Woman comes to the defence of man pushed on to road by gang of youths

A GROUP of teenagers who pushed an unsuspecting passerby onto the road in Kennedy Road last Tuesday were subsequently filmed by a local woman, who came to the victim's rescue.

The man who was in his 20s was pushed out onto the ground on Kennedy Road, where his phone was broken and he could have been hit by an oncoming car.

"This was horrible for this young man, being pushed by these thugs when he should have been enjoying new year," said the woman who came to his rescue.

"He got up all confused and asked me why did they do that to me and I replied 'because they are scumbags.'

She said that after she helped the young man she followed and filmed the group of youths as they went around pushing other pedestrians. "I followed them and filmed their faces and brought it to the gardai.

"This town is being ruled by these horrible brats. Adults are afraid and the gardai reckon the justice system isn't hard enough on young offenders. Well maybe it's time to change. If anyone knows the poor guy who got pushed I hope the hug helped and I hope he went for that drink I suggested. I'm ashamed of this town lately." She realised she was probably being foolhardy by following them. "I forgot I'm not a tough guy and I bolted across the road, helped the guy up, then chased them and shouted.

"I realise now I was lucky they just called me a fat bitch. I was probably a bit stupid to be honest. Grown men stood back and said nothing, but in retrospect, they could have stabbed me or kicked my head in for shouting at them and following them with a camera," she said. Cllr Emer Tóibín condemned the incident and praised the woman who intervened. "It is important to keep an eye out for each other.

"The biggest problem in Navan is the lack of garda visibility. There aren't enough gardai, they have more work than they can deal with and the increase in anti-social behaviour cannot get the attention it needs. The Department of Justice seems to be focusing on everything but the Garda shortages

She suggested a greater use of community service in dealing with underage offenders.

Cllr Toibin said that there are people who will not set foot in Navan after dark. "People don't feel safe walking around. We are not providing the most basic deterrent - gardai on the beat."

Cllr Eddie Fennessy said people from right across Navan regularly contact him to highlight issues with anti social behaviour.

"Threats and intimidation alongside public drinking and drug taking cause huge problems for communities who are too afraid to speak out.

"It is not acceptable to have people living in fear and unfortunately there's no silver bullet solution to fix a breakdown in society.

"We didn't have much in the Ireland I grew up in, but we had community. People were respectful to others and their property.

"As a society, we need a reset. To get ourselves back to basics. To relearn the value of community. Fanciful I know, but that's the long term solution in my opinion.

"Over the short term we need more Gardaí on the streets of Navan. We have a chronic shortage of policing resources in Meath. In comparison with other counties we have the lowest number of Gardaí per head of population in the state. Counties with much lower populations such as Longford and Westmeath are far better resourced. It is not good enough.

“Sinn Féin has repeatedly called on the government to increase Garda numbers in Meath. That in itself will not eradicate the problem, however more gardaí on our streets would go a long way towards deterring much of the crime that blights our town centres."