GARDAÍ IN THE capital dealt with six stabbing incidents over a 24-hour period this week as officers deal with an influx of violent crime.
Officers, particularly those based in the north inner city, are increasing their visibility in certain areas which have seen clusters of anti-social behaviour.
Earlier this week, 16-year-old Josh Dunne was stabbed to death in an assault in East Wall.
Following his death, gardaí dealt with six separate stabbing incidents. None of them are believed to be related.
Yesterday, a doctor was stabbed in the neck during an attempted robbery of his e-scooter near Seville Place. That is a little over one kilometre away from where Josh Dunne was stabbed.
In a separate incident on Talbot Street on the same day, a man in his 40s suffered slash wounds to his head.
Of the other four stabbing incidents gardaí responded to, three were as a result of disputes. It’s understood the other incident was dealt with under the Mental Health Act. The incidents occurred at various locations across the city.
Multiple sources with knowledge of Dublin policing told TheJournal.ie that they are seeing more and more juveniles carrying weapons in the city. One source described it as a “vicious circle”.
He explained that once one person produces a knife during a dispute, the other side isn’t going to leave their home without having some sort of protection.
In many cases, juvenile offenders are opting to carry screwdrivers and other tools which they can explain to gardaí more easily than if they were caught with a knife.
Latest figures released by the Government showed that over 2,000 knives were seized by gardaí last year.
Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond has previously said Ireland should look at Scotland and how the country dramatically decreased knife crime.
“Scotland launched a wide-reaching anti-violence campaign and a Violence Reduction Unit in 2005 when Glasgow was experiencing very high levels of crime, in fact, it was the murder capital of Europe.
“They have successfully seen their homicides reduce by more than half through measures such as a knife amnesty, mentorships and education programmes in schools, youth services and youth training programmes.
“We can follow Scotland’s example by introducing a wide-reaching and all-encompassing response to these increasing knife crime statistics.”
- With reporting by Niall O’Connor
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