The Entrapment of Occupy Dame Street

Madam K and myself witness garda criminal behaviour and interview Willy, a homeless gentleman evicted from the camp

There’s been a lot written about the Occupy movement. Both from an international perspective and from a localised view. One thing stands out. There are very few who have not heard of it.

It’s not my intention to critique the movement. It will suffice to say that I see it as a symptom of where we are, rather than the solution. The kettle has started to boil!

This piece will focus on Dublin’s “Occupy Dame Street.” If folks are looking for an article that explores the mistakes and triumphs of the group I fear they will leave disappointed. I don’t particularly care whether trade unions, political parties and other groups were told to sling their hooks or not. I don’t particularly care to add to the various personality clashes that erupted, and were bound to do so, by smashing my own personality into the fray. Instead, I want to explore the tactics and the lawlessness used by the State to try to bring the die-hards to their knees. There is unity to be had in this. For it is the same with all. If you have a problem, you’d better shut your mouth, or else you’ll have the crap kicked out of you and you’ll get to play Dungeons and Dragons in the State’s medieval court system.

At a little after 3.00am on Thursday the 8^th of March around a hundred gardaí, many of them in armour, invaded the camp on Dame Street. There were 15 inhabitants. People were ripped out of tents and told in no uncertain terms, to leave the area. Others were terrorised and assaulted in the camp’s kitchen and then told to leave the area. Some of the structures, including the kitchen were ripped to shreds by heavy machinery and trucked away as rubbish. The personal belongings of the campers and of many others were carted off by the interlopers and taken to Pearse Street Garda Station. Everything from laptops, the minutes of general assemblies, video cameras, to the very personal possessions of the movement, gone…

That evening a surprise protest, organised in a matter of moments at the general assembly, took the gardaí completely by surprise. It was called and it was on the road, on both lanes, as gardaí started to run towards their cars and vans. It was gratifying to see their flashing blue lights in the distance as the first of the sit-downs blocked all traffic. The one garda van that had managed to keep up with the march, didn’t puke out any little blue fascists with the balls to make any demands on the sitters.

When the march got to Pearse Street all hell broke loose as gardaí frantically called in support. They really needn’t have worried. It was a peaceful group, despite their righteous anger. The proof of that is that no gardaí were injured, despite their thuggish behaviour, which included a cowardly assault on a 15 year old girl. There were plenty of injuries handed out to the marchers however. Despite asking lots of gardaí present, what legislation facilitated them randomly grabbing folks and preventing them from going where they wished to lawfully go, I got no answer. It’s my view that the gardaí were extremely lucky that the intentions of the marchers were peaceful, to the extreme. This is not to say that folks didn’t get vocal or were afraid to assert themselves. There were lots of vocalisations and assertions.

Eventually a few were allowed inside the garda station to begin the process of reclaiming their property. They were told that each individual would have make a list describing their property, sign and date it and that the property would be handed back at some later date. Any property remaining after this would be handed back to the camp generally. Not a single item of property has been returned yet. Including heart medication and other essential materials.

Occupy Dame Street Occupies the Gardaí

So where’s the unlawfulness? It all seems proper, if a bit unfair. That’s surfaces for you. Just scratch and you’ll find something different.

On the 28^th of February, a letter was delivered to the campers. It was from Superintendent Joe Gannon. Folks familiar with what’s written here will be familiar with the adventures of Joe. Basically if you need some muscle to beat the shit out of someone, you get Joe, that’s if “you” is the State. Not that Joe would be up to the job personally. No, not at all. Joe knows people.

Anyhow, Joe writes this letter, and comes across as all health and safety conscious. Of course to folks who are accustomed to Joe’s methodologies, like my good self, reading between the lines, it’s not really concern that one reads, it’s a threat. Here’s the letter in full:

To whom it may concern,

I write in the context of the ad hoc conversations and consultations we have had with participants in the occupy dame street camp over the last number of months

I also write in the context of the upcoming St. Patrick’s day celebrations, due to be held in Dublin City centre over the weekend of the 16th to the 19th of March, next st. Patrick’s Day, as you will be aware, and in particular the parade through Dublin city, is an event that attracts huge numbers of tourists and visitors from abroad and elsewhere in the country.

An Garda Síochána is charged with policing the festival and our objective is always to ensure that all of the st. Patrick’s Day events and celebrations pass off smoothly and that all participants and the large crowds of spectators at the parade can access and egress the parade route without any risk or threat to their health and safety.

An Garda Síochána’s policing of major events is very much predicated on adherence to codes of practice governing major outdoor events and health and safety stipulations under health and safety legislation. In that context, we are concerned about the presence of significant amounts of wooden pallets and other hardware in and around your “camp”. at the central bank plaza.

To that end I am therefore asking you for your assistance and cooperation IN REMOVING THE OCCUPY DAME STREET CAMP in order to facilitate the holding of the St Patrick’s day parade and to ensure that it passes off without risk of injury or harm to members of the community and visitors and to the satisfaction of all concerned.I would be grateful to receive your response to this letter by telephone, e-mail or post at the above contact points by the 3rd of March 2012.

Your cooperation in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Yours Sincerely,
Superintendent, Joseph Gannon

Please note that Joe has asked for a reply by the 3^rd of March. It’s important for the contextualisation of what followed.

On the morning of the 8^th of March, when the gardaí busted up the camp some printed sheets of paper were handed to the traumatised campers as an explanation as to what was happening. Section 24 of the Housing (Miscelaneous Provisions) Act, 2002, facilitated the thieves in the night. The date of printing was the 2^nd of March, the day before the deadline for the camp’s answer to Joe’s letter.

I’ll print the important piece of the legislation:

Entry on and occupation of land or bringing onto or placing an object on land without consent.

19C.—(1) A person, without the duly given consent of the owner, shall not—

(a) enter and occupy any land, or

(b) bring onto or place on any land any object,

where such entry or occupation or the bringing onto or placing on the land of such object is likely to—

(i) substantially damage the land,

(ii) substantially and prejudicially affect any amenity in respect of the land,

(iii) prevent persons entitled to use the land or any amenity in respect of the land from making reasonable use of the land or amenity,

(iv) otherwise render the land or any amenity in respect of the land, or the lawful use of the land or any amenity in respect of the land, unsanitary or unsafe,

(v) substantially interfere with the land, any amenity in respect of the land, the lawful use of the land or any amenity in respect of the land.

(2) A person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence.

(3) Where a member of the Garda Síochána has reason to believe that a person is committing or has committed an offence under subsection (1) the member—

(a) may demand of the person his or her name and address,

(b) may direct the person to leave the land concerned and to remove from the land any object that belongs to the person or that is under his or her control, and

(c) shall inform the person of the nature of the offence in respect of which it is suspected that person has been involved and the statutory consequences of failing to comply with a demand or direction under this subsection.

Refusing or failing to give name or address or failure to comply with direction.

19D.—Where a person—

(a) refuses or fails to give his or her name and address to a member of the Garda Síochána when demanded under section 19C, or gives to the member a name or address that is false or misleading, or

(b) fails to comply with a direction under that section,

he or she shall be guilty of an offence.

