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bring a tape of podge and rodge ( johnny vegas interview to court with you) ask the judge if he has the time to watch it. p+r used the f word at least one. inform him that the word is now in everyday use. particularly by younger people. If he says that its wasting his time, ask him why its not a waste of taxpayers money/garda time bringing the case. I have a funny feeling if you had been part of a gang and you all had told him to eff off instead of you just asking him to leave the busker alone you wouldnt be in court. Regardless of whether its an offence or not to use abusive language in public, in my opinion this is a gross waste of taxpayers money.
 
Hi bearishbull
I'm sorry that you have to go to court, and I hope you don't end up with a criminal record but I think the Garda was right in his course of action. If the gardai turned a blind eye to every offence what's the point in having laws? I don't think you were right to challange the authority of the garda, he is employed by the state to do a job that most of us would hate and I think the gardai deserve more respect than they get ... especially at 4am in the morning.
Good luck with your day in court ... put it down to experience,

HP
 
Spoke to some professionals about this - basically, if the story you're telling is accurate and the guard tells the same story, then there should be no problem and the judge will throw it out. They don't however fancy your chances of that actually happening, it will come down to your word against the guards (who incidentally probably had'nt been drinking) and obviously the judge will believe the guard. Let us know how you got on, and don't be so obstinate next time!!
 
I sympathise completely bearishbull (assuming you were acting in the manner you described), the f word is at this stage an integral part of every day english in this country and is rarely meant offensively. Knowing a great many gardai it would appear that you came across one of the classic "pett bully" type of which there are plenty.
My garda friends are regularly subjected to actual offensive and threatening language and behaviour from the criminal classes and neither their bosses or the prosecution services are interested in pressing charges as the offender doesn't care whether they are prosecuted or not and won't change their behaviour subsequently.
Proper gardai actually despair of this type of fool who damages public feeling towards the gardai and causes reduced cooperation on matters that are actually important. It wouldn't be just you who would have a negative view of the gardai after this incident it would be other normal members of the public witnessing your mistreatment who come away thinking that the gardai are great at bullying ordinary people but they don't do much about proper criminals.
I wouldn't worry too much about the "letter of the law" responses you've had or those trying to twist what you've said to imply you were impeding a garda in the course of his duty, you'll always get those. The key is, that irrespective of how you felt about his abuse of power, once the garda started to act up you should have backed down with "sorry garda, didn't mean to offend" etc... let the petty fool have his moment of power. Be the bigger man and console yourself that someone else will probably throw up on him a few minutes afterwards as the universe balances things back out. Take the same view of your day in court, tell the judge that you apologised at the time and tried to explain to the garda that your use of the f word wasn't meant to be offensive and don't be surprised if the judge slates the garda as they don't have too much patience with this kind of time wasting crap.
 
Just back from court,i had forgotten what else i said to the guard, he told the court i said "i have friends in the judical system and wont get charged" and i said "you drive around in your patrol car all day doing nothing" i instantly remembered these statments and thought i was in for a criminal record but i explained my mitigating circumstances and he gave me probation act and hence no criminal record,i didnt even have to pay money into "poor box" and wasnt asked to apologise to guard although i was waiting for a chance to .
 
bearishbull said:
Just back from court,i had forgotten what else i said to the guard, he told the court i said "i have friends in the judical system and wont get charged" and i said "you drive around in your patrol car all day doing nothing" i instantly remembered these statments and thought i was in for a criminal record but i explained my mitigating circumstances and he gave me probation act and hence no criminal record,i didnt even have to pay money into "poor box" and wasnt asked to apologise to guard although i was waiting for a chance to .
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A fair result I would say. I dont think that deserved a criminal record, it would have been way over the top.
 
I guess you hadn't sobered up as much as you thought you had. I can't imagine a worse place to get a drunken flashback than a courtroom whilst hearing evidence against you from a guard.
 
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