Madam, - When the taxi drivers were blocking Kildare Street outside the Dáil as a protest against deregulation, I asked a garda if they were allowed to block the street and, if not, why they weren't being moved. He replied that they had been told (from on-high) to "not touch" the taxi drivers. I asked if I parked my car outside the Dáil and would not move, would I be moved along, to which he replied "yes".
On Wednesday evening (April 2nd) I attended my second protest ever - outside the Dáil and against the current war in Iraq. Reports I heard from a Garda spokesperson said that they "had advised the leaders of the protest that in the event the protesters sat on the road we would be obliged to move them" - neither I nor¨ anyone around me sat down on the street before the gardaí started to push people. In fact, as far as I could see, the gardaí started to push the protesters first and to do this with unnecessary force.
I also did not hear any request to move back from anyone (garda or protest organiser) before they did this.
And I could not believe my eyes when I saw the riot police (and the horses and the helicopter! The scenes that followed were like something from a film.
Another Garda spokesperson said that while we were entitled to protest we were illegally blocking an entrance. On RTE radio, Michael McDowell said that "he [Joe Higgins] has no right to sit in the road and block access to the Dáil. The law is the same for everybody, no matter which side you're on."
But is the law different for taxi drivers? Or are the powers-that-be trying to scare people into not protesting against a war that our Government supports?
As a taxpayer and general law-abider, I am not impressed by what I witnessed. Yours, etc.,
Dr. JENNIFER BYRNE, Raheny, Dublin 5.
Madam, - How can the Minister for Justice claim that the Gardai are "upholding the law...legitimately" when they are not wearing identification numbers when legally obliged to do so? In my opinion they are guilty of a more cynical and, indeed, more serious breach of the law than people taking part in a peaceful anti-war protest.
Also was it really necessary to send in the riot squad? Some of us still have vivid memories of the TV footage following last year's May Day protests and can see a pattern emerging. - Yours, etc.,
GAVAN FAGAN, Ard Ross Avenue, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan.