Want to hear something totally ridiculous?

[IncubusGod]

Right this one really takes the ****ing buiscuit!

A woman got a call from a cop on Thursday evening to her door. She answered it and he proceeded to tell her that she has an outstanding fine for not having a T.V. licence from 1997. The fine is €160. He says she must pay it by Saturday morning.

She is supprised at this as she's never heard about this fine. She explains that she has 7 kids, one 5month old, one 6 year old with Autism and a massive shortage of cash. Her husband is away working in the country and she can't get in contact with him right away.
She says she doesn't know if she'll have all the money in what is basically a day an a half's time.

The cop told her it's not his problem.

So saturday arrives and she has managed to srounge up and borrow €80, the cop arrives and asks for the money. She explains she can't get the entire €160, she's on assistance and cash is short. The cop tells her she has by 11am to get the rest of the money.

11am arrives and she tried to get the money but couldn't. She says that her childrens allowance payment comes in on Monday and she'll pay the rest then. The cop comes back with backup and tells her that because she didn't pay the fine that he's going to arrest her and put her in prison.

The woman is scared stiff, never having been in trouble with the law before. She explains once more that she has 7 children, that the oldest that is in the house at the moment is 12 and that she has a 5 month old child and an autistic 6 year old to look after. The cop tells her its not his problem. She has to leave the 12 year old daughter to look after the kids and try to ring for someone to come over to look after them as the cops don't let her make a call.

She's put in the back of an unmarked squad car and driven directly to MountJoy womens prison. The warden on duty thinks it's a joke. He can't believe that they would arrest a woman for not paying the €160 euro fine with 2 days notice.
The cops are deadly serious, they book her in, make her take a shower, place her in the only womans unit with space, a 'house' for addicted heroin addict criminal women. She's then put in a converted store room as there are no cells and given a matress to sleep on, on the floor, with another woman in the room.

2 days she has to spend there.

Meanwhile her husband rang home to check on how things were and the neighbour had to explain to him what had happened and that they were looking after the kids.

She was brought before the court then yesterday and was made pay the court cost of €30.27 to see her case and it was refered forward. The only way she could get out was to pay the court fee. So eventually she was left out last night at 7pm.

It all came out in the Daily Star today, front page.

We recently had a massive tax push and 1000's wealthy people who didnt pay a grand total of €1billion in taxes were left off the hook by paying what they were due.
People here are in front of tribunals for planning corruption, cop corruption, political corruption and not one of them has had the treatment this ordinary woman recieved.

I dont have a link as the Irish Star doesn't have a website it seems.

I just listened to it on the radio and an interview with the woman. It was the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my entire ****ing life.

****ing piece of shit judicial system.

[roadrunner_0]

that is harsh as ****
one of the most ridiculous things that i have ever heard

[queball]

Who are TV licences paid to?

[Snurx]

****ing police. They are probably the group of people I hate most, beacause they defend everything im against and attack most that is good. And they do stupid shit like this.

[Demon Dave]

Originally Posted by queball

Who are TV licences paid to?

the government or the BBC, i can't remember if it goes to the government who then give it to the BBC or if it just goes straight to the BBC

[Stew]

Originally Posted by Demon Dave

the government or the BBC, i can't remember if it goes to the government who then give it to the BBC or if it just goes straight to the BBC

But we're talking about Ireland.
Surely that's not the same?

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by Demon Dave

the government or the BBC, i can't remember if it goes to the government who then give it to the BBC or if it just goes straight to the BBC

We're talking about Ireland here.

[Demon Dave]

which bit? Northan Ireland still comes under ye olde British Government. if we're talking the Republic of Ireland, then fcuked if i know. why would RoI even have a TV licence? in fact, come to think of it, who the hell governs RoI?

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by Demon Dave

which bit? Northan Ireland still comes under ye olde British Government. if we're talking the Republic of Ireland, then fcuked if i know. why would RoI even have a TV licence?

Republic.

Originally Posted by Demon Dave

in fact, come to think of it, who the hell governs RoI?

The Irish government, amazingly.

[Dante Hicks]

Originally Posted by IncubusGod

It was the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my entire ****ing life.

The more I hear about Ireland's social policy (on crime, welfare, etc) the more it sounds even worse than the UK. We had twenty years of Thatcherism, what the hell is your excuse?

[Stew]

Thatcherism wasnt all bad though was it?

[/troll]
[/derailing of thread]

[MrL_JaKiri]

Thatcher was good. For about 5 years.

[Stew]

Originally Posted by MrL_JaKiri

Thatcher was good. For about 5 years.

Er...which five?

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by Stew

Er...which five?

She started well then went downhill.

[Dante Hicks]

Originally Posted by Stew

Er...which five?

Five of the years she was out of office.

[Stew]

Originally Posted by MrL_JaKiri

She started well then went downhill.

Not really, I say she was more succesful (in terms of things like fighting inflation) after she'd made 4-5 years of mistakes.

[Sandsnake]

umm...what the hell is a TV license? Is that like the head tax in some african countries? (except slightly less fatal if you happen to default)

[MrL_JaKiri]

Originally Posted by Sandsnake

umm...what the hell is a TV license? Is that like the head tax in some african countries? (except slightly less fatal if you happen to default)

In the UK, you have to buy one if you receive TV. It funds the BBC.

