For example, it'd be great to have an efficient, wellstaffed police force that can -in a humane but effective manner - handle all the nation's criminal problems -backed by the same high level of medical and social care to all citizens.
We don't have that.
So, until we do have that high level we must, perforce, allocate resources in ways that may not satisfy everyone. If police spend time,money and effort aiding and protecting drug-gang members then that time,money and effort is diverted from other duties.
That may be bad, but it is just a fact.
Not really a "fact" as such though is it because we don't know exactly the full extent of what resources were diverted and the costs and we don't know how that preventative step compares to the costs of doing nothing and having another death and a further escalation of violence.
Of course, if someone innocent had been caught up in the cross-fire and injured and killed and it was then shown the Gardai had knowledge this was going to happen, well let's see what the discussion would be then.
Letting the criminals continue with their violence not only escalates the violence, but makes things much more dangerous for us ordinary decent type and the public at large. One was gunned down in the afternoon on a street in front of his kid, how much more dangerous to the public can we get?
To a certain extent this is also the case with diverting medical/hospital resources from those suffering from a handicap, illness,accident to those who deliberately and constantly take drugs.
Just out of interest, how much medical support is diverted to drug users? How many disabled people have been refused or delayed treatement because a drug user was queuing up at the Merchant's Quay. Any spot check at an A&E will probably show that alcohol diverts more resources, closely followed by the A&E being used as a stop gap for people with mental illness due to complete lack of resources for appropriate mental health care....leading back to, in some circumstances, drug addiction.
Maybe the disabled person who was delayed in resources became disabled through an accident while drunk, maybe the ill person is ill because of smokin or alcohol abuse, it's hard to say with generalised statements what's what.
I would say that given the allocation of funding and resources to drug treatment, it's probably not the greatest area of expenditure as it is and I'm fairly sure that there aren't too many people who see diverted medical help because of an accident to a drug addict (which is why they deliberately and consistenly take the drugs, an addiction).
