Top Issue 1-2024

27 August 2010

Resize: A A A Print

Vigilantism won’t solve problem of anti-social activity

BY PAUL MASKEY Sinn Féin MLA

Paul Maskey

 

COMMUNITY SAFETY is the biggest challenge facing residents in west Belfast. We are all frustrated with anti-social behaviour and criminality, which most of us have directly experienced.

The question is: how are we collectively going to reduce this activity and improve the safety of our communities and the quality of life for local residents?

It can be tempting to view vigilante punishment attacks as a quick-fix solution to anti-social crime.

But these actions won’t solve the problem. Those groups who have recently carried out vigilante attacks in west Belfast are not interested in building strong, empowered communities that can address the impact and the causes of anti-social behaviour among young people.

 

Criminal groups

There are many documented cases of these same groups - who claim to be ‘defending’ the community - being involved in criminality, drug-dealing and extortion.

In recent weeks, for example, four men saying they were members of ‘ONH’ appeared on a building site on the Glen Road after a contractor’s digger was burned, saying they could ‘secure’ the site for a price. The work that was going on was the construction of new social housing, so this type of activity threatens workers’ jobs and prolongs the wait for local people on the social housing list.

It is driven by pure self-interest. These groups have no problem with acting against the community to serve their own ends. 

During the conflict, punishment attacks against criminals in the community were an option of last resort. They were carried out by a popularly-based group with the consultation of the community and the aim of resolving the problem

Today, such punishment attacks are largely carried out in an attempt to generate community support by groups who lack any significant level of support for their militarist campaign.

But not only are their goals cynical and self-serving; vigilante actions will fail to address the problem of anti-social crime and will act as an obstacle to developing an effective and accountable policing service that can meet the community’s needs.

 

Community safety

Sinn Féin has been at the forefront of developing a range of local initiatives throughout the west including establishing Community Safety Forums and Safer Neighbourhoods Projects. Multi-agency Critical Incident Teams have been established in several areas.

At the heart of these initiatives are the principles of community empowerment and a multi-agency approach.

That is, they aim to bring together local residents and community leaders who can identify the problems and needs of the local community with the PSNI, local members of the District Policing Partnership, the Probation Board, the Belfast City Council, Housing Executive, Youth Justice Agency and other relevant statutory agencies.

These initiatives won’t solve the problems of anti-community activity overnight. But real progress has been made through this focused multi-agency approach, and it represents the way forward in terms of making the PSNI and statutory agencies listen to and work for this community.

 

Transforming policing and justice

Transforming policing is not an easy task. However, the overwhelming majority of people in this community have endorsed Sinn Féin’s position of engagement with the PSNI and have welcomed the devolution of policing and justice powers from London to the North’s Executive.

The task at hand is to force the PSNI, the broader justice system and statutory bodies to step up to the job of providing an effective and accountable service that meets the community’s needs. The whole community needs to be part of this process of engaging with, challenging and changing policing - from the local level or reporting criminal activity up to initiating new legislation on tackling crime.

A Sinn Féin delegation led by west Belfast MP Gerry Adams met with the new Justice Minister David Ford in June to put forward specific proposals on tackling violent and anti-social crime, and we will continue to follow up on getting these proposals implemented.

The proposals we put to the minister emerged out of the recent experience of the west Belfast community of violent crime, the experience of victims, the work of the Community Safety Forum and the PSNI.

The Sinn Féin delegation put to the minister community concerns around the problem of prolific repeat offenders and the fact that their behaviour is poorly monitored and sometimes not at all.

We also pointed to the fact that the Public Prosecution Service and other agencies do not have a definition for ‘hotspots’ in the way that the PSNI and the local community have. This is a particular problem when bail restrictions are being imposed and the PPS and the courts fail to understand the importance of this definition.

Sinn Féin is also proposing legislative measures such as addressing the under-pricing of alcohol in supermarkets, and introducing new standards of enforcement in curbing street drinking.

They are useful first steps in beginning to address the problem of violent and anti-social crime but much more needs to be done.

The way to reduce anti-social crime is to build strong, assertive communities that can stand up to criminals, and which can engage with the criminal justice system to demand and shape an acceptable policing service that meets our needs.

In the longer term it requires that the underlying causes of such activities, including poverty, deprivation, lack of youth provision and unemployment, are addressed - a goal at the heart of all of Sinn Féin’s work in the Assembly and Executive.

This process is clearly going to have much more effective and positive long-term results than punishment attacks on young people.

Follow us on Facebook

An Phoblacht on Twitter

An Phoblacht Podcast

An Phoblacht podcast advert2

Uncomfortable Conversations 

uncomfortable Conversations book2

An initiative for dialogue 

for reconciliation 

— — — — — — —

Contributions from key figures in the churches, academia and wider civic society as well as senior republican figures

GUE-NGL Latest Edition ad

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland