We have the power to stop these attacks

In the optimistic days after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement few thought that 20 years on the scourge of paramilitaries would still blot the Northern Ireland landscape.

Today their reason for being is gangsterism. Their terrorism is not directed at cowing the communities where they seek their cowardly shelter and run their rackets.

As in the days of the Troubles a new campaign showing the reality of paramilitary activity in graphic detail is being launched. The hope is to shock the public into what really lies behind the brief headlines of paramilitary so-called punishment attacks which led to 417 people being assaulted or shot in the last five years, including 87 in the last 12 months.

These attacks are surrounded by hypocrisy. The main hypocrites, of course, are the gunmen and baseball bat wielding thugs, who pretend that they area sort of alternative police force meting out their instantaneous and inexcusable form of justice.

The most horrific consequence of such barbarity came in April 2016 when Ardoyne man Michael McGibbon was shot in the legs and left to bleed to death in his wife’s arms. There is no form of justice on the statute books which would condemn a person to death in such a manner.

But there is also hypocrisy among the public at large. How often have we heard people deplore the actions of the paramilitaries but there is still a silent belief that those attacked were somehow responsible for their own fate. The whisperers argue that if the police won’t effectively police the areas where these attacks happen then someone else must fill the void.

That leads to another form of hypocrisy. The very low clear up rate for paramilitary attacks leads to the PSNI being accused of doing nothing. But if victims do not co-operate and witnesses do not come forward there is no evidence.

That is the real terrorism of the paramilitaries as they operate today. They rely on their muscle and their willingness to maim anyone they have a grudge against to enforce a system of omerta in their areas. It takes enormous courage to inform on these thugs and few people, if any, are prepared to give evidence which would be useful in court.

The result of this silence is that throughout Northern Ireland there are mainly young people who are maimed for life because of these attacks. It is not the fault of the PSNI that the criminals are not brought to justice, it is the fault of the entire community.