Madam, – We are living in challenging times and concerns with political and monetary matters, highlighted endlessly by the media, are understandably all-consuming. However, what I find much more disconcerting is the apparent shift in the parameters of our principles.
Recently, my niece spent barely two weeks in newly rented accommodation on the North Circular Road, Dublin, and in that time, witnessed a mugging of a New Zealand student in the Phoenix Park at lunch-time, an assault on her flatmate walking home from college in the evening, and a car in her neighbour’s garden maliciously set alight during the night. Knowing a shopkeeper nearby keeps a hammer under the counter to ward off assailants is not helpful.
I personally witnessed a vicious attack in the same area, by a young man on another, leaving him bleeding and his partner hysterical. It happened at 11am last Sunday morning.
These crimes are an assault on all of us who live in, or frequent our capital city. What is so sinister, however, is our acceptance of these incidents. I was confounded by the criticism my niece received for citing reasons of feeling unsafe for vacating her apartment.
Let us not retreat into our private worlds of locks and bolts and accept that this is how life has become, but state openly we will not accept it.
Thanks are due to the gardaí. At least, reporting crime is a step we can all take. – Yours, etc,