w@nker

did anyone notice a 650 dakkar pulled in going into the park this morning ?
a top class wanker of a gard pulled him in for filtering . Hes done it every morning for 3 years along with countless others and this gobshite decides to pull him over, and then proceeds to take the bike and impound it without warning for wearing a uk plate.One of the questions asked was "did you get your bike licence in a lucky bag".
these people are being paid to serve the public (and i have no doubt that many do it well) not to abuse , accountability should be called, at the garda manners school.

But in fairness to the Guards, there are a lot of people out there who got their licence in the lucky (post) bag a couple of years ago. I have more than one in-law with a licence who have never actually had to take a test (merely been on the waiting list when the 'amnesty' hit).

And I wish the bloody plod in this country would pull anyone driving on a 'foreign' plate - they are becoming 'de rigeur' for avoiding the cameras/congestion charge etc etc

..in fairness to the Guards

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fairness to what? Filtering..

Should everybody who has an english or other foreign plate have to pay the extortionate amounts that VRT is? F**k that. Or the ripoff insurance for being a non national?

Everybody knows the Gardai bend the rules more than everyone else. Why? Because they can?

Wouldn't mind too much if the VRT was used for ligitimate upkeep of the roads in Ireland. EU money built all the decent roads. So where does the VRT go????

Nah Gardai being wankers.

Got pulled once for speeding in the Phoenix Park. Garda wanted to throw the book at me. I was doing 45 in a 30 zone. I was the only vehicle until he arrived. Wanted to charge me with 4 offences. Went to court Judged dropped 3 and got done for speeding. £5.00 fine for speeding in the park. Very old law going back to horse and carriage times.

As for the licence crack. What has that got to do with some one filtering outside the park as the lights were probably red while he was getting to the front, hence the Garda being able to pull him as he got away first through the gates.

The Gardai were in trouble a year or two ago for setting up speeding checks in areas where they were just making money. Afterwards the speed limits rose in those areas. One on the north road out of finglas.

Cant understand bikers putting down other bikers for something like this.

My 2p.

i got off very lightly in county wicklow a couple of years back.

i got the feeling the foreign plate helped

Decster,
Without knowing the details I assume the UK plate was the cause / effect of the stop by the traffic man. The "pound" is full of seized bikes on foreign plates (lots of Irish too).I was in the pound last friday morning when a Donegal man was parted from his BMW 3 series AC Snitzer, he said that in Donegal nobody pays vrt..... then he was told that he was in Dublin . The reason he got caught was that the UK tax disc was out since august 06 so the garda suspected this was not a UK based car as UK drivers tend to be very compliant on tax disc issues.
And yes we do have to pay the rip off VRT to the state. Its the rule (not a good one but its the rule.)
The old €7.50 fine is still there but its not the traffic lads that try to get you normally........ I was caught by the park rangers with a speed gun. They stood out in the middle of the road to stop me...... but since they are not police I was afraid to stop & kept going. Never heard anything as tey dont have access to the number plate computer .
On your last comment, the gardai dont set the speed limits & dont make money out of the revenue generated.

luke scott said:

On your last comment, the gardai dont set the speed limits & dont make money out of the revenue generated.

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I agree with most of what you have said, however, despite the fact that they don't set speed limits or make money from the revenue generated, they do have self-imposed targets to meet, and in order to meet these targets they do not always do what is in the best interest of the public.

The most frequented spot for Gardai speed checks on my route to work, is outside the gates of a small church on a road out from our local town on which there has never been a traffic accident. It's a nice, straight road, with good visibility and a 50km/hr speed limit. Shoot, fish, barrel.

While the Gardai did not impose the 50km speed limit, their positioning there does absolutely nothing for road safety, it just makes life a little easier (for them). There's a dangerous stretch of road which has frequent road accidents and fatalities, no more than 3 kms away.

Incidentally, drove past a couple of Gardai the other day with a speed camera hiding behind a tree. I thought they were supposed to be visible? A visual deterrent, so to speak. I guess when you can see them, it's harder to give out speeding tickets.

I'm not anti-Garda, I'm just peeved at the waste of money.

Funny, did you know that:

There are two primary types of motorcyclist - young motorcyclist and 'born again' motorcyclist' (Person in 40's buying a high powered motorcycle)

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They surely have us all pegged!

