell is right to portray Limerick as a “good city” where the vast majority of people in areas like Southill, O’Malley Park and Moyross are “good people”.

However, the latest incidents there demonstrate clearly that sporadic periods of intense action on the part of the gardaí are not the answer.

What the public wants from today’s Cabinet meeting is action rather than political promises. Nothing short of a consistent and prolonged campaign by the forces of law and order, based on a policy of zero tolerance, will rid society of the violence seen in the latest spate of murders or the criminal activities of lawless children.

Such crimes cannot be justified or tolerated.