Strong criticism of gang crime legislation

[DCon]

Jebus wept, will the liberal agenda ever stop defending murdering scumbags in this country.

A range of new offences and new garda powers to tackle gang crime are contained in the newly published Criminal Justice Amendment Bill.

There has been strong criticism of the new legislation - the Irish Council for Civil Liberties said the measures were akin to those of a police state.

The legislation will enable any garda of any rank with the appropriate expertise to give opinion evidence against a suspected criminal gang member in the Special Criminal Court.

The bill defines a criminal gang as a group of at least three people whose main purpose or activity is serious crime.

The new law states a gang does not need rules, membership or roles for those in it, any hierarchical or leadership structure or continuity of involvement.

It creates a new offence of directing the activities of a criminal gang, which carries a sentence of up to life in prison.

Those who help criminal gangs also face up to 15 years in prison even if the gang never get to commit the crime they were helped with.

Minister Ahern said the legislation will be rushed through the Dáil. He hopes it will be on the statute books by Friday week.

He added: 'This is groundbreaking legislation we are publishing today. It is something we do not do lightly but we have a duty to protect our citizens and ensure the rule of law.

'We cannot tolerate a situation where citizens live in fear of crime gangs.

'This new legislation sends out a clear message to those involved in criminal gangs that we are taking you head on.'

Steve Collins, whose son Roy was murdered in a gangland shooting on 9 April, welcomed the decision of the Minister for Justice to introduce the new legislation.

[FutureTaoiseach]

The bourgeoise left-liberals will be the ruination of this country if the politicians don't stand up to them.

[Christine Murray]

and Fianna Fail do emergency legislation so well that others take years to clear up it's mess; but they have a narrow majority comprised of Greens so they'll be grand.

[the klingon]

The bourgeoise left-liberals will be the ruination of this country if the politicians don't stand up to them.

They revel in the misery of others, innocent young and old they couldn't give a damn what really happens on the street as long as they can claim to have worshipped at the altar of political correctness.

We need urgent reform of the prisons as a rigourous punishement for those who need it. Learn your lesson and get out quickly. Re-offend you get it harder, and longer. Prison should be used in a long term detention capacity only for those who pose a serious risk to others. And hopefully we will have the capacity such that they can stay in.
In my view it should not be possible to have a list of offences as long as your arm, often ending in the death of an innocent person. After a few offences your stay becomes longer and more arduos, so it's not possible to have 40 offences and be on the street.

Anyway, back on topic, Good news to see the legal system cough into life.
Long overdue.

[robert151410]

The pinko liberal brigade are concerned about the intrusion upon civil rights of this legislation. Never do they consider the rights of people who live in these areas and whose quality of lives are negatively impacted by these gangs.

[DCon]

They revel in the misery of others, innocent young and old they couldn't give a damn what really happens on the street as long as they can claim to have worshipped at the altar of political correctness.

We need urgent reform of the prisons as a rigourous punishement for those who need it. Learn your lesson and get out quickly. Re-offend you get it harder, and longer. Prison should be used in a long term detention capacity only for those who pose a serious risk to others. And hopefully we will have the capacity such that they can stay in.
In my view it should not be possible to have a list of offences as long as your arm, often ending in the death of an innocent person. After a few offences your stay becomes longer and more arduos, so it's not possible to have 40 offences and be on the street.

Anyway, back on topic, Good news to see the legal system cough into life.
Long overdue.

We need prisons like this one in India. http://www.indiamike.com/photopost/data/500/prison.jpg

It is for convicted murderers, there are 600 of them in that tiny building, and the only way out is in a body bag.

Life means life in some places.

[spidermom]

They revel in the misery of others, innocent young and old they couldn't give a damn what really happens on the street as long as they can claim to have worshipped at the altar of political correctness.

We need urgent reform of the prisons as a rigourous punishement for those who need it. Learn your lesson and get out quickly. Re-offend you get it harder, and longer. Prison should be used in a long term detention capacity only for those who pose a serious risk to others. And hopefully we will have the capacity such that they can stay in.
In my view it should not be possible to have a list of offences as long as your arm, often ending in the death of an innocent person. After a few offences your stay becomes longer and more arduos, so it's not possible to have 40 offences and be on the street.

Anyway, back on topic, Good news to see the legal system cough into life.
Long overdue.

The low lifes that this leglislation is aimed at don't learn owt...ever!!!

Agree with Dot this is rushed legislation...and rushed law makes bad law...as it will be struck out on some constitutional matter.Don't get me wrong the low lifes in Limerick (et al) should be put so far out of sight that they never remember the FF government in charge that made a mess of the original legislation!

[Christine Murray]

ahern is moving powers that are similar to those used for 'illegal organisations' into crime gangs, that sounds like a statement of failure. and 3 members defining 'a gang ' is pretty insupportable. should civil rights orgs just whist cos a non jury court can give a life sentence to a person on the word of a garda of any rank? ...like that is impingement on rights and again a statement of failure in policy.

[spidermom]

Already where the DPP certifies that the ordinary courts are inadequate in a given case, he may refer such an indictable case to the Special Criminal Court.

Ironic if they pass the law and then try and reduce garda numbers by 2000!!!!

[blanket]

nobody is defending murdering scumbags.

nobody is playing down the impact criminal gangs have on ordinary citizens lives.

solving these problems is a matter of allocating resources, among other things.

rushing thru draconian legislation is not the solution.

if there were sufficient numbers of gardaí assigned to monitor the tiny number of gang members, it wouldn't be difficult to prosecute them under existing legislation.

maybe if some of the hundreds of gardaí protecting the interests of a multinational oil company were assigned to protect citizens affected by gangs this wouldn't be an issue.

its a matter of political will.