IT is a deeply troubling and shameful aspect of life in Northern Ireland that paramilitaries and criminal gangs are still active on our streets.
The reasons why this is still the case in 2021 - long after the Good Friday Agreement and any number of ceasefires and various other initiatives - are complex, though they doubtless include failures of politics and policing, as well as the prevalence of drugs.
Already this month has seen the murder of dissident republican Danny McClean in north Belfast and a UVF gathering in the east of the city.
Events of this nature come to wider attention beyond the communities in which they take place and are, rightly, met with widespread political and community condemnation.
Less likely to make it into wider public discourse is the sort of paramilitary and criminal fear, control, threat and intimidation that can be a daily reality in some areas.
This includes the barbaric beatings and shootings which are primarily carried out against young men.
These are sometimes described as punishment or paramilitary-style attacks, but that largely euphemises what is essentially a medieval practice of inflicting life-changing injuries.
Assaults of this sort continue on an all too regular basis. As a community we perhaps need to reflect on whether these abuses have somehow become normalised in such a way that they don't provoke the outrage they would if they occurred elsewhere.
A further shocking aspect of these criminal attacks is that in some cases the young people targeted by these gangs are paying to escape being shot.
As this newspaper reported yesterday, one family borrowed over £20,000 to stop their son being shot.
North Belfast SDLP councillor Paul McCusker linked the assaults to drugs - either because of debts owed to drug gangs or because of threats from dissident republicans to those perceived to be involved in dealing.
Mr McCusker said one young man had attempted to take his own life after being threatened with being shot if he didn't hand over thousands of pounds.
On Wednesday night, there was a further shooting. Police said a man was taken to hospital after being shot in "the lower leg" in the Good Shepherd Road area of Dunmurry.
It is clear that everything possible must be done to stop these grotesque abuses.
That should include a police, community and political response, but must also involve measures to tackle drug addiction.
