GSOC & the ‘Garda rape threat tape’ - who watches the watchmen

andrew
Sat, 30 Jul 2011 08:57:46 +0000
Garda rape threat, GSOC, Policing, Rossport, Community, Repression, Connaught, Opinion, Analysis, Andrew N Flood

During the week the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission released an interim report on the Garda rape threat tape recordings that were revealed last April. The report contains a major error that suggests GSOC are the source of repeated attempts to spin the story in the media as somehow being the fault of the women the Garda were recorded discussing threatening to rape. The timing of the release of the report was also suspect, coming in the week Shell resumed construction and the day before a national day of action in Erris durig which four Shell to Sea campaigners were injured by Garda and/or private security violence. Such was the level of spin applied that some media made the mistake of leading with the news that the Garda had been cleared of something no one had ever accused them of, directly threatening the two women with rape.