Right, I am giving in to pressure and i am starting an “Abbey lara” thread.
My opinion on Abbeylara is that the Gardai should NOT be held accountanble to the rantings of John Mc Carthy’s deranged sister. She is given FAR FAR too much air time in her quest for answers and justice.
This was a man who armed himself, caused a scene and ultimately put the lives of innocent gardai at risk. He got shot; and i have no reason to suspect that the Gardai acted appropraitely. He deserved to get shot.
Discuss… (because i dont do fook all work on friday afternoons 8))
You have no reason to suspect that the Gardai acted appropriately?
I think the key point about Abbeylara is how badly the situation was managed by senior Gardai, not whether the Gardai who pulled the triggers acted correctly or not.
First of all of course we have to acknowledge that they were dealing with an armed man so it was a dangerous situation for the Gardai. However that is the very reason why they should have exercised caution and restraint in dealing with the situation.
Not getting in contact with Carthy’s psychiatrist was a huge oversight. The Gardai had no way of dealing what sort of man they were dealing with. Therefore they were jeopardising their own safety as well as John Carthy’s.
Creating a siege situation was also a massive mistake. Instead of keeping the profile of the situation low, they ran to RTE with the story and had loads of unnecessary (unarmed) Gardai surrounding the scene. This was only likely to be viewed as antagonistic and intimidatory by Carthy.
The negotiator was not told by the commanding Garda on the scene that Carthy had a gripe with the force - again jeopardising the safety of everyone there.
They could have spoken over the phone. They also could have asked the psychiatrist themselves if he was likely to be dangerous or if he had a grudge against anyone so they could better predict what he was going to do.
Your claim that he woke up intending to kill or shoot a person is nonsense. He suffered from bipolar disorder (and obviously, as a consequence, should never have been licensed to own a shotgun in the first place) and should have been treated with extreme caution as an ill man.