Ordinary Decent Criminal is a term used by An Garda Siochana, the police force of the Republic of Ireland, to distinguish criminals engaging in illegal practices for financial or personal ends from those who have terrorist goals.
The term was originally used to distinguish "regular" criminals from the IRA and other paramilitary groups in Ireland.
In Ireland the term is sometimes used to refer to criminals who refuse to deal with the drugs trade.
Famous quotes containing the words ordinary, decent and/or criminal:
“The Anglican Church is marked by the grace and good sense of its forms, by the manly grace of its clergy. The gospel it preaches is, “By taste are ye saved.” ... It is not in ordinary a persecuting church; it is not inquisitorial, not even inquisitive, is perfectly well bred and can shut its eyes on all proper occasions. If you let it alone, it will let you alone. But its instinct is hostile to all change in politics, literature, or social arts.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“And the wind shall say: “Here were decent godless people:
Their only monument the asphalt road
And a thousand lost golf balls.””
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“How many condemnations I have witnessed more criminal than the crime!”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)