Arrest without warrant.

19E.—A member of the Garda Síochána may arrest without warrant a person—

(a) who fails or refuses to give his or her name and address when demanded under section 19C(3)(a) or gives a name or address which the member has reasonable grounds for believing is false or misleading,

(b) who fails to comply with a direction given under section 19C(3)(b), or

(c) whom the member finds committing an offence under section 19C(1).

Removal, storage and disposal of object.

19F.—(1) Where a person fails to comply with a direction under section 19C(3)(b), a member of the Garda Síochána may remove or cause to be removed any object which the member has reason to believe was brought onto or placed on the land in contravention of section 19C(1) and may store or cause to be stored such object so removed.

(2) Any person who obstructs or impedes or assists a person to obstruct or impede a member of the Garda Síochana in the execution of his or her duty under this section shall be guilty of an offence.

(3) Where an object has been removed under this section without the presence or knowledge of any person claiming to own, occupy, control or otherwise retain it, the Commissioner shall serve or cause to be served upon each such person whose name and address can be ascertained by reasonable enquiry, a notice informing the person where the object may be claimed and recovered, requiring the person to claim and recover it within one month of the date of service of the notice and informing him or her of the statutory consequences of his or her failure to do so.

(4) An object removed and stored under this section shall be given to a person claiming possession of the object if, but only if, he or she makes a declaration in writing that he or she is the owner of the object or is authorised by its owner to claim it or is, for a specified reason, otherwise entitled to possession of it and, at the discretion of the Commissioner, the person pays the amount of any expenditure reasonably incurred in removing and storing the object.

(5) The Commissioner may dispose of, or cause to be disposed of, an object removed and stored under this section if—

(a) the owner of the object fails to claim it and remove it from the place where it is stored within one month of the date on which a notice under subsection (3) was served on him or her, or

(b) the name and address of the owner of the object cannot be ascertained by reasonable enquiry.

(6) Where the Commissioner becomes entitled to dispose of or cause to be disposed of an object under subsection (5) and the object is, in his or her opinion, capable of being sold, the Commissioner shall be entitled to sell or cause to be sold the object for the best price reasonably obtainable and upon doing so shall pay or cause to be paid to the person who was the owner of the object at the time of its removal, where the name and address of the owner can be ascertained by reasonable enquiry, a sum equal to the proceeds of such sale after deducting therefrom any expenditure reasonably incurred in its removal, storage and sale.

Penalties and proceedings.

19G.—(1) A person guilty of an offence under this Part shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €3,000 or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding one month or to both.

(2) In any proceedings for an offence under this Part it shall be presumed until the contrary is shown that consent under this Part was not given.

Now, as can be seen, the proper procedure when using this legislation, is to inform any and all suspects, of the nature of the offence suspected and the penalties associated with a conviction under the offence. Folks being ripped from their sleeping bags and told to leave, without having this explained to them, have had their rights violated. Folks who have had their property taken without having this explained and an opportunity to remove their property, have had their rights violated. The good folks at Occupy Dame Street have been royally violated and not a single voice from the mainstream media or political world has so much as batted an eyelid.

Fair enough, I wasn’t present for the raid. But I was present later on, when John Rogers’ flag was stolen by a member of the gardaí. It was ripped right out of his hands and no warning or explanation was given. Cardboard, obviously capable of substantially damaging Dame Street Plaza, was expertly grabbed and destroyed by the State’s fascists in blue, before it could go off. Again without warning or explanation. In other words, the gardaí mugged people and stole their property.

John Rogers deals with the garda who stole his flag 🙂

I’ve used the word “entrapment” in the title of this piece, where did that come from? That’s quite easy. Basically speaking, entrapment is when a person who wouldn’t have broken the law, does so, due to some trickery perpetrated by the gardaí. The occupy movement had a good relationship with the owners of Dame Street Plaza. Indeed they even offered to replace the wooden fencing the campers used with metal fencing. They never once asked the camp to leave. Indeed, at one point, due to a rumour from a garda, when we manned the Courts to fight a possible eviction, the owners of Dame Street Plaza, went to great pains to explain to the campers that they had not set anything in motion with regard to an eviction. However, due to pressure (or whatever) from the gardaí, who had secret talks with the owners, it was agreed to evict the camp. The problem was that nobody bothered to tell the campers this. The first they heard of it was when a hundred thugs smashed the camp to pieces, stole private property and sent their victims wandering into the night.

As with Rossport, Gannon’s goons largely avoided arresting people. Why go there when jackboots are so much quicker and cheaper than prosecutions…

There were about three arrests in all, to date. In one of those arrests, an activist who was on the ground, arrested and under the control of the gardaí, was pepper sprayed. I’ve a feeling that there’ll be no conviction if it goes to court. I know a complaint has been given to the paintjob Garda Ombudsman, so I’ll not be holding my breath for justice to be dispensed.

On the upside. As I said earlier, the kettle is boiling. I cannot wait to see who gets scalded.

“Take him! Take him!” – The Trial of Éirígí’s Daithí Mac An Mháistir

There are two things that push me to do what it is that I do. The first is a person’s right to enjoy his or her good name and operate, based on it. The second is the set of natural rights that facilitate the freedom of expression, the freedom of assembly and the freedom of association. I am inspired most by those who risk the first by practising the second.

Superintendent Joe Gannon

On May 15^th of last year, very early in the morning, I started to receive a series of text messages. I was told that there was a bunch of activists holding a very ballsy protest outside and on the Anglo Irish Bank and that the gardaí were going ballistic with their batons. I was also informed that the well known scumbag, Superintendent Joe Gannon was personally in charge of the operation. Being well aware of Gannon’s penchant for ignoring the rule of law and his love for causing violence to be inflicted on those who choose not to lower themselves to his baseness, by fighting back, I decided to make two phonecalls in the early afternoon. I phoned two animal rights protesters I knew, who intended to mount their own protest that day. I warned both parties about the consequences of the Anglo protest and told them that the gardaí had been blooded and that it was very likely that their bloodlust had not been fully satisfied. I advised that the activists should set aside the usual methodology used for dealing with gardaí who set out to violate their rights. I cautioned that it would be a good idea to follow any unlawful orders given and to ensure that those orders were captured digitally. The normal practice had been to stand up for themselves, get the evidence, get arrested and annihilate the fascists in court. My concerns turned out to be quite prophetic and I was to spend most of the day and evening hanging around Pearse Street garda station, enquiring and worrying about a young man who’d been falsely arrested and had had the living shit kicked out of him in the process. Anyhow, this piece is not specifically about that. It is about the Éirígí protest and more so about Daithí Mac An Mhaistir and his fight, consequential to his arrest that day, with the justice system. It’s quite an amazing tale, I hope you, the reader, will agree.

