Paramilitary punishment attacks in Northern Ireland
Attacks can range from a warning or expulsion from Northern Ireland, backed up by the threat of violence, to severe beatings that leave victims in hospital and shootings in the limbs (such as kneecapping).
The cause of the attacks is disputed; proposed explanations include the breakdown of order as a result of the Northern Ireland conflict (c. 1970–1998), ideological opposition to British law enforcement (in the case of republicans), and the ineffectiveness of police to prevent crime.
Despite attempts to put an end to the practice, according to researcher Sharon Mallon in a 2017 policy briefing, "paramilitaries are continuing to operate an informal criminal justice system, with a degree of political and legal impunity".
[2] According to Liam Kennedy, "Not only has the label 'punishment' a euphemistic quality when applied to extremely cruel practices, it also carries a presumption that the victim is somehow deserving of what he (occasionally she) receives.
[24] Both republican and loyalist groups consider punishment attacks separate from military activity[25] and continue to carry them out while on ceasefire status.
[26][27] The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was an armed force that took a military approach to counter-terrorism,[28] had been drawn into pro-unionist sectarianism,[29] colluded with loyalist groups,[30] and committed police brutality, including beatings of suspects.
[29] Real and perceived human rights violations by security forces—including internment without trial, special courts for political offences, the use of plastic bullets by riot police, and alleged shoot-to-kill policy—further sapped the state's legitimacy for nationalists.
Both nationalist and unionist communities complained that the RUC did not respond quickly enough to calls relating to petty crime, and that suspects were pressured to inform on paramilitaries.
[40] Following partition, loyalist militias patrolled parts of the border with the Irish Free State and, in Belfast, the Ulster Unionist Labour Association set up an unofficial police force in the 1920s.
[42][43] To protect themselves, nationalists set up Citizen Defence Committees (not connected to violent republican groups) which built and manned barricades and patrolled the neighbourhood.
[47] In nationalist neighbourhoods of Derry such as the Bogside, Brandywell, and Creggan, these committees worked to control petty crime by delivering stern lectures to the accused.
[58][59] According to anthropologist Neil Jarman, vigilantism emerged in both loyalist and republican areas due to the failings in state policing, a gap which paramilitaries ended up filling.
[59] According to sociologist Ronaldo Munck, punishment attacks represent "a sharp contest over the legitimacy of criminal justice within a society deeply divided along ethno-national lines".
[63] Both republican and loyalist paramilitaries claim that they began to enforce informal justice due to demand from their communities,[58] and vigilantism came at the expense of the IRA's military campaign.
[64] Sociologist Heather Hamill argues that in republican areas, the IRA was "a willing and capable supplier" that actively fostered demand for punishment attacks, motivated both by "self-interest in encouraging dependence and loyalty among the local population and a genuine desire... to provide a service to the community".
[66][67][61] Some local republican and loyalist politicians have justified the attacks by saying that the official system fails working-class communities[61] which bear the brunt of crime.
[77] According to surveys, the number of Northern Ireland residents living in affected areas who think that punishment attacks are sometimes justified has decreased from 35% to 19% following the Department of Justice's 2018 "Ending the Harm" campaign.
[80][81][82] Kennedy argues that paramilitaries are attempting to consolidate "a patchwork of Mafia-style mini-states" via vigilante violence and economically sustained by extortion and racketeering.
[30] Hamill writes that loyalist groups' victim profiles suggests that they use punishment attacks for intragroup discipline and intergroup feuds to a greater degree than republicans.
[116][118] Sometimes paramilitaries would approach a person and ask them to leave West Belfast[119] or Northern Ireland within a certain period of time (such as 48 hours), with an implicit threat of serious injury or death if they did not comply.
Beatings are accomplished with instruments such as baseball bats, hammers, golf clubs, hurley sticks, iron bars, concrete blocks, and cudgels (often studded with nails).
[134][135] According to psychiatrist Oscar Daly, who treats victims of the attacks, the characteristics of those who tend to be victims—such as poor parenting and preexisting mental health problems—make them more vulnerable to psychological sequelae.
A 1995 study found that symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, such as flashbacks, hypervigilance, difficulty concentrating, and attempts to numb or minimize the incident, are common in youth who survive a punishment attack.
[137][70] Mallon analyzed the 402 suicides in Northern Ireland between 2007 and 2009 and identified 19 cases in which young men had killed themselves after being threatened with punishment attacks for alleged criminal or anti-social behaviour.
[111] Kneecapping often resulted in neurovascular damage which had to be treated with weeks in the hospital and extensive outpatient rehabilitation,[123] but medical advancements allowed most later victims to regain most function in their limbs.
[149] Punishment attacks reached an absolute low in 2007, when Northern Ireland gained devolved powers as a result of the St Andrews Agreement.
[24] The sixth of the Mitchell Principles, which paramilitary groups agreed to abide by in 1998, explicitly forbids extrajudicial punishment and requires that signatories put an end to the practice.
[173] The United States was reluctant to threaten the success of the peace process due to punishment attacks, because it considered that these did not fit the conventional definition of terrorism.
[186] Loyalist neighbourhoods have also seen community restorative justice approaches, organized by Northern Ireland Alternatives, which originated in the greater Shankill area in 1996[184][187] and worked closely with the police from the beginning,[185] despite scepticism from law enforcement.
[190] In 2006, the eighth report of the International Monitoring Commission described participation in restorative justice as one means by which paramilitaries attempted to maintain their role and exert influence.
