“Failure to tackle knife crime is a stake through the heart of our communities.” Ken O' Flynn TD
“Failure to tackle knife crime is a stake through the heart of our communities.” Ken O' Flynn TD
Independent Ireland TD for Cork North-Central Ken O’Flynn has called for an increase in the targeted high-visibility deployment of Garda Reserve members to monitor and patrol areas of his constituency that are suffering from a dramatic increase in anti-social and knife related crime.
Deputy O’Flynn made his call following the latest incident in a string of horrific knife attacks to hit the streets and localities of Cork city in recent times.
Members of the public and local business owners were left reeling yesterday as an individual was violently pursued by a man wielding a knife along Grand Parade. The man was subsequently arrested and detained by Gardaí:
“We are fast approaching a scenario where law and order and a sense of public safety is effectively on the express track to collapse in some areas,” said Deputy O’Flynn.
“My constituents regularly communicate to me their increasing sense of fear and intimidation and a growing frustration at the absence of any kind of high visibility garda presence. That must change.”
“To my mind what is happening is a clear breach of the social contract between the state and its citizens who have every right to feel protected and secure in their own neighbourhoods.”
“In the long term we of course need to see the introduction of a suite of measures to effectively respond to a surge in crime, including a massive ramping up of Garda numbers and prison spaces; but in the immediate term I am calling for an urgent review of the remit and functions of the Garda Reserve and for a dominant emphasis to be placed on foot patrols and public availability as part of a major escalation in combatting the kind of criminality and public disorder that is becoming utterly poisonous for our communities.”
“One of the long-term impacts arising from a lack of visible garda presence is that it gives a clear signal to thugs and violent offenders that the city and its surrounding areas is effectively their own personal playground where they get to set the rules.”
“I am adamant that we need to push back strongly and without mercy against the prevalence of this mindset. We need to reclaim the streets from the growing menace of anti-social and violent disorder and one element of how we do that is insist on a more effective and targeted use of our 300+ members of the Garda Reserve,”
“We do not need them behind a desk; but we do need them out front and centre as part of an expanded public safety campaign,” concluded Deputy O’Flynn.
