Gardaí should be wary about alienating public in cutbacks battle

GOOD gardaí gather evidence before coming to conclusions in doing their jobs.

They try as best they can too to put emotion aside in piecing together a picture and making their case. That’s what gets results. So apply that to the Garda campaign against the imposition of further income cuts implied by the negotiations in the second Croke Park Agreement for the public sector. Good gardaí might be wondering if their representatives are allowing emotion to cloud their judgement, if they are assessing the situation properly, as they fulminate against further cost cutting in the force.

The current issue of the Garda Review, for example, carries a piece by its associate editor — not a garda — that argues that the “Government is hell bent on destroying one of Europe’s most respected police forces”. Some gardaí may believe that the Government’s actions might lead to this, but surely it cannot attribute that motivation to the Government: why would a Government want to destroy the police force? That makes no sense at all, implying that the Government is made up of some class of anarchists. Maybe it would lead some gardaí to consider just how serious the Government’s financial position must be if it is considering such unpopular measures that will have serious political consequences for it.