The four protesters on the balcony, Ursula Ní Shionnain, Daithi Ó Riain, Robbie Fox and Eoin Ó Se, who were chained together, were dragged violently through an open window into the Anglo Irish Bank. It was alleged, in court, that the violence used upon these gutsy and dignified activists, was out of a concern that they might somehow fall from the balcony. It was later claimed, much to the amusement of those present, at Daithi’s trial, that they had threatened to jump. Though there had not been a mention of this false and absurd piece of perjury at their trial. Allow me to prove that there was no such concern at this stage. Prior to dragging the activists from the balcony, which according to garda evidence was some 19 feet above the footpath below, the gardaí had parked two garda vans immediately underneath the balcony. By my estimate, this reduced the dangerous 19 foot potential fall to a relatively harmless 5 or 6 feet. A good while before assaulting the chained activists, the gardaí removed these vans. Also, before the assault, the gardaí stole a large banner from the activists (which they have yet to return) that challenged the people of Ireland to “Rise Up!” After this, they amused themselves by filming the four and scurrying around them. At this point they dragged them violently through the window. On top of this outrage, the gardaí, as usual, did not follow protocol. The gardaí are mandated to use ropes, harnesses and scaffolding in situations where protests involving heights are concerned. It is usual garda practice to ignore this particular duty as has been well evidenced by their behaviour in Rossport, Tara and numerous other places and times.

Garda vans were initially parked under the balcony.

12 activists, who witnessed their comrades on the balcony being assaulted ran from the front of the Anglo Irish to the other exit point, beside the Mansion House, to await their friends being brought out and to ensure that no more violence was visited upon them. Three of the people in this group were: John McCusker, Pádraig Ó Meiscill and Daithí Mac An Mháistir. These three were arrested in the farce of policing that was to follow.

At this point I must point out, that I will be quite vague with regard to certain details in this tale and indeed, will be leaving out some incredibly inflammatory details. I’ve no choice in this as there are still court cases coming and other things. As with most of what I write, this is unfortunately unavoidable. My apologies nonetheless.

At this time an “urgent assistance” call was put out by gardaí stationed in the immediate vicinity. In a very short time there was a veritable wall of gardaí in front of the 12 activists who had linked together and there were also many gardaí behind them. Contrary to what Judge Watkins accepted as fact, in the first two trials, the trials of John McCusker and Pádraig Ó Meiscill, many gardaí had their batons drawn. In this joke of a trial, the judge accused both gentlemen of being liars, before finding them guilty and sentencing them. This is quite obviously something that I cannot say too much about and I will resist the almost overwhelming urge to point out the many and varied levels of utter bullshit, that I’m certain will see these activists vindicated in their appeal.

Daithí Mac An Mháistir, a founding member of Éirígí had been specifically present on the day of the protest to deliver a speech. His first taste of what was to come, came in the form of a massive ignoramus of a garda, who attempted to break his hand with a baton. Daithí managed to get his hand out of the way in time. Nobody attempted to put manners on this freak and this was to be indicative of the 12’s dignified protest despite the many provocations and injuries in what followed. It is interesting to note at this juncture, that despite the lying claims of the gardaí in the courts, that these activists had been “violent,” “looking for a fight,” and calling them “fucking pigs,” “bastards,” etc. there was not to be had one single claim that any garda had needed so much as a plaster, never mind actual medical assistance.

This is the Stand Off shortly after the "urgent assistance" call. Note that the gardaí do not look like they're afraid or being threatened.

In the court cases that followed, the gardaí mostly claimed that they were outnumbered, at all times by the 12. The numbers varied from between 30 and 60. Garda O’Brien a particularly vindictive and violent little prick, settled on a conservative estimate of thirty and explained in a non enlightening fashion that his keen ability at counting had been due to his having been a traffic garda. It was after this pronouncement of dubious fact, that O’Brien was confronted with the fact that he had said that there were 20 protesters in his precis of evidence. O’Brien was the garda who arrested Daithí. I’ll be generous and suggest that his disability with regard to numbers is down to his openly discernible stupidity. Indeed, I’d go so far as to suggest that in the main, that his belief that he could succeed in having Daithí convicted, was based on the utter tripe he gathered and presented as evidence, derived from this nascent stupidity and the fact that the judiciary at District Court level, generally, are more than willing to accept garda malfeasance and illogical crap to facilitate the convictions of decent and innocent activists. Thankfully, most judges who behave in this fashion, also have huge egos, and above anything else, fear having this stupidity publicly exposed. That’s one way to ensure winning in an Irish courtroom!

The particular “priest of the Oracle,” to quote Emmet in his “Speech From the Dock,” Judge McDonnell, who presided over Daithí’s trial, had no such fears. More about that shortly!

Daithí had been due to be tried on the first day of the Anglo trials. So too had the four who’d been viciously arrested in relation to the balcony protest. The case of the four couldn’t be heard on this occasion as the gardaí had failed to bring all of their witnesses. Daithí couldn’t be tried on this occasion due to Judge Watkins being forced to recuse herself for “perception of bias.” I’ll say no more about that day at this time!

The third trial was very interesting. Leo Mulrooney, the young barrister defending the four, fought the case from a strategic point of view that belied his youthful appearance. He cross-examined the prosecution witnesses, gardaí and civilians, opening up a plethora of defences and technicalities. He then, rather than playing his full hand, and giving the State a heads up so that it might prepare itself for Daithí’s case, ended the travesty by pointing out to the Court, that despite the fact representatives of the Anglo Irish Bank and the owners of the building had given evidence, that the four did not have permission to occupy the balcony, there were others who could have given permission, but the State had failed in its duty to provide their testimony to clarify the issue one way or the other. And thus the activists were entitled to the benefit of the doubt. Case binned! It was particularly gratifying and entertaining too when Leo, after letting the Anglo Irish Bank representative rattle on, asked him if access to and control of the balcony came under the bank’s lease agreement. The self important little gimp looked like he was about to chuck a coronary. He replied in the negative. So even if the technicality that saw the case tossed, hadn’t quite satisfied the judge, the fact that the bank had no say in the issue whatsoever, would have probably swung it!

On the 9^th of May Daithí’s case kicked off with a bang. The first noticeable thing was that Superintendent Gannon wasn’t present. My heart sank. He was supposed to have been summonsed after all. Correct! Your eyes are not failing you. Daithí wanted Gannon on the stand! There seems to have been some problem with the issuing of the summons that’s still not clear in my mind. One of the issues was the length of notice that Gannon required. Daithi’s defence, like myself, believed that 3 days was the minimum notice required. The judge, Judge McDonnell went with the State’s position and decreed that a minimum of 3 weeks was required. The various arguments and other cases brought us up to lunch. Saved by the bell. After dinner, Leo made an application to adjourn the matter so that Gannon could be summonsed due to the fact that his client, Daithí, had instructed that he be produced and that it wasn’t Daithí’s fault that he hadn’t. McDonnell ruled that the case would commence and that he’d allow the application if he felt that circumstances merited it.

On the first day of the Anglo trials, Garda Peter O’Brien had been the prosecutor on behalf of the DPP, with regard to Daithí’s case. It was interesting to note that the DPP was taking the case at this point. Wouldn’t do to have a fuckwitt like O’Brien in charge of things when Gannon was put out of our collective misery on the stand!