The're getting better at hiding as well
Figures up by almost 20%
Road Traffic Enforcement - provisional figures

Fecking Fuzz

luke scott said:

Decster,
Without knowing the details I assume the UK plate was the cause / effect of the stop by the traffic man. The "pound" is full of seized bikes on foreign plates (lots of Irish too).I was in the pound last friday morning when a Donegal man was parted from his BMW 3 series AC Snitzer, he said that in Donegal nobody pays vrt..... then he was told that he was in Dublin . The reason he got caught was that the UK tax disc was out since august 06 so the garda suspected this was not a UK based car as UK drivers tend to be very compliant on tax disc issues.
And yes we do have to pay the rip off VRT to the state. Its the rule (not a good one but its the rule.)
The old €7.50 fine is still there but its not the traffic lads that try to get you normally........ I was caught by the park rangers with a speed gun. They stood out in the middle of the road to stop me...... but since they are not police I was afraid to stop & kept going. Never heard anything as tey dont have access to the number plate computer .
On your last comment, the gardai dont set the speed limits & dont make money out of the revenue generated.

Click to expand...

Luke,

I find it hard to defend anything the Gardai do, extension of the state...

As for not making money on speeding fines, they take great pleasure in doing it. Not in any interest in preventing dangerous driving when speeding. I was stopped in the park by the old nissan white unmarked car that use to patrol the m50 years ago. Guy was heading back to the park HQ, for doughnuts no doubt(joke) and probably could have done me for simply speeding or a warning as the road was empty, he probably hit over a 100mph to catch up with me. Not the 4 charges he tried to throw at me. I apologised for speeding and did not have an attitude.

I dont care about the rules as neither do the Gardai, remember Blue flu? As i said they like to bend if not break the rules as much as joe public. They double job etc... That is what makes VRT and other petty taxes nonsense. I am not anti Gardai and not going around breaking the law as i am not stupid. I want to see the Gardai reinvigorated as a force to serve society that it is meant to be.

I think anyone driving around on a foreign plate should know their rights, but it is hard even to explain your rights to a Garda with a huge chip on his blue uniform. I was followed by a Pan Euro Garda who had to break 2 sets of red lights to catch up with me in city centre traffic. I was in traffic and obeying the law. He had pulled someone as i passed him. He stopped me to find out where i got my flouresecent vest. Not a normal over the counter one. I have witnessed a Garda on a Pan pulling a wheelie up Camden street in front of Megabikes. Why?

There are the odd good egg in the Gardai but it is infested with bad ones from top to bottom. There is no will to change it. Ireland has the culture of trying to sweep it under the carpet, from bent politicians, religious orders abuse, corrupt gardai, the blood transfusions, planning applications....How many of these people who have broken the law are behind bars and these are mostly crimes against society? In other European countries some would be up on murder, ie blood transfusions scandal.

Nah Luke, I'm sorry VRT is another money collecting tax against society that serves no purpose but to line the pockets of the state where it is misused. Law or not. What happened to the common market that the EU was supposed to bring about. Government cherry pick or rob the EU fund, dont care what way you look at it.

This is not a rant just the sad facts of Oirish society. We as a country have had the chance to learn from other EU countries about the best way to schieve a better society. This is because we were behind in our economic development. This has not been achieved. We are still flogging the country and its assets to the highest bidder. I am referring to the Mayo gas, telecoms and our highly educated workforce working for foreign companies with no allegiance to the country only profits and will be gone soon. It is still jobs for the boys, re building contracts, still looking across at the UK and copying them. Look a the Luas, huge money spent on 2 lines that dont meet. They built the Madrid underground for the same money, completed a year before the Luas started.

I could go on and on and probably have made this too long.

Decster.


If the moderator feels this post is too long, not relevant to this site and boring please feel free to delete it.

Decster said:

Luke,

I find it hard to defend anything the Gardai do, extension of the state...
.
.
.
.
.
I could go on and on and probably have made this too long.

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extremely well said Decster

Decster said:

I was followed by a Pan Euro Garda who had to break 2 sets of red lights to catch up with me in city centre traffic. I was in traffic and obeying the law. He had pulled someone as i passed him. He stopped me to find out where i got my flouresecent vest.

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I had a Garda car with blue lights and siren follow me (didn't realise he was after me) through heavy traffic once. I was making good progress trying to stay out of their way, traffic lanes were parting to let them through. We got to a narrow part of the road and I pulled in to let them pass, they didn't, I said f*** me they couldn't be after me, should I have pulled in earlier to let them pass, are they p***ed at me. They hopped out (2 of them), I got off the bike and started to take out the driving licence, one said "ah its ok we just want to look at your bike. is it one like that that charley and ewan used?" I said to him "are you f***ing serious" (they were my exact words). They asked me how long i'd had the bike. I asked them again if they had stopped me only to look at the bike. They made no answer, got in their car and drove off.

