A-Infos (en) Workers Solidarity #74 - 'Justice' and 'Equality' in action

[Worker <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>]

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Just in case you had any illusions about the fairness or
impartiality of the Irish 'justice' system:-

On the same day as 'celebrity chef' Tim Allen was allowed
to buy himself off a prison sentence for the possession of
child pornography, five Romanian men were jailed after a
court found that "it was reasonable to infer that they
intended to commit an offence in a shop in Co. Wicklow
last November". Allen's sentence of a nine-month prison
sentence was reduced to one of 240 hours community
service on the payment of EUR40,000 to a child welfare
charity - proof, if proof is needed, of the fact that there is
one law for the rich and another for the poor.

Meanwhile, as soon as five Romanians entered a shop in
Laragh Co Wicklow last November one of the shop
assistants - according to her evidence in court - "was
aware of them because when they had come in before they
had made her very nervous". The shop owner became
suspicious "when he saw the five men spread out all over
the shop." Despite the fact that nothing had been stolen
and that the men gave evidence that they had paid for any
items they got and had never been in the shop before,
Judge Donnachadh O'Buachalla had heard enough to
convict saying that a reasonable inference could be drawn
that their intention was to commit an offence. Four of the
men were sentenced to four-month terms of imprisonment,
and the fifth - because of a previous conviction - was jailed
for six months.

And there's more - at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court in
Co. Mayo, Judge Harvey Kenny told a Nigerian woman who
was appealing a EUR1,750 fine for driving without
insurance that she should be "put in jail to stop all other
Nigerians committing similar offences". And just to prove
that he approaches all his cases with an open mind, this
administrator of 'justice' went on to say "I don't think any
Nigerian is obeying the law of the land when it comes to
driving. I had a few of them in Galway yesterday and they
are all driving around without insurance and the way to
stop this is to put you in jail. Word would go out then in the
Nigerian community that if you must drive, you must have
insurance...You are lucky you are not going to jail."

And these fine judges are employed by a Department with
the words "Justice" and "Equality" in its title!! They
wouldn't even know the meanings of the words.

Gregor Kerr
-- 
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