A man was spotted wielding a knife outside a primary school earlier this week, as local residents report a marked increase in violence and anti-social behaviour in the area.<\/p>\n
The image showed a man dressed entirely in black sprinting down the street in Cork, Republic of Ireland, while openly carrying what appears to be a large butcher’s knife. The photograph was taken approximately 50 yards from the Taoiseach’s constituency office in Turner’s Cross.<\/p>\n
Eyewitnesses claim the picture was captured during a broad daylight assault in which one man was set upon by four others. The victim managed to get to his feet and flee towards Bunscoil Chr\u00edost R\u00ed before making his way to Turner’s Cross with his attackers in close pursuit.<\/p>\n
It is believed that the surge in violence is connected to a rise in drug dealing in the area, with residents suggesting that dealers operating from two properties are drawing buyers from across the city.<\/p>\n
Local people, who spoke to CorkBeo under the condition of anonymity, citing threats made against them by the dealers, report that there have been numerous incidents in the area over the past week, amongst them a large street brawl that erupted near a local chip shop. Garda\u00ed had been carrying out high-visibility patrols in the area earlier this year, but locals claim these have since stopped, with incidents of violence and anti-social behaviour having ‘come back worse than ever’ as a result. These include theft, street fighting and intimidation, amongst other offences, reports Cork Beo<\/a>.<\/p>\n One resident said: “It’s gotten really, really bad. We know that there are dealers operating out of houses in the area, and it’s just brought people in from all over the city.”<\/p>\n Residents claim the issue has been raised with Garda\u00ed, who advised them that a response is being prepared as a matter of urgency. CorkBeo has contacted the Garda Press Office for a statement, with enquiries also being made with local officers.<\/p>\n Local councillor Dan Boyle said he is fully aware of the surge in anti-social behaviour and drug dealing in the area. The Green Party councillor suggests it may be an unfortunate consequence of heightened policing in the city centre, pushing drug dealers out into more residential neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, residents on the nearby Douglas Street in the South Parish spoke of a dramatic rise in open drug dealing, with some now claiming they are too frightened to leave their homes.<\/p>\n Locals reported that recent months have witnessed an influx of drug users and dealers onto their streets, with much of the activity concentrated around the area in front of the historic Red Abbey tower. They claim dealers operate extensively in the locality, with substantial numbers of drug users also observed in Tory Top Park in Ballyphehane and surrounding Barrack Street. St Finbarr’s South, referred to as the South Chapel and Cork’s oldest Catholic church, has experienced difficulties with drug use within its grounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A man was spotted wielding a knife outside a primary school earlier this week, as local residents report a marked increase in violence and anti-social behaviour in the area. \u00a0 … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6204,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6202\/revisions\/6204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heightshowtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}