"Racial profiling" in Ireland

The Indo says that racism is rife among the Gardai. It's undoubtable that in the last 10 years their work has changed and much of it now involves immigrant minorities. It's not altogether surprising, then, that they would harbor some resentment against these minorities. One would hope, though, that the implications of massive immigrate are like shockwaves passing through a system, and that once these disturbances have passed, things will return to a 'normal' state.

What the Gardai management -- and civil society in general -- need to monitor over the next 10 years is the gardai do change in an institutional way, especially by including more immigrant (and more generally, city) members. This would have several important effects. Primarily, it would make for a 'representative police force' and satisfy any PC critics, but more importantly, it would allow for local community knowledge to better filter into gardai knowledge, and massively contribute to the productivity of the gardai. Futher, it would help to dispel any lingering bits of racism by fostering professional contact between (old Irish) gardai and minority community members.