Sinn F\u00e9in candidate\nfor Dublin South West, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has called for the setting up of a dedicated\ntransport police service to specifically deal with crime on public transport\nafter more complaints of racist and violent behaviour on the Luas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Se\u00e1n Crowe said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have been contacted by a distressed constituent who witnessed vile racist abuse and violent behaviour on the Luas from the Point to Tallaght on Saturday night around 9pm.\u00a0 A group of youths tried to set fire to a woman\u2019s hair as shocked passengers looked on. Apparently, they were waiting for 40 minutes before any security or assistance eventually arrived. <\/p>
\u201cAs a regular user of this Luas service myself I am shocked at this incident and the lack of security and assistance for this distressed woman. I hope that CCTV cameras from the tram have been provided to An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na and I am calling on anyone who witnessed this attack or has any information to pass that information to the Garda\u00ed.<\/p>
\u201cThis is just one of a number of incidents that have happened on the Luas and other public transport in recent months. I attend the local Tallaght Bus and Luas Forum that is made up of politicians, Garda\u00ed, Dublin Bus unions and management, and representatives of Luas, and attacks like this are a sick and worrying development.<\/p>
\u201cEverybody should be able to travel on public transport in safety, without hassle or fear of racist\u00a0thugs. Drivers should also be free to do a day\u2019s work without intimidation or abuse.<\/p>
\u201cThere is a growing need to establish a dedicated transport police to tackle threats and intimidation. Luas security guards have little powers and cannot arrest individuals.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cAn Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na are currently involved in what is called Operation Safe Route, but\u00a0they can’t be everywhere and they have other duties.<\/p>
\u201cIn order to protect the health and safety of public transport staff and passenger,\u00a0surely it is way past the\u00a0time to examine the feasibility of introducing a dedicated transport police service. <\/p>
\u201cI believe a dedicated transport police\u00a0unit is needed to tackle anti-social behaviour on our\u00a0public transport services.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in candidate for Dublin South West, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has called for the setting up of a dedicated transport police service to specifically deal with crime on public transport after more complaints of racist and violent behaviour on the Luas. Se\u00e1n Crowe said: \u201cI have been contacted by a distressed constituent who witnessed vile racist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[374,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-luas","category-transport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4052,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051\/revisions\/4052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}