Littering while gardai watched and did nothing

S

stir crazy

Guest
After posting here around 12.20 am last night I took a taxi into the city centre and was lined up in a long queue up at the BanK of Ireland ATM in camden street. 4 gardai were at the top of the ATM and another on a pushbike.
While I was in the Queue, sober as a judge, bored of the wait and observing humanity on all sides, I watched a taxi pull up to the side of the road. Four girls left Flannerys' pub and barely 6 metres away from the group of watching guards they each threw a long lit cigarette onto the road and climbed into the taxi.

What really bothered me was ok this is an offense, not a hanging offense and plenty of people do it all the time but the guards could obviously see it being done and they choose to ignore it and keep chatting among themselves. And crucially for me , the girls werent one bit discreet about it either and litterbins were actually very conveniently located for them to use. Am I being uptight about this ? I just feel that the least that should have happened would be a lecture. Otherwise the culture of littering in this country will never change. Or do guards leave this stuff to the litter wardens ? Its not a huge offence in the grand scale of things and drunks leave worse messes but I couldnt help walking away from the ATM feeling less respect for the authority of the guards. What do people think about this ?
 
Purple said:
I would be very surprised if they had done anything.
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why ?with almost no exaggeration they practically threw the cigarettes at the feet of the watching guards who were chatting away to each other while they watched in the direction of this . since when is this acceptable ?
 
stir crazy - do you really want to live in a police/nanny state? Why not consider moving to the UK?
 
leghorn said:
stir crazy - do you really want to live in a police/nanny state? Why not consider moving to the UK?
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Hi leghorn,

No, I dont want to live in a police/nanny state or in the UK thankyou very much but I would like to live in a state where the streets and environment is clean.
What is the difference between a discarded cigarette and a discarded crisp packet/bag of chips ? Is it a matter of scale ? May I now forget everything my parents and school taught me about littering ?
I dont smoke but I'm not judging them for smoking as I've tried a few in the past; and normally I wouldnt think about such an issue but the guards were there and their presence made me wonder, what are the laws ?
 

It's something I see every single day - you will see smokers doing the same thing outside pub doors morning, noon and night - despite an ashtray being provided. I think there are much worse messes created on the streets that don't involve cigarettes though.
 
stir_crazy - you are definitely being too uptight about this.

Basically flicking fag butts is basically considered socially accptable - and while technically it is littering it is the one form of littering that is allowed continue.
That's life - I'm surprised you never realised that before this incident.

The guards wpould have been rightly embarrassed to do anything about it.

If i saw a guard douing something about it ai would assume he was on some power trip.
As a result he'd probably have people giving out about why he's not out solving "real crimes".
 
qwertyuiop said:
stir_crazy - you are definitely being too uptight about this.
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qwertyuiop said:
That's life - I'm surprised you never realised that before this incident.
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Thanks for the feedback. Of course maybe some people dont consider it socially acceptable ? Weren't some people fined for throwing cigarette butts out of car windows at some point ? How fair is that to fine some but not others ?
I just assumed it would happen more discreetly than it did. I've seen worse things happen like taking a pee down an alleyway (which appears from the large number who do it also to be socially acceptable amongst those out at this hour). For some reason I just didnt expect it to be done right in front of a bunch of guards. Its the lack of discretion or tact in the behaviour which I am questioning. The actual behaviour taken in isolation is just a part of life.
 
The guards are there mainly to comfort victims of crime, and catch people doing motoring offences.

Littering does not fall into either of these two categories.
 
There is a point here and it's not about nannyism by the state. Maybe we should think of littering in terms of the old phrase 'look after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves'. If small offences like this were seen to be punished regularly, people might stop doing it, if they thought, 'jeez if I can found and slapped for a €150 fine for chucking a butt on the street, what would would happen if I dumped a bag of rubbish in the hedge'?

As a nation we have a serious problem with litter and we need to face up to it. One of many things I have seen:

child leaving Smiths Toys, unwraps toy and chucks wrapping to one side, parents watch and walk on

Child walking up street eating wriggleys gum (the individually wrapped ones) and as she quckly devours all the gums, throws the foil and paper wraps to the wind.

From my own persepective, I cannot just throw stuff on the street, I either take it home with me or wait until I pass a bin. Many others in this country don't do this. I will be instilling this same attitude in my children.
 

I don't consider it socially accpetable and have in the past pulled my friends up on it when I have seen them do it. Its not just technically littering, IT IS littering and no different to throwing a bag of rubbish in a ditch. Somebody else still has to come along and clean up your mess.
 
You are not being too uptiht about this subject stir-crazy; it is my pet hate and they should have been spoken to by the Gardai. I once asked a driver who had stopped at a light and emptied her ashtray out onto the road if she knew it was an offence. She couldn't get out quickly enough to clean her mess before the light changed.
For those who feel it that it's far too unimportant pls see the following website.
[broken link removed]
 
Basically flicking fag butts is basically considered socially accptable - and while technically it is littering it is the one form of littering that is allowed continue.
That's life - I'm surprised you never realised that before this incident.
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I wouldnt consider it socially acceptable either. If youre in your friends house and they said can you smoke out in the back garden please, would you throw the butt on to the ground when finished? If not, why is it acceptable to do it on the street?

There wouldnt have been any point saying something to the offenders as there was drink taken, but it if was me, Id have said something to the guards.
 

couldn't disagree more... I wouldn't consider it socially acceptable to throw cigarette butts - and I doubt many non-smokers would either.
 
well said gianni. I also think the cigarette butts in Ireland on streets everywhere and outside doorways is disgusting. Shame on those who litter this way.
 
Well I'm glad I am not alone and that someone else isnt 100% comfortable with this behaviour. How can littering even with cigarette butts be socially acceptable if a litterbin is right beside you ?
 
It's not only non-smokers who consider it unacceptable. I have friends who smoke, and they'll also make rude comments to people they see dropping their cigarette butts. Why should littering with cigarettes be any more acceptable than any other form of littering?

qwertyuiop - Where do you draw the line? Is it okay to drop butts, but not the packet? If it's okay to drop cigarette packets, then why not just empty your bin on the street?
 
I should add that I am (currently) a smoker and find this unacceptable too but I still think there much worse forms of littering - e.g. people chucking half eaten burgers/chips complete with packaging over their shoulders.

I'm not making excuses for smokers, but since we are still permitted to smoke whilst walking down the street for example, I really think there is a scarcity of bins to dispose of butts. Holding on to a few wrappers in your pocket to wait for a bin is one thing but a cigarette end?
 

I completely agree about the lack of bins etc. I was abroad recently in a country which also had a smoking ban. There was an ashtray on the outside of literally every building so you were never more than 5/10 feet from an ashtray. This is not the case in Ireland!

However, I don't think that this is an excuse to throw butts on the ground. If you choose to smoke you must choose a way to responsibly dispose of your butts. BTW - you can pick up a free portable ashtray in most public libraries.
 
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