Gentlemen, whilst I do not want to temper your debate on the merits or otherwise of An Garda Síochána I would ask you to bear in mind that we have a few serving members on this forum.

I find it distasteful and rather unfair to condemn an entire organisation on the actions of a minority, when there are many fine people working within the Guards some of whom I have the pleasure of knowing personally.

Thank-you.

I agree that the traffic guys don't always cover themselves in glory - do they see drivers as a soft target that they can bully? Don't know. I was stopped in the car at a normal checkpoint 18 months ago - the guy was rude, sarcastic, noticed that three of my adult passengers didn't have a seat belt on in the back - wrote out one (one!) ticket, which he threw into the back and said "Share that between you" . He didn't notice my tax disc was out of date. Presumably tax/insurance was what he was supposed to be doing and he got too excited at the three felons in the back.

Had a car on loan from my in-laws in Belfast about 10 years ago. Pulled in by an unmarked Customs car. Three big lads and one intellectual. Very intimidating - wouldn't listen to anything, made me clear the car and drove it off in front of three small children who were in tears. Cost us €900 to get it back and out of the country. Wasn't my car in the first place. Not the Gardai on that occasion.

And yet, three young unarmed Gards chased and caught the thieving bastards that shot Charlie Chawk (spelling?) after the Goat Inn robbery. That was very brave. So I don't think its fair to dis them all. But I do agree being pulled for filtering is a bit daft.

Garda motorcyclists don't seem to be a friendly, nodding bunch to fellow bikers. I've had lost of nods, thumbs up etc. from the UK Police bikers when stopped at lights etc. but never here.

I think if you are an Irish resident on a UK or other plate, you shouldn't be surprised if it comes home to roost sooner or later - not that I agree with VRT etc. Quite the contrary.

Would prefer the Gards to stop people jumping red lights, rather than filtering. I have two sets near me where I have to wait five to ten seconds after the right filter has gone green before it is safe to turn right becuase cars keep coming the other way.



Psyko

Rights and wrongs

The Foolish Fellow said:

did anyone notice a 650 dakkar pulled in going into the park this morning ?
a top class wanker of a gard pulled him in for filtering . Hes done it every morning for 3 years along with countless others and this gobshite decides to pull him over, and then proceeds to take the bike and impound it without warning for wearing a uk plate.One of the questions asked was "did you get your bike licence in a lucky bag".
these people are being paid to serve the public (and i have no doubt that many do it well) not to abuse , accountability should be called, at the garda manners school.

Click to expand...

Accountability is a lovely word , public servants should be accountable, politicians should be accountable, doctors, dentists, nurses, Garda, university employees should be accountable - but God forbid that Joe Public should be made accountable unless it's that gobsh1te who lives over the road.

Your rant is wasted on me, Foolish, apart from the "lucky bag" quote, take that up with the local Superintendent and make a formal complaint against the Guard.
Some of the "filtering" antics that I have witnessed in Dublin have been both lunatic and dangerous, so I have little sympathy with someone being pulled for filtering.
The bike being impounded for having a UK plate is welcome, as I, like any other law abiding citizen, have had to pay VRT on bikes that I've imported or new vehicles that I've bought. It's time that the cute hoors, who think that only mugs pay, are made accountable. They knew the rules and took steps to circumvent them while raising a finger to the rest of us.

It is amazing to what length some people will go to justify their actions. They will blame everyone else to excuse what they know is wrong - the institutions of the State are corrupt, so I can break or bend the rules, the tax is penal, so I won't pay it, that speed limit is stupid, so I break it. And when they get caught, how they do whine.

If you think that VRT is unfair, then campaign to have it revoked. If you think that the whole system is corrupt, then set about doing something to change the system. If you believe that Garda have a quota to fill, then contact the local Superintendent and make him "accountable". He's the guy to contact if you feel that speed traps are being hidden or incorrectly sited.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797) if you believe that something is wrong, then do something to bring about change, join MAG, be active, lobby your local politicians, join any political party and become an active member.
Remember that public servants only implement policy, the Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann make the policy, that is ultimately where the blame fails.

I think that VRT is wrong, that road tolling is wrong, that speed limits are arbitrary and badly policed, that Garda resources are misused, that McDowell is certifiable, that the majority of TD's couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery and that the exceptions are not members of the Cabinet, but that's my bitching to you lot and it is unlikely that any of you are going to do anything, with the exception of Og and is missus.