O’Brien was first to give evidence. All the other witnesses, including defence witnesses were ordered out of the court. Daithí was only charged with a single crime, a Section 6 Offence – threatening, insulting or abusive behaviour. O’Brien said in evidence that he’d been beside Gannon and in front of Daithí. He claimed that Daithí as well as shouting abusive things at the gardaí, had approached Gannon and had violently shoved him backwards. He said that Gannon hadn’t fallen over, he instead ordered the line of gardaí to move the protesters back, so that the garda vans containing the four balcony protesters could leave the area. Daithí was then supposed to have turned and tried to escape. He was allegedly grabbed by a female officer, by the arm, whom he supposedly attempted to push out of his way. The brave female officer, in O’Brien’s imagination, held onto the activist and he went to her aid and affected the arrest. O’Brien claimed, in his sworn perjury, that Daithí had been violent and abusive until he was placed into a garda vehicle and taken away. O’Brien also told the judge that Gannon, prior to being assaulted, had ordered the protesters back on two occasions. Another point of interest here is that O’Brien was one of the gardaí who was on the balcony dealing with the four protesters there, he was not produced as a witness at their trial.

O’Brien was finally turned over to Leo. Leo has a way about him where he maintains his dignity and treats all with courtesy. O’Brien thought it was business as usual due to this and didn’t seem to comprehend that he was masterfully being torn apart as Leo cross-examined him. O’Brien was the idiot who was numerically illiterate, whom I’ve already spoken of. He couldn’t remember if Gannon had issued a lawful instruction under Section 8 of the Public Order Act, when he’d asked the protesters to move on two occasions. He readily agreed that Daithí hadn’t been charged with assault, obstruction or obstructing an officer in the course of his or her duty. He admitted that he’d had his baton drawn, when he’d arrived at the scene, after receiving an “urgent assistance” call. He hadn’t completed the mandatory paperwork associated with the production of this weapon mind you. He didn’t notice that there were gardaí filming and so he hadn’t procured this material as evidence. When asked where the video evidence from the bank was, he replied that there wasn’t any. After a gentle bit of prodding from Leo, he revised this untruth and admitted that he hadn’t even bothered to check if the bank had any CCTV cameras and associated footage! He was asked if Gannon was in the court on the first day of the Anglo trials, when Daithí had been due to be tried. He lied that he hadn’t. He was asked how many times Daithí was brought to the ground by the gardaí before being cuffed and arrested. He was only brought to the ground the once, O’Brien lied. When asked if Gannon had asked him to bring his baton to the protest, as there’d be “blood on the streets,” O’Brien said that Gannon had said no such thing to him. When asked if Gannon had said such a thing, O’Brien, for once, wisely said that he didn’t know.

This is the gardaí just before they attacked the protesters.

Garda Caroline O’Riordan was called from outside the courtroom to give evidence next. Caroline is a gobshite, amongst other things. She wasn’t really associated with directly policing the protest on the day in question, she was there to help with barriers and things like that. She hadn’t brought a baton with her on that day but was able to remember she’d seen some produced. She too responded to the “urgent assistance call.” She been positioned behind the protesters when she imagined for the court that Daithí had approached Gannon and had attempted to knock his lights out with a punch aimed at his face. Daithí missed his elderly target and followed up with a violent shove to the git’s chest, she wanted the court to believe. Neither of the other two garda witnesses spoke of having seen this alleged punch. Then Daithí had turned and had tried to flee. O’Riordan, boldly made a grab for the fleeing activist and managed to take hold of his arm. Daithí tried to violently push this brave officer out of his way, but was no more successful than he’d been in his attempt to punch Gannon in the face or in his attempt to knock the old man over with the shove he allegedly gave him. O’Riordan’s knight in shining armour rode to the rescue. He’d ignored the violence that Daithí had allegedly tried to visit on Gannon. But this was an attack on garda women folk!

After telling the judge that she and her hero had arrested Daithí, she was handed over to Leo for execution.

She didn’t know what Daithí had shouted, if he’d shouted anything.

She didn’t know if Gannon had issued a proper order under Section 8 of the Public Order Act when he’d asked activists to move away on two occasions.

She agreed that there was a general melee going on in the background as Daithí was being arrested.

She insisted that Daithí had not been taken to the ground, pulled up from the ground again, put in a headlock and dragged violently backwards to be thrown to the ground once again before being finally arrested. Not only was O’Riordan lying about this, she was the one who’d rushed from the dome of gardaí that was on top of most of the other activists, crushing and beating them, she’d been the very scumbag who’d grabbed Daithí in the headlock, nearly pulling him from the grip of the other gardaí who were just after pulling him from the ground, in her effort to injure the activist. This of course shows that her fairytale about having grabbed onto Daithí, holding him until her hero arrived to help her with taking him into custody, was just that, a fairytale! Perjury too.

To add more fuel to this particular fire I should say the following: Prior to Caroline trying to break Daithí’s neck, Gannon was on the road, some ten or so feet to the side of Daithí who’d already been taken to the ground. He shouted: “Take him! Take him!” At this point Daithí was dragged from the ground and it was at this stage that Caroline entered the scene. Not bad for an old man. He managed to get beside the allegedly fleeing Daithí, well before Caroline managed to arrive and grab Daithí, considering that she was behind the protesters to begin with. This shows that each and every piece of testimony that described events, immediately prior to Daithí’s arrest was a fabrication. The fact that all three gardaí agreed closely as to the alleged facts shows that they wilfully perjured themselves.

Garda O'Riordan, in the blue overalls, arrives. Daithí is already on the ground!

O'Riordan doesn't care if she snaps Daithí's neck!

The final prosecution witness was a Garda Shevlin. I’m not 100% sure that this was the garda’s surname, it was only mentioned once and I wasn’t sure if I’d caught it correctly. My apologies to all with the surname of “Shevlin” if I’m incorrect. The garda told the court that Daithí had approached Gannon and had either punched Gannon in the chest or had violently shoved him in the chest. His tale was pretty much the same as that of the other two State’s perjurers after that.

When cross-examined by Leo, we were told that he’d been approximately 20 feet away from Daithí at the time of the alleged shove/punch. He hadn’t bothered to try and intervene in this as he didn’t want to break formation and because Gannon could allegedly take care of himself. He lost sight of Daithí after the alleged attack on Gannon because Gannon allegedly ordered himself and the troops forward just after this. He’d been ordered to put away his baton shortly before this (he wasn’t required to fill in the necessary baton report either). He only caught sight of Daithí again whilst he was supposedly resisting being arrested and he went to offer his assistance. Leo got this particular witness to agree that Gannon hadn’t given a proper lawful order under Section 8 of the Public Order Act on the two occasions he’d ordered the activists to leave the area.

The alleged prosecution rested…

It was getting very late in the day. Leo put it to the judge that there were a number of applications that he could make at this point, but he wanted to discuss these possibilities with his client to take instruction on whether he should make them at this point or proceed with the defence case. The judge saw no problem with this and a discussion commenced as to when the hearing should re-commence. There were only a few dates available where the judge’s schedule facilitated him being back in the Parkgate Court complex. This presented a problem for one of the defence witnesses, who would be out of the country at the time the hearing was to be concluded. The judge agreed to hear this witness prior to adjourning the case for the day. The witness was only due to give testimony on a defence exhibit and its provenance. He hadn’t been present at the Anglo protest.

