A quick repost here, I saw this featured on the website of Liberty, the newspaper of the Siptu union.
Notice of Public Protest Say no to the trivialisation of rape!
Protect the rights of women and migrants to protest with dignity and respect!
PROTEST AGAINST RAPE COMMENTS BY GARDAI
Dáil Éireann – Friday, 8th April at 1pm
If like many people in Ireland you were shocked by the recordings of Gardaí in Mayo making disparaging and threatening comments about two women protesters – including the threat of rape and deportation – come join a silent protest this Friday 8th April at 1pm at Dáil Eireann.
The gathering will:
Stand in solidarity with the women concerned
Support the right of women everywhere to protest without fear of rape or violence
Demand an end to the trivialisation of rape
Support the right of migrants to protest without the threat of intimidation or deportation
Voice our solidarity with victims of sexual violence
Call for a promptly delivered, robust and transparent enquiry into the behaviour of the Gardaí concerned
This protest is being organised by an ad hoc group of organisations and individuals concerned with justice, equality, and women’s and human rights.
Opportunistic exaggeration, posturing and bandwagon jumping to say the least. Neither Garda involved threatened anybody since they were having a conversation between themselves.
What if there was an Orwellian microphone on the tongue of every individual in the country? If that happened there would be so many verbal transgressions we’d be reduced to locking up each other in a “last man throw the key out the window” scenario.
The incident should be seen in context. Have either Garda involved ever been know to physically or mentally mistreat female suspects? By way of balance where are SIPTU and all the other outraged herd demanding the ferreting out of those in the force who covered up for the actual rape and torture of children over many decades?
I’ll go down the supermarket tomorrow and easily record some frustrated mother shouting at her 4 year old “I’ll kill you if you don’t stop doing that”. I’ll presume SIPTU will be calling for charges.
It would be far more prescient to examine the history of anti female laws that, on the political level, have trivialised the rape of women in Ireland and have even treated them as being somehow partly responsible for the assaults upon them. That’s the real problem that wags these two loose tongues.
If the hullabaloo brings that about then maybe it might be worth it but I doubt the..er.. great (sic) and the …er…good (sic) will do that.
@FXR …further to the facts of the case the call for solidarity is in the face of Shatter’s refusal to condemn the comments but instead to asign guilt to anyone involved in protesting (including the two women) the corrib situation; then to put the tin hat on it altogether the Garda press office leaked the personal details of the women to favoured journalists, presumably in the hope that they could research and write some character assassinations for the weekend press.
How’s that for Orwellian?
the garda press office leaked the details?
the details were included in the origial leaked video.,
And that’s exactly what I’m getting at. That the minister took such a position is much more of a problem and that’s where the focus should be not on the two Garda. The much more important story is how information is being manipulated by the Garda press office and the attitude of those in the higher ranks.
Attempting to justify male derogatory sexist attitudes by discrediting the women is ingrained in Irish society since the foundation of the State. That’s the real problem rather than the sound bites.
The 2 Garda will get a slap on the writst, issue an apology and the whole thing will deflate. The far bigger black clouds hovering over the whole incident will be forgotten but they won’t go away.