Coolock violence: Gardai blast 'clear delay' in deploying Public Order Unit that 'put them in danger'
The Garda Representative Association said that officers who policed the initial violent scenes at the Coolock site yesterday were left waiting for too long for support
A ‘clear delay’ in deploying the Public Order Unit to Coolock put gardai in danger, the force’s representative body claims.
In a statement issued today, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) said that officers who policed the initial violent scenes at the Coolock site yesterday were left waiting for too long for support from the Public Order Unit. GRA President Mark O’Meara said: “The GRA would first like to commend its members who bravely stood firm at the Coolock site and to their colleagues from all over the city that came to their assistance.
"However, there was a clear delay in the deployment of the Public Order Unit which potentially exposed our members at the scene to extremely volatile and dangerous conditions for a number of hours. This was an organised operation, however, as a result of the delayed deployment of the Public Order Unit it was extremely fortunate that our members did not suffer more serious injuries than those that were sustained.
READ MORE:Tánaiste says 'elements' at Coolock protest were 'determined on destruction and aggression'
READ MORE: Violence at Coolock protest - gangland criminals suspected of inciting chaos amid fears of full riot
"We will now be raising this matter with the Commissioner and senior garda management and we will express serious concerns on whether lessons were learned from the incidents of last November and demand that we are better prepared for any possible future attacks. The safety of our members is paramount."
Speaking after 15 people were arrested and charged over the violent scenes yesterday, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris defended the response to the incident. “The public order unit responded. It was operational decisions in terms of deployment, assessing the situation and then making sure that our deployment was proportionate,” he said.
“We did call upon additional public order units to support the additional unit. We had almost 200 gardai deployed, both public order and normal uniform personnel, and that was sufficient with the disorder that we faced.”
Hundreds of anti-asylum seeker protestors lined the Malahide Road in Coolock - with some ultimately ending up in violent clashes with the Garda Public Order Unit on Monday afternoon. Amid ugly scenes, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris visited the area and a directive was issued for officers from all over the capital to immediately deploy there - in a major effort to try and prevent a second Dublin riot.
However on arrival at the scene on the Malahide Road in the early afternoon, members of the Garda Public Order Unit were attacked by violent thugs who hurled missiles - such as bricks and fireworks at them. Several people were arrested amid the violence - while a number of protestors were pepper sprayed by gardai.
Over 30 garda cars rushed to the scene and more than 60 members of An Garda Siochana arrived, closing off a large section of the road - in an effort to bring about order. The Garda Public Order Unit arrived in four vans - and began to try and disperse the crowd with a cordon - armed with shields.
The horrific scenes came after protestors had earlier stormed a barricaded area and set fire to a JCB digger and a number of other items. Those incidents of criminal damage came after an anti-asylum seeker protest called ‘Coolock Says No’ being shut down there on Sunday night.
The group had an encampment outside the entrance to a site that had been earmarked to house asylum seekers for the last number of weeks - but it was shut down, with fencing placed around it on Sunday. In footage shared openly on social media, individuals can be seen on the site, pulling various items to set on fire.
This Irish Mirror understands that hundreds of people attended the protest - but a small number of far-right agitators and gangland criminals are believed to have incited the violent scenes that took place. Sources say a number of the agitators were well known to gardai - and that some of those involved have been on their radar for some time.
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