The Five Demands

Youths targeted in paramilitary attacks (UTV)
PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott has described paramilitary-style attacks on young people as “child abuse”, after it emerged that victims as young as 13 are being targeted.
An average of six shootings take place in Northern Ireland every week, with the majority carried out in west Belfast and Londonderry.
Between 2008 and 2010, eight of those targeted were under 16 years old – the youngest victim was just 13.
“Frankly the shooting of young people is utterly outrageous in a modern European society,” Mr Baggott told UTV.
“I have two words for it – it is effectively child abuse. There is nothing about controlling anti-social behaviour here it is simply child abuse and it is a wicked practice.
“We want to make sure we bring these people to justice.”
The startling figures emerged during a meeting of the Policing Board on Thursday.
Officers said between April 2009 and June 2010, there was a peak of 148 attacks across the region.
Since last year the figure has dropped to an average of six per week, however the detection rate remains low at just 4.4%.
“We’re bringing more and more people to justice but it remains a very difficult problem,” the chief constable continued.
“We’ve put nearly 700 more police officers out into local neighbourhood districts.
“They are there to be the eyes and ears of the communities themselves and that is a significant change.”