If you can't put up, then shut up or take it to the Rant Section.

nud1e said:

If you believe that Garda have a quota to fill, then contact the local Superintendent and make him "accountable". He's the guy to contact if you feel that speed traps are being hidden or incorrectly sited.
If you can't put up, then shut up or take it to the Rant Section.

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This is a discussion forum, the purpose of which is to have discussions. So, with all due respect, why should anyone shut up?

I walked past one of these church protectors and asked them why they felt it necessary to police this particular stretch of road, and was told to move on and stop interfering with Garda business. I too raise my hat to Og and MAG, who are willing to pursue these issues further than I am.

nud1e said:

Accountability is a lovely word , public servants should be accountable, politicians should be accountable, doctors, dentists, nurses, Garda, university employees should be accountable - but God forbid that Joe Public should be made accountable unless it's that gobsh1te who lives over the road.

Your rant is wasted on me, Foolish, apart from the "lucky bag" quote, take that up with the local Superintendent and make a formal complaint against the Guard.
Some of the "filtering" antics that I have witnessed in Dublin have been both lunatic and dangerous, so I have little sympathy with someone being pulled for filtering.
The bike being impounded for having a UK plate is welcome, as I, like any other law abiding citizen, have had to pay VRT on bikes that I've imported or new vehicles that I've bought. It's time that the cute hoors, who think that only mugs pay, are made accountable. They knew the rules and took steps to circumvent them while raising a finger to the rest of us.

It is amazing to what length some people will go to justify their actions. They will blame everyone else to excuse what they know is wrong - the institutions of the State are corrupt, so I can break or bend the rules, the tax is penal, so I won't pay it, that speed limit is stupid, so I break it. And when they get caught, how they do whine.

If you think that VRT is unfair, then campaign to have it revoked. If you think that the whole system is corrupt, then set about doing something to change the system. If you believe that Garda have a quota to fill, then contact the local Superintendent and make him "accountable". He's the guy to contact if you feel that speed traps are being hidden or incorrectly sited.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797) if you believe that something is wrong, then do something to bring about change, join MAG, be active, lobby your local politicians, join any political party and become an active member.
Remember that public servants only implement policy, the Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann make the policy, that is ultimately where the blame fails.

I think that VRT is wrong, that road tolling is wrong, that speed limits are arbitrary and badly policed, that Garda resources are misused, that McDowell is certifiable, that the majority of TD's couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery and that the exceptions are not members of the Cabinet, but that's my bitching to you lot and it is unlikely that any of you are going to do anything, with the exception of Og and is missus.

If you can't put up, then shut up or take it to the Rant Section.

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+1, very eloquently said. Why should'nt Mr Dakarman be made "accountable" for his actions and/or inactions?

For the record I am a serving Garda.

Johnny Pan said:

For the record I am a serving Garda.

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Good on ya Johnny Pan. Any guidance on the logic for the positioning of speed checks?

DodgyGeeSer said:

Good on ya Johnny Pan. Any guidance on the logic for the positioning of speed checks?

Click to expand...

Erm........ no.
I do however agree with the sentiment of Nud1e's penultimate paragraph.

Foreign nationals or people that have been living abroad for a while (more than 6 months I think) bringing a car or bike into the country don't have to pay the VRT - you have to show receipts etc. to prove you were living outside the country and must go to an interview with customs.

There's a few other snags and I'm not sure of the whole process at all - must you pay VAT if it's under 6 months etc?

No excuse for the smart ass attitude of a lot of guards - give as good as you get - no law against a pisstake - just don't curse or you'll have to back down down then.

Two cents

I've been keeping an eye on this thread and written a few posts, then
deleted them because I thought better of it. I have been in situations
that left me ranting and giving out about the boys in blue, but to be
honest it was, in hindsight, down to getting caught not the fairness or
otherwise of the penalty.
Anyway, to get to the point, they are a mixed bag of people with a normal
ratio of twats to decent, fairminded people and it is important to bear that
in mind. If I try to think of an incident involving the Gardai my first thought
is my "two penalty points" and the enthusiasm of the Ban Garda who jumped
out of the bushes and I nearly ran over, not getting a push start with my
Leyland Sherpa in the pissing rain from a Garda in Bandon.
As was said earlier, the problem lies with the politicians and law makers and
they are meant to be accountable to us, it's the system in place is at fault,
not the civil servants.

About the first post, you'll always find one bad apple.

Decster, I'm with Nud1e on this one. But you are lucky to live in a country where you can vent your feelings towards the state its politicians & police force. There are countries where this would not be possible. Please do not get offended Decster but your second post seemed quite balanced...... a chip on each shoulder .

PS Johnny Pan....Did you & I interact on the "Irish" forum ?