The Long And the Short Of It
The Mayor of Limerick, Jim Long, has been embroiled in a number of controversies recently. So who is he? What does he represent? And is he really a racist, as his accusers claim?
Olaf Tyaransen, 18 Apr 2012
How do you mean?
The prisons are full. If you’ve nowhere to put prisoners, and they have nowhere to go, the courts are failing because they can’t convict you and give you ten years because there’s nowhere to go. The guards and the detectives, there’s a lacklustre [effort] to bring these guys in, because the courts can’t deal with them. So it starts to come back down the line. That’s where law and order is winning [sic] out because they know, even at a very young age, “Sure, they can’t touch me!” The Gardaí cannot prosecute anyone under 18 years of age. They now have to go before a supervisor or a superintendent for an ASBO, so there’s the feeling out there that, lads, ye can get away with this. We have too many do-gooders. Society has changed, but the law hasn’t changed with it. In Limerick, up until recently, we had 90% of Garda resources dealing with 5% of a huge problem. Now that huge problem is more-or-less under control, but it took an awful lot of lives, an awful lot of resources to get there, and now we have to go backwards to address the problem.
Were you disappointed that the Aljeff Centre [for treatment of drug addiction] closed?
I was. I never got involved with the Aljeff Centre, only to give them a few bob and support them. But I knew the two lads, the Roches, the cause, the setting up of Aljeff [the centre was opened following the suicides of drug addicted brothers Alan and Jeffery Roche – OT]. It shouldn’t have closed, but it was down to resources. Politicians, and local politicians, and where I’m at a loss at the moment is, because of the law and order situation, people don’t have the confidence in getting the guards involved, because the guards have to take statements and they need people to come out front and point the finger. That does not work in our society anymore. So what is happening now is that politicians are being brought out into the frontlines of criminality.
How so?
In other words, ‘Jim, there’s a fella out in my front garden and he’s threatening me – will you do something about it?’ We are now the frontline of defence as politicians, and the Gardaí are next line back, and we need that to change fast.
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Olaf Tyaransen
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