Near the start of this piece, I spoke of a young activist who’d been beaten and arrested on the same day as the Anglo protest. We’d long since had his case thrown out of court, without him ever having to present the evidence he’d gathered to defend himself. He had a little surprise for the gardaí, the DPP and indeed, Judge McDonnell.

Robert Ševcik was called from the corridor and onto the stand. He said that he’d been at an anti-fur protest that day. He’d been arrested and conveyed to Pearse Stree garda station. The arresting officer had taken his audio recording device from him. This audio device has an interesting function. The little machine can be put in record mode and the red LED that normally denotes that recording is taking place can be switched off. On this occasion the LED was off and the device was recording. The arresting officer took the device with him into the heart of Pearse Street and recorded approximately 13 minutes of incredibly interesting and enlightening audio.

Mr Ševcik produced a DVD copy of the audio as evidence for the defence and it was given to the court clerk to put in the court’s safe until the re-commencement of the hearing.

McDonnell, before rising for the day, informed Leo that he might well need to Summons Gannon and he advised the barrister of the necessary precedents that he ought to study with regard to such a witness who might not like giving testimony for the defence and who couldn’t be led in cross-examination because he was a defence witness. No problemo! We all exited the court in exalted spirits.

On the 17^th of June the case re-opened for its conclusion.

There were a number of things that strike me as suspicious, but they may well be coincidental and fully innocent. The judge informed the defence team, sometime prior to the case being re-commenced that he would not be in the court before 2.00pm. Nothing too suspicious about this, on its own. I arrived at the Parkgate complex well before 2.00pm. I was immediately approached by another activist who looked very worried. He told me that we were possibly in the wrong place. He’d approached reception and had been told that there were no cases at all being heard in Court 17 that day. I was very sure of the schedule and I went with him over to reception and gave the lady there the details of the case. She told me that all the cases scheduled for Court 17 were moved to Court 18. We thanked her and we went upstairs. Sure enough, Daithi’s case was listed for hearing in Court 18 and it was listed for hearing at 10.30am. The list was posted outside the the entrance to Court 18. I decided not to go in, I instead waited for Daithí and all of the others to arrive, so that I might clear up any confusion that might have arisen. It was just as well that I decided this as otherwise I would have ended up being the confused person.

Shortly before 2.00pm Daithí, his legal team, witnesses and supporters arrived. Immediately upon their arrival a person went over to Court 17 and unlocked the door to admit Leo. The case was being heard in 17 after all!

Any members of the press who ended up in Court 18 by mistake, well you missed the fireworks!

Some 20 minutes after the case was due to start and we were sure that Gannon wasn’t going to show, applying for a bench warrant would have been interesting, in he walked, smiling. He sat down at the back of the court. I couldn’t resist turning around and giving him a welcoming wink!

Five minutes after the arrival of Gannon the judge entered the courtroom. He had a face on him like someone who’d tried to eat a lump of shit and had decided that it wasn’t up to standard. This wasn’t going to be pretty.

Leo attempted to begin the defence. There were to be no applications at this point. The judge went mental! He accused Leo, wrongly, of having misled the Court. He claimed that Leo had agreed to make applications first and then if necessary, proceed with the defence case. He was quite wrong in this. Simple logic proves it. Leo could easily have asked Daithí on the last day if he wished to make applications. If Daithí had agreed, the applications would have taken minutes and there’d have been no need to put Rob on the Stand or summons Gannon. There were at least four applications that I could think of that would have seen this case winging its way into the nearest hole. The judge was hearing none of what Leo had to say on the matter. He demanded that Leo gather his instructing solicitor and his client, that they leave the courtroom, to discuss the very serious consequences of not making applications at this time. In other words, he threatened to pay no heed to applications made after the defence commenced. Leo, who maintained his composure and dignity throughout the exchange, pointed out to the judge that he was a barrister and that he was well within his rights to take instruction from his client, without having to summon the head solicitor of the legal firm representing Daithí. The judge amended his demand to a request. Daithí and his team left the courtroom.

When they re-entered the court and the Judge had once again seated himself, Leo informed him that he’d be presenting the defence as per the instructions of his client and that he’d make applications if and when he felt it necessary to do so. The implication being that if McDonnell refused to listen to the substance of these applications and instead threw them out because the defence wasn’t being presented as he’d dictated, well, that would be on his shoulders!

I should point out at this stage, that Daithí wanted the defence presented for a very good reason. He’s a well known activist, he’s a founding member of a controversial political party and he’s got lots of people who’d like nothing better than to crap all over his good name. Daithí wanted the full truth to come out and be exposed to the light of day in this case. Having the case tossed on a technicality would have facilitated the scumbags in their efforts. On the other hand, if the fullness of the garda actions was properly exposed, there’d be no way to attack his good name and character. On top of this, the protest itself was a very important one, with eyes at home and abroad watching what happened. For example, who did the gardaí gather all that video footage for, if not for evidence to be used in court! This case stank to high heaven and Daithí wanted it all out in the open.

Judge McDonnell, his bluff called, decided to shoot the case in the head himself. He said that he’d looked through his notes and could find no mention of when the gardaí had told Daithí what they’d arrested him for. He demanded that the DPP look through her notes to confirm this. She looked and could provide no example. But she did argue and I agree with her, in my non legal expert way, that this was irrelevant as the prosecution had not attempted to produce any evidence that arose after the arrest. The judge was having none of it. Case dismissed!

Next the judge accused Leo of impropriety in presenting the defence. He announced that the barrister was pursuing the defence for “collateral” purposes. He did this without hearing a single word of the defence. After all, it should be remembered that Rob had not given any testimony as to what happened outside the Anglo Irish Bank. What an absolute load of horseshit! If vindicating the character of an innocent man is collateral to the court’s function, one can only wonder as to the judge’s purpose in the first instance!

Next, the judge did something, that in my opinion should see him torn from the bench and stripped of all authority. He held aloft the audio DVD that Rob had provided and told a relieved looking Garda O’Brien to return it to its owner. He did this despite Leo telling him that this audio was to be used in at least another 2 cases and that the gardaí had no copy of it or inkling as to what was on it. McDonnell was having none of it, his simian like brow was deeply creased and his lips turned fully down, indicating that he was in full tantrum mode. It was handed over to O’Brien, who took it and promised to deliver it to its owner – he didn’t even enquire as to the owner’s details. This audio will be used in the appeals of John McCusker and Pádraig Ó Meiscill and no judge of the Circuit Court, a higher authority than McDonnell, has ordered that this evidence be given to the gardaí.

