As a politician or national leader, it is much easier to solve a problem when you are not to blame, especially when it implies giving yourself more power. There is no need for critical reviews of policies and laws you are responsible for – you can just point to the culprit and say, “I will deal with him”.
So it is that Irish politicians and police have found an unlikely scapegoat for two major car crashes which occurred in the space of a few days, involving cars being driven the wrong way down major roads and resulting in multiple injuries and deaths.
The first crash took place on 9 August, with nine people injured, while the second crash, which occurred on 16 August, left five teenagers dead and a family seriously injured, with two members in critical condition in hospital.
In interviews following the crash, the head of the Irish police force – An Garda Síochána – said that examples of such “reckless” driving are in some cases motivated by a desire “for social media likes”.
These comments by Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly were seized on by the press in Ireland and internationally, as well as by Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, who accused social media companies of failing in their responsibility to remove posts glorifying criminal behavior.
But whether this claim is true or not, it has proved a very useful deflection for police and lawmakers. It has lessened scrutiny of their actions and policies, especially regarding whether or not Gardaí can pursue vehicles careening down the wrong side of main roads and threatening the lives of Irish citizens.
A Spate of Contraflow Collisions
The two crashes over the past week were not isolated incidents. Since 2021, there has been a spate of accidents involving cars driving against traffic on main roads, often in attempted getaways following the commission of a crime.
The best-known of these incidents, in July 2021, saw three members of a Tallaght-based burglary gang flee Gardaí by driving contraflow on a main road. They collided head-on with a truck, and all three died, leading to a garda facing prosecution over his driving.
Since then, these incidents have been the subject of much debate and controversy regarding police officers being exposed to criminal prosecution when they say they are acting in good faith to enforce the law.
The 2021 crash and prosecution are believed by some garda representatives to have led to criminals copying the contraflow technique in the expectation that police will stand down rather than pursue them.
In the most recent incident over the weekend, Gardaí encountered the BMW shortly before the fatal collision, but were reportedly instructed not to pursue it over fears that such an action would endanger lives.
Now, rank-and-file Gardaí believe that orders to stand down are hampering the execution of justice on Irish roads.
Blaming Social Media
No doubt Garda Commissioner Kelly had all this on his mind when he stood before reporters to address the fatal crash and lamented that such stunts are inspired by a desire for likes on social media.
This angle was immediately leapt on by the press, with reports quickly circulating about a social media trend in which drivers are filmed traveling the wrong way on motorways.
It is remarkable that this is the first time the Irish public is hearing about such a trend. As one pundit noted, while the government pushes an education campaign to tackle tradwife influencers, they appear to have ignored criminals glorifying actions on social media that are a direct threat to the lives of Irish citizens.
If such a trend is truly behind these latest horrific crashes, then it needs urgent intervention. Politicians and police appear to have been aware of it prior to the crashes. Why were they not doing anything about it?
One possible answer is that mothers filming themselves baking and cleaning were simply deemed a greater danger – a remarkable example of groupthink at work.
A Useful Distraction?
The other is that to try and end the practice of criminals posting their activities online would reveal the complete powerlessness of the state.
Politicians blame social media companies, but will not address the fact that criminals feel safe enough to post evidence of their crimes online, under their own names, knowing that nothing will be done to stop them.
To address such a vital issue would apparently require asking hard questions about the hopeless state of Ireland's legal system and law enforcement.
Instead, social media companies become a very useful scapegoat for governments and law enforcement agencies, as they so often do when an incident raises difficult questions about our elites’ approach to the ill effects of their own policies.
The same thing happened following a horrific knife attack in which a migrant allegedly attempted to behead a man in Belfast, Northern Ireland, earlier this year.
Videos circulated on social media, and on the night following the assault targeted attacks were launched against migrants living in the city.
While many people criticized migration policies, saying they were leading to violence and social breakdown, Irish politicians laid the blame at the feet of social media companies for allowing the video to circulate online.
In other words, instead of doing some soul-searching and recognizing that their unpopular and ineffective migration policies might be leading to social breakdown, they found someone else to blame.
It is possible there is something similar at work in this instance. While social media companies should certainly not allow the glorification of criminal activities on their platforms, is that really what is behind these latest crashes?
Unserious Response to Serious Problems
Subsequent reporting has touched on more substantive issues like the lack of pursuit training for Irish police and a juvenile criminal justice system that is failing the Irish people.
Meanwhile, the Irish justice minister has proposed introducing tougher penalties for criminals who drive contraflow on roads, saying it turns cars into a lethal weapon.
Of course, to prosecute someone, you will have to catch them first. At present, there is a perception among criminals and the average garda that existing policies make that very difficult.
Then you have the overall sense of moral and social decay, yet another instance of Irish citizens no longer feeling safe on their own roads or streets.
But these were not the stories making front pages in the immediate aftermath of the crashes, because the head of Ireland's police force mentioned social media, the establishment’s favorite villain across Europe.
The fact is, however, that if these online trends are real, then the government has done nothing about them, attacking tradwives while literal criminals post their activities online with impunity; and if they are a deflection, then politicians and law enforcement are dodging accountability for policies that could be endangering citizens’ lives.
Either way, it is an unserious response to a very serious problem.
