Armed Gardaí Raid Social Centre, Seize Electronics

The residents of Teach Torthaí, an autonomous social centre in Dublin, were awoken at 6 am on the 11th of September by the police raiding the centre and seizing their electronics at gunpoint. According to the residents, no arrests were made despite the performative brutality of the garda, which makes one wonder how the use of armed goon squads was justified. The residents have also stated that they have had some passports and credit cards taken.

“We were woken at 6am to banging at our door, and before we had time to react our house was broken into and guns were held to heads by masked armed Gardaí, “ their statement read.

“Teach Torthaí has been our home for 9 months, but has also been a space hosting

gigs, talks, ceilís, sessions, harm reduction support, community dinners, and a wide variety of political and social causes. With help from so many people and organisations, Teach Torthaí has grown into a beautiful and vibrant community space in the heart of Dublin, “ it continued.

The residents of the centre believe that this was an intimidation tactic. The centre, which is being evicted for unrelated reasons, decided not to cancel its last few events. The funds have been used to help those whose belongings were taken by the so-called guardians of peace. 

According to their statement, “this raid came at the same time as a state visit from US president and war criminal Donald Trump, as well as during Ireland’s EU presidency, and doubtless was made to intimidate and harass us as organisers of space that has been dedicated to internationalism, resistance and anti-imperialism,“ noting that “thankfully, nobody was injured seriously or arrested, though a number of our devices and belongings were seized. Six people lost their phones and laptops. Passports, credit cards and cameras were also stolen by the state's thugs”. 

Harassment by the police is a fact of life for activists and for many ordinary people. From the perspective of the state, such dastardly deeds as feeding the homeless without registering as a charity or leading a nomadic lifestyle that does not  gorge landlords and employers is a horrendous undermining of its legitimacy. When it cannot outright ban all that is joyous and forcibly enclose every common good, it does what it can to herd its subjects through pressure. Police raids make people paranoid and hamper organising work, even if no arrests were carried out and no laws were broken. They are a crucial aspect of any social order built on the exploitation of its denizens, as manufactured consent can only get an aspiring bureaucrat so far in convincing people to support a mode of life that goes against their own interests.