Bring online trolls to swift justice: bullying is bullying off or on line
IMAGINE living without wi-fi, a TV, a washing machine, even electricity. In a rare moment on a birthday weekend – which is pretty much every weekend in our house each September – I read an interview about a Donegal man who is living in remotest Galway in a shack he built for himself, without any sniff of a modern convenience. This guy would give Bear Grylls a run for his money. Not only does he live without the latest smartphone (or any smart-phone for that matter), he makes his own washing detergent, catches his own fish and lives off the land, literally.
Attributing his life-changing routine to saving him by reconnecting his soul to nature – through plugging out from technology, what is even more staggeringly brilliant about him is that he has donated all the money he made from a book he wrote about travelling around the world for free – to a charity which supports people who want to live in a similar way.
Here is a pure soul who is self-sufficient, empathetic, cognizant of others.
He got me thinking about the online bullies who decided to target gardaí who were doing their job at an eviction in Dublin recently. Through facial recognition technology one of the guards was identified and his face was plastered over social media. Sadly and inevitably the vitriol ramped up and his life was threatened, one post saying he needs to be hit in the head with a bullet. Like all guards this individual deserves the respect of the public, most of whom don’t have a clue what a garda has to put up with every day just doing their job. At work they are wide open to be verbally abused, spat at, assaulted and worse. Gardaí came under criticism following the protest as members of the public order unit - who had their faces covered - stood in front of the building while a group of so-called heavies carried out the eviction. Four people were hospitalised following the incident, including Conor Reddy who sustained injuries to his hand, according to a statement released by Take Back the City, a network of 18 grassroots activist groups who are ‘working together to take direct action’ against Ireland’s housing crisis.
A garda spokesman said the gardai’s ‘only role in the proceedings was to prevent a breach of the peace’, adding that the ‘eviction itself was peaceful’. Five activists were arrested for public order offences, with two due to appear before the Criminal Courts of Justice on October 2. It doesn’t take much to foment public anger these days. Add to the mix the crazy property market in Dublin, a homelessness crisis of unprecedented dimensions and a lack of affordable housing, and the potential for a full-on social media war is always on the cards. I know gardai who have stopped using social media because of the abuse they get, as if they were the ones committing a crime. In this case the fact that a British-registered van used by a ‘group of heavies’ who removed activists from the building added fuel to the fire. As did the fact gardaí were wearing fire retardant hoodies, as if they were wearing them as a fashion statement. A garda spokesperson said members of the public order unit usually cover their faces. ‘These are fire retardant hoods and are part of the safety equipment provided to members of the public order unit. Garda numbers are visible on their uniform.’
Bullying is cowardly and threatening someone’s life is a crime. A fitting punishment for anyone convicted of online threats should be to go live in the remotest corner of Ireland, tech-free for a year.