[Ebany]

I'd have thought she could get some real comeback on them for forcing her to leave her children at home on their own. Given that if something had happened to them if she had left them alone optionally then she would have been in trouble with the social services, the police should get some severe telling off for taking a woman away and leaving her kids on their own. I'd expect at least that they would have been babysat by a policeman until a social worker came round and farmed them all off to foster homes, just leaving them to fend for themselves for a couple of days is very bad.

[Dace]

Personally i wouldn't have answered the door (if i didn't have the cash).

Make the ****ers get a warrant.

Anyways thats a ****ing shitty thing that happened.

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by Dante Hicks

The more I hear about Ireland's social policy (on crime, welfare, etc) the more it sounds even worse than the UK. We had twenty years of Thatcherism, what the hell is your excuse?

We had charlie haughey. He was like Thatcher but insane and power-mad with a heightened sense of superiority.


PS I'm sure she'll sue the government now and get a gazillion dollars so I find it kind of hard to feel that sorry for her.




PPS Plus I got brought to jail for not paying a dart fare and I've never heard a thing about the guys who mugged me.




PPPS I also find it amazing that someone asked who governs the republic of ireland. What answer were you expecting? The government of zimbabwe?

[Marilyn Manson]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

He was like Thatcher but insane and power-mad with a heightened sense of superiority.

Thatcher was insane and power-mad and had a heightened sense of superiority.

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by Marilyn Manson

Thatcher was insane and power-mad and had a heightened sense of superiority.

Charlie was also balding.

[Marilyn Manson]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

What answer were you expecting?

The Jews.

[LHC]

Still, what does the TV licence pay for over there?

[Marilyn Manson]

Originally Posted by LHC

Still, what does the TV licence pay for over there?

Furthering the international Zionist-Communist conspiracy.

[JonnyBGood]

**** only knows. RTE have advertisements so it's not that bit. Maybe they're just so shit they need more money to keep afloat.


Or it's one of them nifty hidden tax larks.

[LHC]

Everybody loves taxes.

[IncubusGod]

Apparently our TV licence pays for RTÉ, our national broadcaster, their 2 TV channels, their 3 radio stations their concert orchestra and various other shite.

I was listening to a lawyer talk about this case and he says that she doesn't have much recourse against the police/government as they acted within the law. He said that the cop might get a talking to for leaving the kids in the house with a 12 year old but other than that they are untouchable.

Stupidest thing I've ever heard in this country.

Oh and we've had just as many power mad insane corrupt politicans as you lot in the UK have had. That's our excuse and we're sticking to it.
Oh and all the cops think that they are superior to everyone else, that they can act how they want and even break the law and get away with it (which they can).
This is a throwback to the old days when cops were ultra-powerful in society and the priests ran everything. We dumped the priests, lets dump these fking cops too.

I was sitting in a pub the other night at half an hour after closing time, getting served a pint and I wondered why. It was cause there were a bunch of cops sitting at the bar demanding more drink. When they were done they went down the road and raided another pub for opening late and fined the barman.

[Nodrog]

If you support the license fee, you should surely support making sure that people actually pay it

[queball]

Originally Posted by IncubusGod

Apparently our TV licence pays for RTÉ, our national broadcaster, their 2 TV channels, their 3 radio stations their concert orchestra and various other shite.

Why do they seem to be able to collect debts in a stupider manner than other people can? If you owed me €160, I couldn't get the police to throw you in prison.

[Dante Hicks]

Originally Posted by queball

Why do they seem to be able to collect debts in a stupider manner than other people can? If you owed me €160, I couldn't get the police to throw you in prison.

Becuase it's treated more like a tax rather than a private debt.

[Marilyn Manson]

Originally Posted by Nodrog

If you support the license fee, you should surely support making sure that people actually pay it

I'd object to the manner of the enforcement, not the encforcement itself.

That sort of behaviour by the police is simple nastiness.

[IncubusGod]

Originally Posted by Nodrog

If you support the license fee, you should surely support making sure that people actually pay it

As MM said, its not a case that we think she shouldn't have paid it. It's the manner in which the fine was presented, the short timescale expected for payment for a 7 child family on social welfare and the manner in which she was taken away from her kids.

Oh indicently, she has had a free TV licence for the past number of years as she qualifies for special services for her autisitc son.

This along with the actions of the cops in recent time (especially at the Reclaim the Streets march a while back and the Anti-Bush march I went on the other week, the fact I was beaten up quite badly 2 years ago,they arrested some of the gang and nothing has been done) have made me despise them beyond the mild annoyance they illicted in me before.

****ing pigs

[Demon Dave]

Originally Posted by Toccata & Fugue

its unamerican.

you say that like it's a bad thing?

[Marilyn Manson]

He's being sarcastic, you dolt.

[vampire_lestat]

methinks dave hasn't picked up on the heavy sarcasm in that post

[Marilyn Manson]

Dave doesn't seem to pick up on much, really. Previous lapses in understanding and knowledge include not knowing just who the heck governs The Republic of Ireland.

[Tactitus]

Using the police as a collection agency seems like a really bad idea.

[vampire_lestat]

that depends on who you are, if you're the government it probably seems like an exelent idea.