Minister Roderic O’Gorman met with the Garda Commissioner this week to discuss the death of George Nkencho, and heavily implied, without evidence, that his death was a result of racism.
Following the meeting, O’Gorman, who is the Green Party Minister for Children and Equality, said:
“I was very pleased to meet with Commissioner Harris today. We discussed a number of issues relating to community policing, including the steps being taken by the Commissioner to ensure that respect for diversity is at the heart of day-to-day policing in all our communities.
Following the tragic death of George Nkencho, I asked Commissioner Harris about the specific efforts that are being made to improve relations between Gardaí and the Black and Mixed Race Communities in the Dublin 15 area in the aftermath of this incident. We also discussed the urgency of tackling racism and the work of An Garda Síochána to protect victims of racism and encourage people to report racist incidents to the Gardaí.
Commissioner Harris briefed me on progress in implementing the Garda Diversity and Integration Strategy, on work to enhance Garda diversity and anti-bias training programmes and to further develop positive relationships between An Garda Síochána and members of Ireland’s ethnic minority communities. I welcome these initiatives and thank Commissioner Harris for his commitment to tackling racism and promoting inclusion.”
Now, at this point, one has to ask: on what basis does O’Gorman link George Nkencho’s death with the need for police anti-bias and anti-racism training?
His remarks suggest that he already has his mind made up that Nkencho’s race played a factor in the Garda’s decision to shoot him – something which is totally and utterly unsubstantiated at this point.
The GSOC investigation into the shooting, which involves over 80 interviews with witnesses by detectives, has not declared any wrongdoing from the Garda to date. There has been no evidence released to indicate that the shooting was related to the suspect’s race at all.
So let’s briefly recap what we know already: George Nkencho threatens innocent shop staff at the local Eurospar. He hospitalises one of the staff with facial injuries. He then reportedly causes another public order disturbance at the local post office.
When Gardaí arrive, he threatens them with his knife. They gave him an oral warning, and then pepper spray him to no avail. The Gardaí call for backup, and the Armed Support Unit arrive, at which point he threatens them with a knife as well.
They taze him, not once, but twice. Again, this doesn’t work. And finally, he lunges at them with a deadly weapon, and at that point the Gardaí shoot him. After the shooting, they gave him emergency first aid at the scene, but unfortunately, despite their efforts, he died of his wounds later at the hospital.
That’s everything we know that happened so far. Does this sound like a heinous act of racism to you? Take race out of it, and where would the controversy be?
You could possibly argue “They didn’t need to shoot him 5 or 6 times, that was excessive.” That’s arguable, you’re entitled to that view – but then that would, at worst, be a case of excessive force. Not racism.
The fact remains that there is absolutely zero evidence whatsoever to indicate that George Nkencho was shot because he was black.
Obviously, the loss of any human life is a tragedy, regardless of circumstance. But take the case of Mark Hennessy from 2018 as a comparable scenario. A white 40 year old man threatened an armed Garda detective with a stanley blade, and guess what? The Garda shot and killed him. Believe it or not, white people don’t get a free pass to lunge at police officers with deadly weapons either.
Suspected abductor shooting: Gardaí trained to shoot at ‘centre mass’ of body https://t.co/SnrRmthP9k via @IrishTimes
— Michelle Hennessy (@michellehtweet) May 22, 2018
Of course, the family are fully entitled to mourn a lost loved one. God bless them, and God rest George’s soul. And they are perfectly entitled to a full enquiry into the incident – let all the facts come out, by all means. But the Minister already giving oxygen to a racism motive, before that’s been established by investigators, is deeply irresponsible, and if anything risks disrupting the impartiality of the findings.
For a government minister to play into the baseless narrative that the Irish police force is rife with racial bias and prejudice is absolutely shameful, and a gross insult to the force that has no foundation.
Remarks like this only achieve two things: firstly, they discourage the police from doing their jobs effectively.
The reaction to incidents like this makes the police afraid that if they act legitimately to save their own life, or someone else’s, and it results in the death of a non-white suspect, that they will be wrongly tarred with the “racist” brush. That fear puts both them in danger, and the wider community at large, because it makes them less quick to act.
Secondly, it breeds animosity among ethnic minority groups, and makes them wary and antagonistic towards the police. Believe it or not, wrongly insinuating to everyone that the police are racist and basically hunting minorities in the street for sport doesn’t create great conditions for social cohesion.
This poisonous race-obsession from Irish leaders has a corrosive effect on our social fabric, and demonstrates that these politicians care more about liberal virtue signalling and ideology than they do about truth or the safety of the general public. Nobody who thinks like this is fit for public office.