Drugs fuel fighting frenzies

Gardaí are used to dealing with men who are drunk and disorderly - but when drugs are added to the mix, the level of violence increases. Now, with Operation Encounter gardaí are clamping down and 'Paddy wagons' are being used at high-risk locations. Jim Cusack, Security Editor, reports.

Handcuffs, now carried by every uniformed Garda unit in urban areas, have only been widely issued in the past five to 10 years. Previously, gardaí policing the streets of Dublin and other provincial towns at night were expected to handle violent drunks without such restraints, and to manhandle them safely to the station where they would be expected to sleep off their excesses in a holding cell. This was the basic form of policing that took up most of the operational activity of gardaí before the days of armed robbery, organised crime and terrorism.

With the greater specialisation that has come into policing to deal with the problems of organised crime and terrorism, less and less resources were available for policing the streets. Public disorder disappeared as an issue of public concern in the face of newspaper coverage of more serious crime.

However, almost without notice, the problem of public disorder increased and has now reached a point where it has become probably the single most important law-and-order issue facing the Government and the Garda Síochána.

Experienced, uniformed gardaí in Dublin - the officers who deal with the brunt of serious public disorder - agree that there is a worsening problem of street violence involving young men late at night. More than one Dublin officer has identified a significant change in the level of violence experienced by gardaí. The most difficult cases typically involve fit, young men who are experiencing the amphetamine effect of ecstasy after the euphoric effect of the drug has worn off, or who have mixed cocaine with alcohol. Gardaí in the city-centre say there has been a large increase in the amount of cocaine being used by young men at weekends and that this is fuelling violence.

"The drunk was easy to control, to get him on the ground. Before we had cuffs, you would put him in an arm-lock if you had to. Once you had control of them, the fight would go out of them fairly quickly.

"Now we are seeing young fellows with incredible energy. It is actually very hard to restrain some of them. They are very focused, not at all like the drunks. We have seen badly injured young fellows - with a fractured arm - and it has no effect. They don't seem to feel pain. They are definitely on 'E' and their hearts are pumping at a huge rate which gives them this huge energy. It is artificial fitness. They seem to have 10 times the normal heart rate. It is doing great damage to their heart valves.

"If you put him in a cell, he is still going for another five or six hours. They are very hard to handle."

A senior garda in a provincial town agrees that there is a problem of increasingly extreme behaviour being displayed by young men coming out of discos and gathering in town-centres. Two years ago, after a number of his officers expressed concern about the increasingly volatile and dangerous scenes they were faced with, he went on late-night patrol. He said he encountered young men acting "very fiercely" in a way he had never experienced in his days as a garda on patrol.

The gardaí in this provincial division respond to late-night violent incidents in greater numbers than before in order to avoid injury.

Every division has its own similar stories where officers have found themselves in very threatening situations. In one suburban Dublin division, just over a year ago, two gardaí were attacked by two young men, both with criminal records, who had been turned away from a disco and returned with machetes.

Of particular concern to gardaí in Dublin is how to deal with juvenile offenders. Some 15- and 16-year-olds are responsible for quite serious disorder but the courts and penal system do not seem to adequately restrain their behaviour.

One officer said his district had experience of juveniles with multiple warrants but who could not be detained. One youth had 100 cases against him before the age of 17. The officer said it was proving galling for officers to have to take a quite serious young offender to the youth detention facility at Oberstown, only to be told it was full and then have to take the youth back to his home, set him free and have to arrest him again a short while later, usually for a disorder or larceny offence.

Gardaí (in Dublin particularly) relate this lack of proper restraint on young offenders to street disorder in some areas. The teenage offenders, they say, graduate from criminal damage to stealing from cars to actual car theft and then to either robbery or drug dealing. Along the way, the gardaí say, many of these young men are engaging in the type of street violence that has become a serious problem in certain parts of the city.

Quantifying the level of violence is difficult because many incidents which gardaí would simply regard as a typical punch-up have not been recorded. There has probably been statistical under-reporting of street violence as weary officers are often not inclined to get involved in paper-work after a bad weekend night.

However, under the new computerised information system, known as PULSE, all call-outs and incidents have been recorded since about the middle of last year and this might lead to a major jump in disorder and criminal-damage statistics. One Garda source said there might be as much as a 1,000 per cent increase in some public-order statistics.

The response of Government to the late-night violence is incorporated in the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Bill published by the Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue last week.

The intent of the Bill is to place more onus on the proprietors of discos and pubs that serve strong liquor to young people and allow the use of drugs on their premises. It also aims to increase the penalties and sanctions against offenders.

Even before the legislation is in place, the Garda is introducing a programme of measures under the title of "Operation Encounter" to reduce the effects of disorder.

The Garda Commissioner, Pat Byrne, has been touring all the divisions examining the level of disorder problems and instructing his officers of the greater priority he wishes to be given to the problem.

THE Garda action will include the posting of undercover officers in licensed premises suspected of selling alcohol to minors or allowing exceeding drunkenness or the sale of drugs. The Commissioner has issued directives that anyone arrested for assault arising from public disorder be charged and taken straight to court the next morning; and that more police be placed on duty at times and locations when disturbances are most likely.

Senior gardaí want to see courts being less lenient on serious public-order offenders, with harsher sentences - particularly where disorder cases involve assault. They also apportion blame to unscrupulous publicans who allow young people to get very drunk and are aware their customers are mixing alcohol with drugs. Undercover gardaí have begun monitoring premises where it is suspected drink is being served to under-age people or where the use of drugs is allowed.

Gardaí in Dublin, Limerick and Cork have begun watching what one officer termed the "bouncer cartels" where certain doormen, known to have criminal or republican terrorist connections, are controlling or permitting the sale of drugs in pubs and clubs.

Under the new legislation, owners of late-night, food outlets will also be made accountable for disorder taking place in or around their premises. Gardaí can object to trading licences for such premises and if there is persistent trouble around fast-food outlets, they will have the power to close them down.

Gardaí are already pursuing a number of cases against licensed businesses which have been found selling drink to minors and it seems that the number of such cases is set to increase.

Every busy Garda district now has a public-order unit transit van - the modern version of the old "Paddy wagon". The public-order vans, usually containing a sergeant and three gardaí, are recognised as being a good deterrent as gangs of troublesome youths are usually tricked into thinking that a van-load of gardaí has arrived on the scene.

Senior gardaí favour the introduction of a national identity-card system (which exists in most other EU states) to reduce the amount of under-age drinking. Urgency was injected into the Garda response in February when, at one point, three young men were on life-support machines in Cork and Dublin as a result of late-night assaults. This has helped to prompt the change in direction of public-order policing.