Council uses Bullyboy Tactics on Bin Tax Protestors

by Joan Collins Cllr DCC - Community & Workers Action Group Sun Nov 12, 2006 10:10 086-3888151

Yesterday morning a Seargent and 4 local police police from Sundrive police station along with 3 litter wardens turned up at the Davitt Road depot. The police said they were acting on a complaint from Dublin City Council that we were littering. We were informed that if we left our waste the litter warden had the right to ask for our name etc and if we refused to give it the police would step in and if we refused to give our details we would be arrested on the spot!!!! The Drimnagh campaign has had an effective protest at the depot for over 2 months where regularly any number from 80-150 residents turn up to bring their uncollected waste to the depot in an organised peaceful protest to dispose of our waste. The waste is cleared by the Council within 10 minutes. This turn of events came out of the blue (no pun intended) and the protesters were very angry. We went ahead with our protest a number of bags left but after a brief meeting we decided to not push the issue this week as we were caught unprepared but that we would meet this Tuesday discuss what our tactics will be next Sauturday , 18th, as people were determined that we had the right to protest EFFECTIVELY. The general feeling was that we would organise to double/ treble our numbers next week. In the coarse of our brief meeting at the depot the brutal attack by police in Mayo against the Shell to Sea campaign was condemed. Why can a Seagent a 4 police officers be found to waste their time at a protest when people have experienced ringing the police to repond to issues in the Community we are told there is not enough police? Obviously DCC see this protest as a 2 fingers to there non collection policy and are attempting to clamp down on the local community. We will be protesting next Saturday, 11am, as part of the all Dublin, Anti bin tax day of local protests to non collection. Link in with your local protest or support our one at Davitt Road Depot. The Luas leaves you at Suir Bridge stop.

by Anon Tue Nov 14, 2006 16:59

This is yet another example of the state deploying cops on behalf of private corporations. In this instance instead of for Shell as in Rossport, the cops are working for the private corporations who have been waiting impatiently in the wings for the entire Dublin city waste collection service to be handed over to them.

There are at least 380,000 households in Dublin and since we know already that bin charges are costing anywhere from about 400 to 600 euros per year then this translates into an industry worth anywhere from 152 million to 228 million euros. This is what it is all about: money. It is certainly not about protecting the environment.

And here is something for any cops reading this to consider. Did you join the An Garda to protect the public or protect private wealth? Your job description probably says the former but your actions indicate the reality is the latter.

This is just another example of the now worldwide campaign by capitalism to rollback every right and civil liberty that has been gained in the past couple of hundreds of years. This sort of stuff is happening in every country and in every sphere of society.