“Way out of line”: SocDems’ Daniel Ennis criticised for praising police lockdown of city

Start with the following line: "Social Democrats TD Daniel Ennis has welcomed the lockdown of Dublin, praising “huge garda presence on every corner”, just days after Gardaí beat and brutalised ant-war protestors in the city.

His comments have drawn criticism from James O'Toole of the Red Network, who called them "way out of line".

O'Toole, author of Guards: The Biggest Crime Gang in Ireland, highlighted the real role of the Free State police: "They beat inner city kids to death, they attempt to destroy whistle blowers, they baton protesters, they pushed us off water meter protests, they remove striking workers like at Debenhams."

He continued: "Their role is to defend the current system. Calling for an authoritarian police presence on every corner of the inner city means that the real agents of change, the people power of ordinary people, will be chained in and kept down."

The Social Democrats, as O'Toole pointed out, promise reform while gunning to run the system that creates inequality. “You can’t aim to hold the state’s baton and still promise to fix the state’s neglect,” he wrote, and warned that the party risks “turning on the working class just like Labour have done many, many times.”