Godfrey's Gospel: Idiotic scramblers will get their day in court

ANYONE who know me, knows I cannot stand a bully. And that is all those riding unregistered scrambler motorbikes around Carlow town in an intimidating manner last week can be described as.

Unfortunately, the law in this country permits people to be released on bail or released without charge as gardaí gather evidence to prosecute them. To most people, it seems that the perpetrators of crime are treated with too much respect and certainly with more than they showed to anyone else.

I don’t know the ins and outs of this case, other than a group of riders acted in a reckless manner as they drove from the Liberty Tree up Tullow Street and Dublin Street, past the courthouse and on to the garda station, causing damage to green areas while, at the same time, acting in an intimidating manner towards people just going about their business.

The local authority does its best to make Carlow as presentable as possible and to see the hard work of council employees being ripped up by reckless idiots is nothing short of disgraceful.

Equally, the way those on the scramblers acted was enough to intimidate people who had a legitimate right to be walking the streets at that time.

Thankfully, the gardaí have since seized property and arrested two individuals and hopefully, when the matter does come before the courts, those responsible will be treated properly – in other words, whatever happens to them will send a clear message to others not to engage in a similar manner.

There is no point in using a softly, softly approach. These people showed little or no regard for others, or the efforts made by the local authority. To them, this was all a joke. They and their ilk have to know that this is no joke, no-one is laughing and no-one thinks they should get away with it.

And if anyone has footage of the incident, please go to the gardaí and give it to them. Anytime you look around nowadays, someone, somewhere is filming an incident, taking a photo of what is on their dinner plate, or making a stupid face and capturing the event for all to see – as if we are interested.

But this is one occasion where the gardaí will be interested in seeing what they recorded. The more evidence they can gather, the better they can do their job. We are all quick to blame the gardaí when things don’t go our way, but too often we are not prepared to give them the extra evidence they need, which will allow them to do just that.

Summer is coming – hopefully – and more and more of us will be out and about taking a stroll around town, window shopping or whatever. The last thing we need to worry about is some idiot coming up behind us at speed on either a registered or unregistered scrambler and leaving a trail of destruction.

Peace and quiet and to be left alone while they go about their normal business is all most people ask – and they should get that without some thug thinking it is funny to come up behind them at speed and frighten the life out of them. And I wouldn’t be too sure about their driving skills either.

On the subject of being left alone to go about our day-to-day business, I have to say I am getting pretty sick and tired of having to walk over people sitting outside a number of shops in the town brandishing signs asking for help as they are homeless.

I’m sorry, but I don’t believe a word of it. I observed one such individual last week – the location or gender is irrelevant – and noticed that the person, whom I had seen at the same place over the past few weeks, appeared neither hungry, dirty or dishevelled.

The must-have battered paper coffee mug was noticeably empty – but funnily enough, I also noticed this was not because everyone who passed by was acting indifferently or not contributing to the collection, but rather a swiftness of hand to put whatever was given under a rug and into the pocket.

Again, with summer on the way, I’m sure the number of beggars on our streets will increase. I know those around Carlow town at least try to go about their ‘business’, excuse the pun, but that is what it is to them, by creating as little attention as possible and Irish people being the generous nation that we are, don’t like to ignore them. But surely we should be allowed to walk the streets of the town without having to encounter such pan-handlers.