Friday 31st July: Former Thomas Cook employees occupied the company’s premises in Dublin in an effort to get a better redundancy deal.
Saturday 1st August: A High Court judge issued a court order ordering them to leave the premises. The protesters refused to comply.
Sunday 2nd August: The High Court judge directs Gardai to have those found on the premises after 7pm on Monday arrested and brought before him to answer for their contempt.
On Tuesday 4th August (at 5am) a large force of Gardai arrested the protesters and hauled them off to court.
In just four days the legal and law enforcement arms of the State acted to bring the guilty to account.
The judge in the case said:
In a democratic society the rule of law “cannot be broken” or else there would be “anarchy”.
Nine years ago, in 2000, Jim Flavin of DCC committed the crime of insider trading on the Irish Stock Market.
Two years ago the highest court in the land confirmed that Flavin was indeed guilty of fraud on the stock market to the tune of €83 million.
Jim Flavin is still a free man, still walking around enjoying the same rights and privileges of innocent citizens.
Nine years and we’re still waiting for action against Flavin so let me rephrase the judge’s comment.
In a democratic society the rule of law cannot be broken by ordinary citizens or else there would be anarchy – privileged citizens will be treated differently.
Its a cliché I know, but “the law treats all equally, its just that some are treated more equally than others”
So what are we waiting for? Lets get some direct action on the drawing board. Enough blogs and enough moaning, lets force the courts to drag as many of us as possible before them.
No?
I thought so.
Why did the Garda Fraud Squad not go into Anglo-Irish until MARCH??? Possibly because some banks are more equal than others. A politically-designated equality, to be sure…