GARDAI NOT MEASURING PROSECUTION RATES FOR OFFENCES WITH a RACIAL MOTIVATIONA BLACK care assistant was racially abused and had an object thrown at her in broad daylight from inside a passing car in Dublin city centre last week.
Metro Eireann encountered the clearly shaken care assistant, who is from Nigeria, shortly after the incident. The woman, who prefers not to have her name published, said: “I was on the main road there waiting for a friend, and I was on the phone standing with my child [a junior infant].
“Suddenly the person [male passenger in front seat] just threw something on my eyes and he said ‘n**ger’.”
The car was subsequently stopped at traffic lights and the woman ran down to protest at her treatment. A garda subsequently arrived and questioned the car’s occupants, and the Nigerian mother-of-three later made a formal statement about the incident at Fitzgibbon Street Garda station.
The 2006 Garda annual report, which was released last week, references 174 racially motivated “incidents”, as opposed to 94 racially motivated “offences” reported to gardaí in 2005 (with 84 in 2004, and 81 in 2003).
A Garda spokesperson said the use of the terms “incidents” and “offences” is just “a difference in wording”. The figures therefore indicate a substantial increase in the overall incidents reported to gardaí from 2005 to 2006 in particular.
Asked if it was possible to get statistics on the rate of successful prosecutions for such offences, a spokesperson said, “this could take some time” as someone would need to trawl through the Garda’s IT system to find and compile such data.
Later asked to clarify, a spokesperson said, “We could get that figure no problem”, but added that the resources required to develop a computer programme compiling such data “wouldn’t be justified”.
The implication – which was not refuted – is that gardaí are not keeping track of their success or otherwise in combating racially motivated offences. The spokesperson added that gardaí investigate every reported incident, irrespective of the motivation.
The Garda definition of a racist incident is one which the victim, a witness or a garda deems racially motivated.
At present, there are no categorisations in Irish legislation for racially motivated offences, which are instead dealt with through existing legislation covering, for example, assaults and public order breaches.
The Prohibition of Incite-ment to Hatred Act 1989 only covers offences which incite hatred, rather than acts of hatred. An offence with a racial motivation carries no extra weight in sentencing.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian care assistant says: “I told what happened to a friend. He said the same thing happened to him in Blanchardstown… I think it’s everywhere.”
Asked how many times such occurrences would happen within a month, she said “many times”.
A friend of the woman living in inner city Dublin – who is also Nigerian, and based in Ireland since 1999 – agreed: “It’s racism. It’s everywhere and it has to stop. Who cares if you are pink, red, or whatever? I just wish it stopped.”
Both women – who are lone parents and are legally resident here – said they are “grateful” to be in Ireland, but have urged more education about racism in schools, more powers for gardaí to combat racism, greater interaction in the communities, more assistance for lone parents to access work and affordable housing, and more integrated housing.
The woman affected by last week’s incident says she is happy to leave the case in the hands of the gardaí. A Garda spokesperson said it is routine for them to pass a file of evidence to the DPP, who will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute.
“To walk at night I am scared,” said the Blanchards-town-based woman, who has lived in Ireland for six years. “I am working with White people, I take care of old people – I never do them bad, they never do me bad, because we are working together, so we are all one.”
