Anti-social behaviour makes people feel very unsafe

And now, a social media video in which a food reviewer was confronted and intimidated by a group of young people in broad daylight on Ashe Street, Tralee, reveals the kind of anti-social behaviour that makes decent people very cross indeed.

In fairness to the social media reviewer, he behaved in a manner that reflects well on him, employing the kind of patience that many of us might not be able to summon up. Fair play to him.

This video contains behaviour, admittedly towards the lower end of the scale, which explains why so many people feel threatened on the streets of our towns in particular, and even in some of our villages. 

In truth, it’s all down to a small minority of blackguards who seem to have the run of the place.

Last week, I wrote how the new Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly identified community policing as a way to increase people’s trust in gardaí. 

He couldn’t be more correct and the behaviour on display in this social media video is entirely on point as the kind of thing that community policing was designed to confront.

We need many more gardaí on the beat, walking the streets, getting to know shoppers and shopkeepers, children and their parents, drivers and cyclists, pedestrians and lollipop school traffic wardens. And all others in between.

The gardaí must start TALKING to all the community again, to make sure they know what’s going on.

In that way they’ll soon work out where the hotspots are in our communities; they’ll see for themselves who the troublemakers are.

And the hope is that these gardaí will be able to intervene before things get serious, and certainly before they get out of hand entirely.

Gardaí on the beat are not only useful in tackling anti-social behaviour. Because of their intimate knowledge of the community they are also able to identify likely suspects in the event of more serious crimes.

Kerry’s towns, villages and rural areas are blessed with a relatively low level of crime. Gardaí on community work would help to suppress that crime level even further and would certainly lessen the chances of matters escalating.

Scenes on social media, like those I refer to, are as depressing as they are unacceptable. 

Those who cause such scenes need to be confronted. Put simply, they need to be held to account. They need to be stopped.