"There is a situation now where we have to address these issues and there has to be a two-pronged approach."
Cork City Centre has been described as a "no go area" by a Cork City Councillor after a man was pulled from his wheelchair in a violent attack, one of two incidents in the city that attracted attention in recent days.
Two videos of incidents in the city emerged on social media over the weekend. In the first, a man could be seen being pulled from a wheelchair and wrestled on the ground on Merchant's Quay before a bystander helped the man back to his chair.
Meanwhile, a second clip showed a man pull what appeared to be a weapon from a buggy while fighting with another man near Mary Elmes bridge.
In that clip, one of the men can be seen chasing the other down to Merchant's Quay, where he catches up and starts to hit him with the weapon until two women manage to get between the pair and split the altercation up.
While it is unknown when exactly the incidents occured, it is believed to have been at some point over the weekend.
Former Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork City Centre, Councillor Kenneth O'Flynn, told
Red FM's Niall Prendeville on Monday that the men in both videos are "well-known to Gardaí".
O'Flynn also called for an increase and a "vital boost" in Gardaí presence to help combat the problem of "anti-social behaviour" in the area.
"The city centre is now a no-go area," he said.
"There is a situation now where we have to address these issues and there has to be a two-pronged approach."
He added that many people had explained to him that they no longer call the Gardaí when an incident occurrs because they don't believe there is a "point" as "when we ring they don't arrive".
"They're so flat out, they don't have enough people to service the community.
"They are continuously playing catch up."
O'Flynn said that he would like to see a stricter policing approach and a "zero tolerance policy" implimented in the county, saying Gardaí should come down on offenders "like a ton of bricks".
"Garda trying to stay on top of that is very difficult," he said.
Gardaí told JOE that they could not find any reports matching the incidents on their system at this time.
