Who sanctioned this fiasco? - Water charge opponents arrested

YESTERDAY’S arrest of Socialist Party TD Paul Murphy and three other anti-water charges protesters may just be the fillip the anti-water charges campaign craved.

The blundered introduction of water charges has been mired in appalling ineptitude, indecision, and prevarication. It was compounded yesterday, this time by the manner in which another arm of the State — An Garda Síochána — went about its business.

This newspaper has been highly critical of Mr Murphy in relation to the water charges protests, but did it really require SIX gardaí to arrest him at his home early yesterday? At a time when we are all too aware of manpower shortages in the force, would one or two officers not have sufficed, especially as Mr Murphy was unlikely to resist arrest aggressively? Socialist TD Joe Higgins described the dawn raid as “political policing”. While there is no evidence to indicate the accuracy of this accusation, it would be chilling for our democratic process if it were proved to be true.