In memory of the 2 Poles killed in Dublin

The 2000 people who assembled in Drimnagh, Dublin on Saturday in commemoration of the 2 young Polish men viciously killed early this week will have given much needed consolation to the heartbroken families of the two tragic victims, Pawel and Mariusz.

Both men died in hospital after being attacked with a screwdriver by a gang of teenagers after they had refused to buy alcohol for the teens. There seems to have been no provocation for the attack.

According to the Irish Times, over €16,000 has been donated to a fund set up by the men's employer, Alan Kennedy,to help the families with transporting the bodies back to Poland.

RTE report that

"The family says it would like to believe that the tragic deaths of the two men will result in a public debate about what they term the increasing level of aggression by youths."

A worthwhile and rational call indeed, but nowadays, where gratuitous violence is glorified in books, magazines, tv screens, computer games, in ghetto-like apartment blocks and beyond, there is little chance of such a debate bearing nonviolent or long lasting beneficial results.

And it truly sickens me to hear the mass violence, warmongering, poodle mouthpieces of Bertie Ahern and Donald Tusk pretend they're as soft as hay and as innocent as snow. Think Afghanistan, Iraq, US missile defence, increased weapons procurements, disregard for workers rights and homeless people's human right to shelter. The political systems they help operate as political representatives create and sustain many of the social problems that exist today in Irish and Polish society.

Of course I am not blaming them personally for these attacks. Though, in another sense, I am blaming us all in society for standing by with our ears plugged, heedless to the cries of the 'mentally insane,' 'teen thugs,' 'lost cases,' and the endless list of those who we fail to care for as a whole.

They, the perpetrators of this heinous deed, will of course have to take responsibility for the act of craziness. But packing them off into a violent institution like Mountjoy jail (if they're old enough) is no way to restore justice for Pawel and Mariusz. Alive, I'm sure they would wish us as a society to do what we so often fail to do: listen.

So here I'm going to make a bit of a jump.

Is there not a connection between the mass violence sanctioned through the capitalist system and it's puppet-string masters, and the pathetic deranged acts of lunacy carried out on the streets of underclass areas by some teens who crave alcohol and attention and have screwdrivers in their back pockets?

When these stupid kids are caught, and the victims' families can rest assured they soon will (some of them are bound to talk, would have been seen in the area at the time or minimally it is fair enough to speculate that it is not the first time they have hung around that area and badgered people to buy them alcohol), then the last thing society is going to do is listen to them. Tabloids will go to town dehumanising them as vicious, mindless, evil thugs. We'll learn nothing. We rarely, if ever, do.

And so I will call upon words of wisdom from what may seem like an unlikely character in this debate: Marilyn Manson. As he stated on a VH1 interview, after his band had cancelled three concerts in memoriam of the Columbine high school shooting tragedy in the US (12 teen victims), about what he would have said to the killers, Manson replied: "Nothing. I would have listened, because no one else did.

I believe there is much truth in that statement, and a sound basis to build the restoration of justice for what Pawel and Mariusz's loved ones most desire: the prevention, if possible, of other families suffering from the same fate.

Three teens detained as part of the investigation were released on Saturday though the Director of Public Prosecutions is due to receive files on them.

As a mark of respect, players and fan like observed a minute's silence during the friendly soccer game between St Patrick's Athletic and Blackburn Rovers.

Harmonious relations have prospered between Poles and the Irish since the mass exodus post-May 2004 when Poland acceded to the E.U. and Ireland opened up it's labour market to them. Though some fear that the attack was somehow related to Pawel and Mariusz's nationality, this seems like a bit far-fetched.

Let's just hope that the Irish justice system's renowned ability to continue the victims' families suffering by being inefficient does not transpire in this matter.

And if you care, and who'd blame if you didn't, here's a link to the Irish fascist portal (Stormfront) debate on the attacks: http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?p=5187783