A HARD-hitting campaign about the brutal reality of `paramilitary style attacks' is to be relaunched today.
Ending the Harm, which is part of the Executive Action Plan to Tackle Paramilitary Activity, Criminality and Organised Crime, is aimed at highlighting the devastating impact such attacks have on victims, families, communities and wider society.
The multi-media campaign, which was first launched in October 2018, tells the story of a paramilitary style shooting from the points of view of the four people involved: the victim, his mother, the paramilitary gang member and a witness.
The radio advertisements and social media activity will go live today and TV ads are scheduled for broadcast from Monday August 12. Outdoor advertising depicting an image of a badly beaten man will also be relaunched later this month.
Anthony Harbinson, from the Tackling Paramilitarism, Criminality and Organised Crime Programme Board, said: "Before we launched this campaign, research showed that 35 per cent of people living in those areas most impacted by paramilitary activity thought so-called paramilitary style attacks were justified in certain circumstances.
"The purpose of this campaign has been to highlight the devastating toll these attacks have and help people understand that the criminals who carry out these attacks don't care about people, or justice, or solving social problems in communities. They don't offer protection and they are only interested in exerting control and exploiting people for their own gain, using violence as a means to do so."
Recent research carried out to assess the impact of the campaign, and get a snapshot of current attitudes now shows that 19 per cent of people believe they are justified.
"But the reality is these barbaric attacks are still an issue of concern. The latest statistics show that, between July 2018 and June 2019, there were 81 victims. This includes 17 victims of shootings and 64 victims of assaults. That's approximately one attack every four days.
"In the previous 12 month period, there were a total of 79 paramilitary style attacks - 20 shootings and 59 assaults. In June of this year alone, there were 12 assaults, the highest number in one month since April 2009.
"Although there has been a long term downward trend, this is still an issue that we as a society need to deal with and this campaign is a vital part of tackling this scourge on our communities."
