All citizens have a responsibility to report crimes

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Written by Administrator

Wednesday, 22 August 2007

Dear Editor,

In last week's Independent you report an interview with a taxi driver who said that during Race Week he or she had been offered cocaine a number of times by passengers, some of whom had themselves taken the drug while in the taxi. What I cannot understand is why he or she did not immediately drive these passengers to the nearest Garda station, where they could be arrested.

All citizens have a responsibility to report any crime they witness. Does the taxi driver perhaps mistakenly think these people were just 'having a good time'? Has he or she really got no idea that in buying illegal drugs these passengers are supporting burglary, muggings, child prostitution, extortion and a range of violent drug-related crimes which damage our society? Does he or she somehow think none of this is their problem?

Well, I have news for him or her. It IS your problem. Every single time YOU turn a blind eye to a criminal act, YOU spawn a hundred more. And it costs YOU a small fortune. A large chunk of the taxes you pay goes towards the overtime of gardaí and customs officers trying to control the influx of drugs bought by the passengers in your taxi. They go to pay for the hospital costs of children neglected and beaten by drug addicted parents, who sell drugs to the passengers in your taxi to feed their own habit. They go to pay Ireland's dues to the UN to try and reduce some of the human suffering caused by wars in foreign countries, fought with weapons paid for by the passengers in your taxi in exchange for their drugs. The insurance you pay on your car and home is expensive because all too often people high on drugs, or desperate to get more to feed their addiction, cause car accidents, steal and damage property.

Those passengers in your taxi help to promote a chain of human misery that stretches from your doorstep around the world. And you did nothing to stop them. Shame on you.

Rachel Cave,
Knocknacarra Park,
Galway

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