When McDonnell first came into the courtroom that day on his rampage, denying Daithí a hearing where the full truth came out, I was reminded of Robert Emmet and his famous “Speech From the Dock.” It is fitting that I end this by quoting from it:

“My lords, it may be a part of the system of angry justice, to bow a man’s mind by humiliation to the purposed ignominy of the scaffold; but worse to me than the purposed shame, or the scaffold’s terrors, would be the shame of such unfounded imputations as have been laid against me in this court: you, my lord [Lord Norbury], are a judge. I am the supposed culprit; I am a man, you are a man also; by a revolution of power, we might change places, though we never could change characters; if I stand at the bar of this court and dare not vindicate my character, what a farce is your justice? If I stand at this bar and dare not vindicate my character. How dare you calumniate it?”

Agnieszka Chojnacka Puts Manners on The Gardaí and The DPP

The Irish State doesn’t like dissent. That’s obvious now, more than ever. When we see images of gardaí, in riot gear, beating kids who are sitting down and protesting peacefully, even if Irish television waits a week to show it, one cannot but help see the obvious. If you’re not happy, keep it to yourself.

Now that the State is finally near the melting point, the gardaí et al have become more open in their fascist mission. They’re not so bothered any more if the public at large sees that they’re really only a group, mostly of thugs who have had their dubious skills put to use rather than have them sign on for the dole.

Always gather the evidence

I’ve been working with a particular group of dissenters for close to two years now. Arrest after arrest, court case after court case and it becomes easy to study the State’s methodology. It becomes easy to defeat. After all, they’re a bunch of fucking eejits that have been using the same methods forever and expecting them to continue to work forever. Admittedly some of these methods are not as obvious as beating the rights out of people, not that that hasn’t happened here too, it has! For the most part all these methods boil down to one or two single purposes. The first being to dissuade new activists from taking to the streets, and the second, to destroy individual activists with multiple arrests and subsequent convictions – “death by a thousand cuts.” The first purpose is pretty much realised by having the newbies witness what happens to the others. The Public Order Act is the main tool used, and even then, I’ve yet to meet a single garda who begins to understand it. Many judges and officers of the DPP are pretty clueless too. And I’m being generous when I use the word “clueless” as the alternative is insidious and requires wilfulness.

Having seen what the State was up to with the likes of Shell To Sea, the Tara activists, the Shannon peace activists and a multitude of others, it was a rare pleasure to come across A-Liberation and be asked to work with them, to study and destroy the State’s campaign against them. A-Liberation are a group of animal rights activists. Animal rights activists are generally a prime target for shutting down and practicing on. They’re on the fringe of activism and thus have less of a support network than more “mainstream” activists. Most activism has to do with human rights of one type or another. Most mainstream activists would suggest to the animal rights activists that one cannot expect to win rights for “non-human animals” when rights for human animals are only paid lip service to. It’s not that the animal rights activists don’t get this, believe me, they do, it’s simply that they see the non-human animal kingdom as needing a voice and a caring helping hand. A-Liberation most certainly recognise that human rights are merely a paint job that fools the masses and facilitates abusers sleeping at night. This particular group has been suffering human rights abuses for as long as I’ve known them. And they’ve met these abuses head on. They’re not going to leave the streets any time soon and have made a habit of making fools of the gardaí in the courts, in front of judges, who for the most part have shown them nothing but contempt.

The latest exposure happened just a couple of weeks back.

On Tuesday 23rd of November, Agnieszka Chojnacka walked calmly and purposefully into the Circuit Court at the new facility in Dublin’s Parkgate Street. She was appealing a conviction handed down to her by the brother of Noel Dempsey TD. Dempsey J. a short, self-important little creep, had shut down Aga’s defence during her trial in the District Court, when she was fighting charges of: Obstructing an officer in the course of his duty (Section 19 of the Public Order Act) and failure to provide her name and address to the very same gimp (Section 24 of the Public Order Act). The Section 19 charge was easily defeated as it was obviously a work of pathetic fiction. However, the demand for details was not so easily defeated, via legal argument anyway. If one counted the fact that Aga was not told specifically that failure to provide details constituted a criminal offence, then there was a surefire technicality to see this bullshit charge tossed too. Dempsey wanted to hear none of this and instead amused himself by abusing the defendant and her witnesses. Who needs justice when you can get away with threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour (Section 6 of the Public Order Act).

Anyway, the argument that Aga wanted to advance in her defence was that Sergeant Tallon, the arresting goon, didn’t have a reasonable suspicion to facilitate a demand for her details in the first place. Dempsey was hearing none of it. He wouldn’t allow the young woman to play her audio recording of her encounter with Tallon and he couldn’t be bothered to give a reason as to why. Question after question that was put to the Sergeant didn’t have to be answered according to the minister’s brother, a former small town and tiny minded solicitor. For a finish he convicted her of the Section 24 charge and fined her €500. To rub salt into wounds, the little judge heaped lavish praise upon the sergeant for his alleged patience. I’ll give a very thorough accounting of the sergeant’s actions in this work and folks can judge him for themselves. Aga initiated the appeal before leaving the Court building. She wasn’t intimidated by the Judge or the conviction, she knew that she’d done nothing wrong and she was confident in her ability to prove it.

Shortly after this conviction Aga annihilated another set of false charges against her, read about this *HERE*. These two sets of charges are the only sets of charges ever to have been brought against this woman. Between the first two court cases and this appeal, the dirty tricks brigade did their utmost to make life difficult for the confident activist. Shortly after teaching one Garda Reilly a trick or two on the Stand and destroying the false accusations she’d dared to bring into the Court, various members of Aga’s family in Poland, including her mother, were visited by Interpol. This didn’t put her off though. If anything, it made her more determined to clear her name.

Before I continue I want to do a little biography on Sergeant Tallon:

Fergal Leddy received blows from a baton to the back of the head and shoulder. This happened during the ill-fated Reclaim The Streets protest in Dublin on May 6th 2002. Garda Paul Tallon was accused of being the garda who assaulted Fergal. Tallon’s first trial collapsed when the jury, after some 4 hours of deliberation, failed to reach a majority verdict – this was in 2004, more than 2 years after the assault on Mr Leddy. In 2005 Tallon was cleared by another jury of the Assault. He was 31 at the time. Tallon was one of a number of gardaí that day that earned notoriety with activists. Many gardaí had removed shoulder numbers, others were not in uniform and most of them disgraced themselves. Indymedia.ie made a name for itself as a very serious news organisation when pictures, videos and accounts began to appear.

When the Garda Complaints Board began to investigate its own thugs, witnesses were given a follow up visit by garda friends of the gardaí allegedly being investigated. This particular disgrace was later cited as being one of the reasons for the formation of the paint job, known as the “Garda Ombudsman.”

Interestingly too, Tallon’s current superintendent is none other than Joe Gannon. Gannon disgraced himself spectacularly in Mayo when he allowed heavy machinery to be driven onto private property and through a large group of protesters. Gannon was in charge of the garda thugs sent to Mayo to beat the rights out of Shell To Sea. For his gallant actions, including the re-writing of Irish law, where the power of arrest was removed from the Public Order Act, Gannon was put in charge in Pearse St. Garda Station upon his return to Dublin.

