Not guilty in the eyes of the law

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

At this stage the world is well aware of the phrase Black Lives Matter. And we also know its genesis.

It’s a cry from the oppressed, a clarion call from those who feel subjugated, betrayed and marginalised.

And for those of us who are privileged it’s difficult to know what it must be like to be at the receiving end of injustice and brutality.

No doubt there are occasions in all our lives when we feel somewhat aggrieved or annoyed by authority. And those little events might well give us some small insight into how people who are oppressed and downtrodden feel.

In my conversations over the years with people who feel the world is against them they will often see the Garda Síochána as their enemy. I know a number of gardaí, have taught the children of gardaí, including senior members.

And the vast majority of my encounters with gardaí have been positive.

On one or two occasions I have been unimpressed. Some years ago I was commuting between Belfast and Dublin. I noticed over a period of time the Garda were stopping people at Connolly Station and then it dawned on me that the majority of the people they were stopping were foreigners. One Friday evening I went up to a garda and asked him why I was never stopped. 

He curtly said to me: ‘F off you little b….x’. And I did too. Of course I should have taken his number and reported him but it was back in a different era.

On Thursday evening I was cycling towards pedestrian traffic lights. 

Wrongly, I was about to  go through a red light when I suddenly saw a Garda car stopped at the lights on the other side of the road. I braked suddenly. The garda in the car saw me and stared over at me. Ok, I was about to do wrong but I felt his stare was threatening. I got brazen and stared him back in a provocative manner. 

The stares continued. The garda was getting more and more aggressive and I was reciprocating. And then a young good looking woman cycles up beside me and stops. I tell her what’s happening. She looks over at the garda. What happens? His face is transformed and he’s all smiles to the young woman. The lights turn green and all three of us are on our way. 

I’m wondering had it been the young woman who was about to crash the lights would he have given her such a threatening look. I don’t know but I can imagine not.

It really was a great parable for me. It dawned on me in the clearest of ways what it must be like for people who feel second-class citizens. Many poorer people, especially young poor people, have a far greater chance  of feeling hard-done by the Garda. 

What must it be like when they hear of tycoons involved in crime being handed-down derisory sentences and they get done for stealing a bicycle wheel.

I’m not making excuses for anyone involved in wrongdoing but the face of that garda in the car has set me thinking about all that surrounds crime and punishment.

Martin Luther King Jr’s comment makes great sense: ‘The time is always right to do what is right’.