Attacks on the elderly are not just confined to rural areas
THE vicious attack on an elderly man in our capital has brought into sharp focus how vulnerable our elderly neighbours are.
In this case a man in his 80s was the victim of an aggravated burglary as he went about his daily business in the suburb of Drumcondra, on the city’s northside.
The attack came just a fortnight after a lady of a similar age was targeted on the other side of the city.
In that case, an 88-year-old woman suffered a terrifying ordeal when she was threatened with a bread knife by an intruder who posed as an Irish Water employee at her Terenure home.
The general narrative about burglaries is often that they are committed by marauding gangs who use our motorway network to commit ongoing atrocities against unwitting victims whose lives and homes are turned upside down.
However, it should be noted the people behind these crimes are also highly active in our city, and the criminals think nothing of targeting elderly people in an organised fashion.
But people should not be overly panicked because our police force has intelligence on well over 1,000 criminals, both male and female, who are behind both urban and rural burglaries.
Armed burglary is a nationwide problem that is not confined to either rural or urban areas.
Every week we see another
incident of people being targeted in their homes by criminals looking for fast access to cash.
The problem is not getting any better. Gardaí are using all their powers and resources to combat burglars, and have had great success arresting and prosecuting people, but they cannot be everywhere. Put simply, prevention is an issue, detection is not. Gardaí take the issue so seriously, the highly trained Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau spends much of its time trying to snare the criminals.
The Irish Independent can reveal that every detective superintendent in the country has to attend regular meetings with Assistant Commissioner John O’Driscoll, where they are required to outline what progress their Garda division is making in handling the epidemic. To much hype, gardaí released details of Operation Thor – their special initiative to target these criminals. All the spin aside, the reality is that Operation Thor is working.
Despite being under resourced, gardaí are making progress in taking these criminals off the streets. The force has shown a steely determination to tackle this problem that affects all parts of society.