Ireland moves from theocracy to police state

RYLE Dwyer’s column (January 9) was headlined ‘We’ve moved on from the days when Rome ruled our Republic’ But to where?

I suggest we have moved from one form of authoritarianism to an even worse form – from a theocratic state to a police state.

Back in 1949 there were only 6,000 gardaí who had no clerical staff and there were only 80 patrol cars. There was no crime, but we did have much more freedom than now.

Now we have 14,500 gardaí with a further 900 being trained. They have 2,135 clerical staff and 2,400 patrol cars, making a total force of 17,535. The average cop costs the taxpayer €1,200 per week between pay and overtime. That amounts to a police-to-people ratio of one cop for every 250 people.

That compares to a ratio of one-to-140 in Britain, one-to-500 in the US, one-to-600 in Spain and New Zealand and one-to-780 in Norway. We have the dubious distinction of living in the most heavily policed country in the world, and I need hardly point out that it is not bringing about an impressively low level of crime.

Crime is a consequence of moral bankruptcy in society – it cannot be reduced by hiring more cops. That has been tried elsewhere – in 1963, New York had 20,000 cops and an average of 580 murders a year. They decided to hire more cops to deal with the problem. Now they have 43,000 cops and 2,200 murders a year.

When the bad example is coming from the highest levels in society, what do you expect to find at the bottom?

The level of authoritarianism we have now is such that we cannot drive to our local pub, and for those of us living in rural areas that means we cannot go to the pub at all. We buy alcohol at supermarkets and drink it at home – not a good option.

The gardaí claim to be saving a couple of hundred lives a year on roads, but to see that in perspective you need to bear in mind that there are about 30,000 deaths in the Republic each year and that 5,000 of those could be prevented if our healthcare could be brought up to the average standard in western Europe. The gardaí are reducing the death rate by 1%, or less, and in doing so they are trampling on our freedom to an outrageous extent.

Ryle Dwyer is correct in saying we have moved on from Rome rule. I wish we hadn’t.

Plus ca change, etc.

James Harden

The Avenue

Adare

Co Limerick