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The
nature and extent of organised crime in Northern Ireland
is a source of concern for all who desire to live
in a society that is characterised by peace, justice
and economic security.
Organised
crime impacts heavily on the quality of life of individuals,
families and whole communities. It undermines the
tireless and selfless work of community activists
and residents’ associations. It has a damaging
effect on the local economy and frustrates community
endeavours to combat poverty and social exclusion.
It also excuses government agencies for doing nothing
to effectively address poverty and social exclusion.
Clearly it is something that we can well do without.
The
idea that the proceeds of crime come off a broad back
is a falsehood that must be exposed and opposed. The
cost of organised crime is something that the government
and the business community do not absorb by themselves.
It is met by all of us. Essential finances that should
be channelled into developing more effective and efficient
public services are re-directed towards crime prevention,
crime detection, legal proceedings and compensation.
Every pound that ends up in the coffers of the criminal
is one less pound circulating through the local economy.
It is one less pound that the business community can
reinvest in local business. It is one less pound that
employers can use to create new jobs and increase
wages. But it is not just a pound here and a pound
there - the cost of organised crime amounts to millions
of pounds here and millions of pounds there. Organised
crime is not simply an attack on the business community
or the government, it is an attack on the whole community.
It is as damaging to the people of Northern Ireland
as the violence of the bloody conflict from which
we are trying to emerge, and it deserves the same
response.
An
interim report published some time ago by the Special
Task Force set up under Peter Mandleson to tackle
organised crime estimates that some 400 criminals
organised into approximately 78 gangs and responsible
for the vast majority of organised crime in Northern
Ireland. 78 gangs with an average membership of between
5 and 6 criminals should not pose a massive problem
for the security forces. The greater the number of
small gangs competing for the same profits means that
there is greater fragmentation and, since the motive
is personal gain as opposed to political ideology,
there is more inter-personal and inter-gang competition
and less group loyalty.
When
one considers that paramilitary organisations had
thousands of members organised in fewer groups and
bound together by both ideology and group loyalty
- not to mention life-threatening codes of discipline
- the task of dealing with criminal gangs should not
pose a great problem. If the resources and the tactics
that were used against paramilitary organisations
were deployed against the criminal gangs, the problem
should be easily eradicated. One wonders why this
has not happened before now.
The
report repeats the allegation that both loyalist and
republican paramilitaries are involved at some level
in organised crime. Of the 78 gangs identified by
the report it is said that 43 have paramilitary links
and 35 have no paramilitary links. The paramilitary
links are said to be through current and former members.
One wonders how an organisation can be held accountable
for the activities of former members. But even if
all 43 gangs that are said to have paramilitary links
do have such links, the number of individuals concerned
amounts to approximately 258 people. That is not a
significant number compared to the thousands of members
and past members that paramilitary organisations can
call upon in times of trouble. It is, of course, almost
three hundred too many and there is a case to be made
for asking paramilitary organisations to identify
and expel any of their members who are found to be
involved in organised crime. No one, even within paramilitary
groups, will deny that some members of paramilitary
organisations have been, and still are, involved in
such activities. That would be to fly in the face
of reality. However we must distinguish between those
members of organisations who engage in such activities
and the vast majority of members who do not, and who
are opposed to such activities. That distinction is
based on reality and I make no apologies for highlighting
it.
Political
ideology and organised crime are incompatible. There
can be no political motive for poisoning the children
of our country with drugs or for forcing them to steal
to pay for the habit that the ‘trade’ helped
them to develop. There can be no political motive
for undermining the local economy upon which the community
depends for its quality of life. There can be no political
motive for bleeding local shopkeepers or publicans
of their hard-earned money until they feel that it
is not worth the bother carrying on. There can be
no political motive for putting personal selfish greed
above the social, economic and cultural well-being
of the community.
Love
of ones country, whether it be expressed through Irish
patriotism or Ulster Loyalism, is wholly incompatible
with organised crime. Organised crime contravenes
the cherished principles of civil liberty, it is incompatible
with the principles of equal citizenship and it violates
the golden rule that we should do unto others as we
would have them do unto us. The social and economic
well-being of the people of Northern Ireland is as
important to me as the maintenance of the union with
Great Britain. That Union would be meaningless without
the people who make up that Union. Anything that militates
against the ability of politicians and civic society
to watch over, promote and protect the morale and
the welfare the people of Northern Ireland is subversive
of the well-being of the people of Northern Ireland
and those who subvert the welfare of the people are
the enemies of the people and ought to be regarded
as the enemies of all true political activists.
The
paramilitaries are an integral part of their communities
and they, together with their political representatives,
can help to empower their communities by actively
and publicly supporting community leaders in gathering
and presenting qualitative evidence against criminals
that will stand up to scrutiny. They can also help
by openly supporting non-violent community pickets
against known drug and vice dens. This can only happen
when the practice of scapegoating the paramilitaries
ceases and when the fact that the majority of paramilitary
members are not involved in drugs, vice and racketeering
is openly validated.
There
appears to be a willingness on the part of the police
to tackle those aspects of organised crime that hurt
the business community but a clear lack of interest
in addressing organised crime where it impacts adversely
on working class communities. It seems to be a okay
for criminals to poison the lives of working class
kids with drugs but not okay to engage in activities
that hurt the business community. It also seems okay
for the army of touts employed by the intelligence
services to be given the freedom to engage in criminal
activity so long as it is perpetrated against those
living in marginalised communities. One could be forgiven
for believing that organised crime, particularly the
illegal drugs trade, is being deliberately used to
destabilise certain working class communities and
impose an insidious form of social control on those
who, if empowered socially and politically, might
dare to engage in class politics.
Criminal
activity is wrong irrespective of who carries it out
and of whom it hurts and organised crime is a community
problem and must be addressed at community level.
This means that local communities must be empowered
to identify, isolate and bring to justice those who
are responsible for the evil in their midst. The lawful
authorities must be there to support the community
and to show conclusively that the rule of law does
in fact work. At the moment that is a highly debatable
question.
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