Pete Wray: Three-pronged approach is needed to tackle paramilitary coercive control
Recent months have seen a re-occurrence of the debate around paramilitary transitioning.
The definition of transitioning means different things to different people, but for me it means for communities to transition into a culture of lawfulness, and for members of paramilitary organisations to transition away from criminality.
I am of the firm belief that conversations with those representing paramilitary organisations does fit within a three-pronged approach to tackling paramilitary coercive control.
Every political party within the Northern Ireland Assembly, and the vast majority of all citizens, can agree that we want to see the end of criminality and coercive control inflicted by paramilitaries within our communities.
It is a plague on our society. I don’t want a future for my children that involves drug dealing, intimidation, and extortion.
It’s important to make the point that not all criminals are linked to paramilitary organisations, and not all members of paramilitary organisations are involved in the criminality as listed.
However, there are some criminals who use these organisations as flags of convenience.
Due to our past conflict these organisations are well known, feared, and have an organisational structure that allows them to embed themselves into communities and garner acceptance from people within the community.
If loyalist and republican paramilitaries weren’t involved in these acts of criminality, would we still have drug dealing, violence, and illegal money lending? Of course we would.
However, without the community fear or support that these organisations have, the criminals’ ability to inflict coercive control would be greatly reduced.
The first strand of the three-pronged approach is one that all the political parties agree on and feel comfortable with. We should empower and resource the PSNI and our justice system to investigate, arrest, and sentence those involved in organised crime.
Budget constraints within the PSNI and our justice system have been well rehearsed, however if we are serious about tackling paramilitarism, we must act to give them the ability to get these people off our streets and to answer for the pain, hurt, and misery they have caused.
There are practical changes we could make that would assist us in that aspiration.
Victims aren’t coming forward because we don’t protect them. If we want evidence that leads to convictions, we must be creative about breaking the cycle of fear and intimidation.
The second strand is around changing the culture of our communities towards lawfulness and a rejection of paramilitary control.
This must involve increased confidence in our criminal justice system, and education from an early age around the dangers of organised crime.
The Northern Ireland Executives ‘Communities in Transition Programme’ is an example of such work, and this must not only continue, but be expanded upon.
Quite simply, if our communities don’t support these organisations, don’t buy drugs from them, don’t borrow money from them, and don’t approach them to resolve community issues, then the organisations power and control will fade.
Communities continue to provide paramilitaries with the oxygen in which they survive. Initiatives that build resilience, reduce vulnerability, educate, and empower, will succeed to create that cultural change that is required to move our society forward.
The third strand around group transition and engagement is one which some political parties can’t accept.
The same parties seem content on burying their head in the sand, using the same vox pop comments, and attempting to disprove Albert Einstein’s claim that doing the same thing again and again while expecting different results is insanity.
Strand one and two are important but it is essential that those who are willing to transition within paramilitary organisations have a route to do so, and the support to disassociate from the criminal element.
The question has been asked why the transition process has taken so long. The answer is that there hasn't been a process initiated. This process does not mean money or payoffs to criminals, it means providing a road map for those who want to divorce criminality from paramilitary organisations.
Many of these issues are nuanced, and a proper discussion around them should be welcomed, even if it isn't the populist sound bite that many are happy to give.
If we want to end the hurt and harm caused by organised crime in Northern Ireland, we must succeed on all three fronts. The first is policing and justice, the second is community transition, and the third is group transition. If we shy away from one of these the other two will fall down.
If we don't grasp the nettle we will be having this conversation in another 20 years. That would be unforgivable.
Pete Wray is an Ulster Unionist Party councillor representing the Ards Peninsula DEA on Ards and North Down Borough Council