Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he will not be suggesting to the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris that there should be a move towards arming gardaí.

There has been a focus on crime on the streets of Dublin following the attack on an American tourist in the Talbot Street area last week.

Varadkar said yesterday that Ireland is relatively safe, while stating that it is the “wrong approach” to tell people that certain areas are unsafe to walk in.

by Tiger_Claw_1

16 comments

  1. I’m fairly sure the criminal gangs aren’t being rushed to A&E after being shot by a water pistol. It’s not an arms race. It’s law and order.

  2. The Gardaí can’t even look after their phones, never mind their guns.

    Absolutely not. Do we want to move toward a police state?

  3. The politicians who have presided over this fiasco now pontificate to the people about what is and is not the right approach. Christ preserve us.

  4. I know a few Guards, I wouldn’t give them pepper spray. They’d only try and snort it. That being said I’m sure there are many that could be trusted with a gun.

  6. >It is the “wrong approach” to tell people that certain areas are unsafe to walk in

    Every city has these areas. It might hurt your feelings but people in most cities know of areas that you don’t go down alone or at night etc. It’s an unfortunate fact of life.

  7. Look, he’s annoying as fuck, but he’s right about arming guards.

  8. We need pepper spray, tasers, cameras and more staffing.

    Let’s try that for now and I’m sure we’ll see changes.

  9. Wait, is Varadkar allowed to be right about stuff? Because he’s right about this.

  10. Feral children with machetes are much less dangerous to the average Joe than armed shades.

  11. What the fuck is he talking about? Arming Gardai will lead to more armed crimes?

    Will the Gardai be carrying out these crimes with their new guns? Or will they be passing the guns along to the criminals? Will guns suddenly become easier to source?

    European countries have been arming their police forces for decades. Just random examples off the top of my head: France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Poland, Slovakia….. I could go on.

    Our unarmed police force is based on the British model. The only other unarmed police forces I am aware of in Europe are Norway and Iceland.

  12. The main thing I take from that article is that Leo seems to be well aware of what’s hip hop happening or he was briefed very well about it by someone.

    However the problem for me is Leo has been the government head honcho for 3-4 years across two stints and has been on watch whilst this storm developed or the driver at the wheel whilst it all happened. Even worse we’d 6 years of Enda Kenny as leader and the same party at the wheel. Fine Gael have shown they can’t plan for the future or solve a problem.

    Leaders of 3 of the last 4 governments, involved in all 4 and yet the health system, housing crisis and now crime issues have all just gotten worse, not better. We don’t have enough doctors or nurses, we don’t have enough Gardai. Pretty damning!!

  14. There needs to be more Gardaí, and more prisons.
    Guns won’t make a difference, if guns are needed, specialist Gardaí are always available.

  15. The whole point of us disarming guards in the first place was because gangs were killing them for their guns.

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