Mosquito- Youth Work Ireland legal opinion
May 30th, 2007Just off Highland Radio, where I was discussing the Moquito system with a representative of Youth Work Ireland and Sammy Wasson of Mac Security in Letterkenny.
I’m opposed to the system, as I’ve mentioned here before. I don’t believe the system is fair, and on my last post Damien Mulley raised the question of the legality of the system. Youth Work Ireland have gotten legal advice on the matter, and it is clear that the device has the potential to fall foul of a number of elements of Irish law.
At it’s most simple level, this system is often used to disperse young people from outside businesses. It is targetting people on public footpaths; the staff of a food outlet would not be able to physically move young people from these locations by pushing them or hitting them, so the use of a device which targets inside their heads would surely also be against the law.
Morally, nobody would accept a system that targetted the over-60s with a nausea-inducing pain, so there is no reason that this system should be acceptable at all. I understand the concerns of business people regarding anti-social behaviour, but this sytem can not be justified on this level.
As I write this, Kevin Grimes of the 4 Lanterns is discussing their use of the system. He has just mentioned that they have not had to use the system for the last five or six weeks, which is of course a positive thing. I fully accept that they have had trouble, in particular at their Main Street outlet, and understand that they would want to minimise that in any way they can.
As a council, and working with the Gardaí, we have a responsibillity to ensure the streets are safe and that people can go about business without impediment. We are very close to seeing the CCTV system in place in Letterkenny, which should have a huge benefit for the Main Street areas including where the Four Lanterns is located.
I’ve discussed the mosqutio in further detail here before, on this page.
Update: I can’t find much mention of Youth Work Ireland’s research, but this page on ENN.ie refers to a story in today’s Irish Examiner. I can’t find the story on their website.
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2 Responses to “Mosquito- Youth Work Ireland legal opinion”
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June 11th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Hi Damien, glad to see you’re openly against this one. Technology advances but the wisdom & common sense to use it wisely seems to be developing at a slower pace or receding!
December 3rd, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Press Release
Youth Work Ireland
May 28, 2007
Serious Questions on Mosquito Device Emerge from Youth Organisations Legal Advice
The continuing use of the device known as “The Mosquito” which emits a high frequency sound that only young people can hear is legally questionable according to advice provided to Youth Work Ireland. This advice suggests the device “is capapble, in its ordinary use of perpetrating a criminal assualt within the meaning of the Non Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997, and therefore its user will leave himself , herself or itself liable to criminal prosecution” The organisation has called for the device to be investigated as a serious assault on the rights of young people. The advice also suggests that issues may arise under equality legislation.
“This advice confirms what we always thought that these devices are almost certainly in breach of the criminal law and problematic in terms of other areas of the law. Such a conclusion should have been obvious to any person supplying or fitting these devices. The rush by many retailers to install them demonstrates what little value is put on the lives of young people in society today. Effectively these retailers are saying young people can be subjected to an assualt and be treated unequally, we totally reject that view and call on the Gardai to seriously investigate these issues. We are also bringing our advice to the attention of the Ombudsman for Children and the Garda Commissioner” said Michael Mc Loughlin from Youth Work Ireland
“The idea that simply by congregating young people may be subjected to a criminal assault by adults would be deemed unacceptable if it were done in person. The same should apply in the case of an assault done by another method. Young people and children cannot simply be treated like animals in their communities. The use of this device has been tolerated for too long and needs to be taken seriously by the Gardai and Local Authorities” he concluded
ENDS