Now let me describe the events that took two court cases to expose. Let me describe what the video and audio evidence proves. Two court cases to expose what would take 5 minutes to prove to anyone else who cared to examine the evidence. In fairness, one representative of the DPP offered to examine the evidence and withdraw the case if it showed what we said that it showed. I don’t know whether she bothered to examine the evidence or not, the case most certainly didn’t disappear. She did, mind you.

On Saturday, August 29th of 2009, A-Liberation held their weekly protest outside Barnados Furriers on Lower Grafton Street in Dublin. The vegan activists had known Tallon for some time at this point and he was currently hanging around behind the protesters with Garda Kearns. Being well used to garda attempts to fit them up, the activists had taken to using video cameras and voice recorders to ensure that garda lies would be exposed in any court case brought against them.

Edmund Long, a veteran campaigner, had spotted Tallon in the reflection of the shop window, acting suspiciously, and shortly afterwards he filmed him and Kearns chatting with a homeless gentleman and sharing a laugh. The Sergeant later testified, on both occasions, that he’d taken no complaints prior to approaching Ed and the group.

The shop began to close up. The shutter over the main entrance opened briefly to admit the homeless gentleman, they must have spotted him on their own video equipment from inside the shop. As the homeless gentleman emerged from the shop, he thrust his crotch forward and grabbed his neck in a mocking and insulting gesture towards the activists. He ignored the fact that Ms Bartolome was filming him, he passed her by and made his way over to Mr Long who was also filming him. He slapped Mr Long’s camera, turning it off and started to give out to the activist, demanding not to be filmed and other incoherent nonsense. After a short while the homeless gentleman was pulled away by a friend of his. A few seconds after this, Tallon arrived in front of Ed and began to accuse him of violating the homeless man’s constitutional rights. Ed just stared at Tallon and said nothing.

Of interest here is the fact that Tallon testified, that he had not seen the homeless man make the gestures he made as he exited the shop. Add to this that it was a busy Saturday on Lower Grafton Street, close to 5.30pm (as Tallon said in evidence) it is hard to know how Tallon could have heard what transpired between Ed and the homeless man. Tallon was unable to tell the appeal Court how it was that he knew what had been said.

Gloria Bartolome who’d been filming continued to film and positioned herself closer to Tallon and Ed, so that her camera might capture what was being said. Tallon eventually noticed her and told her to move back, which she did. The homeless man, immediately jumped between her and Tallon and began to push her back. It’s interesting to note at this point that the homeless gentleman didn’t seem to mind being filmed by Ms Bartolome as he jumped left and right, to frustrate the activist’s attempt to film what was going on between Tallon and Ed. Just then, garda Kearns returned from a brief sojourn he’d taken towards Upper Grafton St. Tallon placed his hand on the homeless gentleman’s shoulder and told him that he’d take care of it. And take care of it he did, he gestured to Garda Kearns to take over from the homeless man. Kearns ordered Ms Bartolome to step back and he accused her of obstructing the sergeant in the course of his duty. Ms Bartolome moved back, again, and attempted to continue filming. At this point, Kearns directed Ms Bartolome to leave the area under Section 8 of the Public Order Act. Ms Bartolome, fearing arrest and the destruction or loss of her video evidence, reluctantly left the scene, telling Kearns that she knew her rights.

As the video evidence shows, and more so Aga’s audio evidence, the young lady up until this point, had continued her protest and then had engaged in a friendly chat about animal rights with a member of the public.

When the homeless man had been jumping around, in his bid to prevent Ms Bartolome from filming, he’d jumped to his left and had crashed into Ms Chojnacka who didn’t react in any way, physically or verbally. She was well used to this gentleman abusing the activists in front of the gardaí. He’d even issued death threats in front of them, against Ed, on camera, on the odd occasion or two.

Shortly after Ms Bartolome left the scene with her valuable evidence, the sergeant called the homeless man over, to tell Ed not to film him. He immediately started to shout about his alleged hatred of being filmed. It was at this point that Aga made her one and only contribution to the sorry saga. She simply informed the homeless man that he was in a public place. Immediately after this, Tallon turned around, pushed her backwards and told her to step back. “Babyface,” garda Kearns, immediately went over to Aga to inform her that nobody had pushed her and that she should step back, as what was going on, had nothing whatsoever to do with her. Aga moved well back and waited for Tallon to finish with Ed, so that they could go home.

Tallon finally finished abusing and talking shite to Mr Long and after getting the details that he probably knew by heart at this stage (he’d previously arrested and prosecuted Ed twice), he directed the patient activist to leave the area under Section 8 of the Public Order Act. Immediately after this, he stalked over to Agnieszka and demanded her details.

The young woman told the goon that she’d no problems with giving her details after he told her why he thought he was entitled to them. The sergeant informed her that she’d engaged in threatening and abusive behaviour (Section 6 of the Public Order Act). The activist then asked if someone had made a complaint about her. The sergeant didn’t bother to answer and continued to demand details. When she didn’t answer fast enough the sergeant arrested her, to the absolute outrage of bystanders who’d gathered to watch the debacle. Two of them approached the sergeant, the first a male who told the sergeant that he’d never seen anything like this in his life (he later told the remaining activists that he was a policeman in the UK) and second, a woman who asked the sergeant if he wanted to arrest her too as she’d also done nothing wrong. The sergeant fobbed both the witnesses off by telling them to go to Pearse Street. He then put the young woman in the unmarked car and took her to Harcourt Terrace Garda Station. Thus we were never able to secure the testimonies of either of these two witnesses. Good thing that Tom McSherry, the roving camera operator got it all on video and that Aga got it on audio. It had been Tom’s job that day to forgo his right to protest and instead film the protest from afar and to film from less far, in the event of an event. A job he did to perfection.

At the station, Aga was searched by a female officer and her handbag, which is clearly shown in the video evidence at the time of her arrest was handed back out to Tallon. This is Aga’s version of what happened and it’s borne out by the fact that there is no record of this handbag in the garda custody record. During the first trial, Tallon sidestepped responsibility for this omission by blaming his fellow officers, he claimed that handing in evidence to the custody officer wasn’t his responsibility and that someone else had failed in their duty. Aga claims that her phone, which was in the bag, had been interfered with and that one of the numbers in the phone’s memory had been dialled. She didn’t bother to go into this during the appeal as the Herald had already publicised it after the first trial: http://www.herald.ie/national-news/city-news/antifur-protester-is-fined-8364500-over-row-outside-shop-2086727.html

Now that I’ve pointed to the Herald article by Andrew Phelan, I might as well point out that the appeal referred to by it refers to an appeal that Ed later took against a conviction secured by Tallon against him. Ed made bits of Tallon and the DPP in this appeal and it’s a tale I intend to go into in great detail at a later date.

Now, let’s look at the appeal.

The young accountant dressed in a smart brown suit. To look at her you’d not think she’d say boo to a ghost. She looks the perfect victim. To see her as a victim, timid or afraid to fight her corner, is to underestimate this remarkable woman on a massive scale. The appeal hearing began at noon. The traditional time for a showdown. Tallon took the stand immediately, his swaggering and confident gait an offence to those of us who knew the truth. He maintained this air of confidence through his examination by Mr Henry, “the Penguin” as we’d long since named him. Mr Henry finished with the sergeant by asking him if he remembered listening to Aga’s audio evidence during the previous trial and hearing how many times he’d demanded Aga’s details. Aga and I, her McKenzie Friend, exchanged glances at this point. It was important. It was important for two reasons. The first being that it would now be easy for Aga to introduce her audio evidence, considering that the Penguin and the sergeant both remembered it from the first trial. The second reason it stood out was of course that it had not been played during the first trial. Judge Dempsy in his infinite capacity to disable a defence, had not allowed it to be played – it was for this reason and this reason alone, that Aga had decided not to take the stand herself – myself and Dempsey had had a bit of an argument about this. So at this unusual juncture, both Aga and myself would like to thank the Penguin for his help and to ask for his understanding as to why we didn’t get into this particular detail on the day – and of course to apologise for the various arsekickings that Aga delivered directly to him during the day’s proceedings – nothing personal dude! Good wholesome fun all the same!

Anyway, Tallon tried to maintain his arrogant composure during the cross-examination. He lost it in the first few minutes and took to staring at his hands which were joined together in front of him, face down. Question after question exposed his bullshit. He insisted that Aga had been told to move back on more than one occasion. This facilitated Aga in reading from his précis (summary of evidence) to him and then him having to admit that the précis did seem to indicate that she’d only been moved back on the one occasion (albeit it by Tallon pushing her and Babyface interceding and asking her to move back). The précis and Tallon claimed (in the first trial, not in the second, until Aga made a big deal of it) that the activist had obstructed the sergeant with a video camera. The DPP objected to this line of questioning considering that the obstruction charges were no more. It was at this point that Aga demonstrated how to efficiently butcher a penguin, which in itself was interesting considering that the young vegan abhors the meat trade. She told the judge that she was not trying to resurrect the obstruction charge. She said that even when the prima facie evidence in a case is shown to be flawed and the case dismissed, that the reasonable suspicion that facilitated the whole thing was expected to survive and that it was this alleged reasonable suspicion that she was getting at. The judge told her to carry on.

Tallon couldn’t explain how the more than three hours of video and audio footage, that the president of the District Court had ordered be handed over to the prosecution, long before the first trial, didn’t contain a single frame of Aga holding or using a video camera, or any reference to this figment of Tallon’s less than articulate imagination. Indeed, it had been our argument that Tallon was mistaking Aga for Ms Bartolome, the lady who’d been sent away for filming by Babyface. We’d argued this with the first DPP who was initially prosecuting. She agreed that if the video showed this that she’d withdraw the case. Of course the video shows exactly this and as I’ve said it was the initial DPP who disappeared, not the case. Anyhow this still made for some very powerful argument in court. You see Tallon says in his precis that Aga obstructs him with a camera and that Babyface moves her back because of this. In other words Babyface only moves Aga once and it’s for this imaginary camera incident. The video and audio evidence both show that Babyface only speaks to Aga on a single occasion, when she informs the homeless man that he’s in a public place.

Tallon couldn’t explain how it was that he could possibly know what the homeless man had been saying to Ed prior to his intervention. Tallon waffled on about coming between Mr Long and the homeless gentleman and hearing what was going on. It was a beautiful trap. Aga left the sergeant drone on about this before pointing out that is was bullshit, after all, the video evidence showed that the homeless man’s friend had dragged him away prior to the sergeant’s arrival.

Another important question from Aga established that Tallon had collected no evidence or testimony after Aga’s arrest. This was an important question for a number of reasons. Primarily it was aimed at showing the unreasonableness of the Threatening, Abusive and Insulting behaviour allegation (Section 6 of the Public Order Act) that Tallon had initially thrown at Aga. After all, Tallon had not bothered to charge Aga with this, and she was wondering why, considering that he’d gathered no evidence after the arrest to facilitate not bringing this charge. Tallon tried to get out of this bind by insisting that he’d meant the group of activists generally when he’d made this allegation. The fact that he’d previously stated that he’d neither seen anything unlawful nor taken a complaint prior to approaching Ed, and that he could give no example of a Section 6 offence after approaching Ed, didn’t make his story look very convincing. Secondly, Babyface, under cross examination by Aga (he’d been ordered to leave the court while Tallon was giving evidence) admitted that he’d prepared a statement and given it to Tallon after Aga’s arrest. On top of the contradiction he helpfully provided, the sergeant hadn’t bothered to give Aga a copy of this statement when he was initially ordered to provide her with a précis. Tut tut sergeant!

This article’s getting very long so I’ll leave off there with the cross examination of Tallon, needless to say, most of Aga’s questions contained a hidden kick in the arse, delivered deftly by the smiling lady each time Tallon wandered aimlessly into her various traps.

Babyface was a joy on the stand. He mostly told the truth. He couldn’t advance a reason as to why he ordered Ms Bartolome away after she had complied with his direction to move back. He admitted that neither himself nor Tallon had taken the homeless man’s details or given him any lawful directions, even after, as Aga pointed out, the video evidence showed that he couldn’t possibly have failed to notice that the homeless man was in the process of assaulting and obstructing Ms Bartolome when he intervened after Tallon had put his hand gently on the homeless man’s shoulder and told his wannabe assistant in a paternal tone that he’d deal with the matter. And deal with it he did, Babyface immediately sprung into action and Gloria was sent home.

Aga took the stand herself on this occasion. And she mastered the Penguin. He didn’t even bother to ask her any questions about her audio recording when she finished with her testimony and him (lucky for him).

When Aga came back from the stand she stood and told the judge that she’d finished with the defence and she offered the floor to the Penguin before she made her closing summation. The Penguin told the judge that he thought that the evidence spoke for itself. The judge looked at the Penguin incredulously for a while before agreeing with him. Aga went to stand again to deliver her closing argument. The judge told her that she didn’t need to bother and he granted her the appeal.

Her name is clear once again. Well done Aga! An epic battle. And goddamn entertaining too!

The Story In Pictures

Ed films Tallon, Babyface and the homeless man having a chat

Ed films homeless man leaving the gardaí and walking towards the shop

Ed films the homeless man leaving the shop and gesturing towards the activists

Glo films homeless man confronting Ed and hitting his camera

Glo films homeless man's friend pull him away prior to Tallon's arrival

Glo films Tallon arrive and he immediately begins to accuse/harass Ed

Glo films homeless man as he assaults her and obstructs her attempts to film Tallon and Ed (note that Tallon is watching this)

Tom films Babyface taking over the harassment of Glo from the homeless man - he directs her to leave the area

Tom films Babyface telling Aga that nobody has pushed her and asking her to move back (note that Aga doesn't have a video camera)

Tom films Tallon demanding Aga's details (note the handbag that Tallon fancied)

Tom films Tallon arresting Aga

Tom films English policeman(?) tell Tallon that he's never seen anything like this in his life

Tom films female bystander suggest that Tallon arrest her also as she's done nothing wrong too