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 withoutawire
Bunny Lover
Registered: 08/16/09
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 Vigilante Group Shoots Drug Dealers 
#16412100 - 06/21/12 01:29 AM (10 months, 24 days ago) |
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-18510327
The group behind a bomb attack on a police vehicle in Northern Ireland this month has told BBC Newsnight it will carry out further such attacks.
Londonderry-based Republican Action Against Drugs (RAAD) told the programme that it had the same capability as the IRA before its ceasefire.
RAAD leaders gave Newsnight their first face-to-face interview as part of a report on their vigilante activities.
Since 2008 the armed group has murdered one man and shot more than 40 others.
They have persuaded some parents to hand over their children - some as young as 18 - to be shot by appointment in a non-lethal way to spare them more serious injuries, and dozens more young people have been ordered to leave the city.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
People say to us: 'There's a problem, help us, you used to be in the IRA'”
RAAD leader
The police admit they have failed to stop the group, which is made up of former members of the Provisional IRA, and are promising to redouble their efforts.
RAAD operates in the Derry nationalist areas of Creggan and Bogside, which during the Troubles were the centre of IRA activity in the old walled city.
The group was set up to tackle drug dealers in the area and its leaders are well known locally, but remain faceless to the outside world.
'Community support'
Two of the group's leaders agreed to meet Newsnight and answer questions on their activities on condition that they were not filmed.
In the interview, they claimed that they were taking up arms to protect their community from "parasites".
They said that they never shot anyone with a drug addiction, only those who sold drugs to "little children or vulnerable people".
"We don't operate in a vacuum. We have weapons to store, explosives to store, cars to store, so we are helped by the community," one said.
"Our ability to mount operations shows we have community support."
When challenged about whether members of the public only helped because they were fearful of what the armed group might do if they refused, they said this was not the case.
"We are fathers, husbands, we live, we go to work, we're just ordinary people. Ordinary people with a past and people say to us: 'There's a problem, help us, you used to be in the IRA,'" one said.
Earlier this month, during a protest about policing, RAAD threw a bomb at a police vehicle. No-one was injured, but the group claims it is willing to carry out further attacks unless police searches of members' homes are suspended.
"We won't accept the community being brutalised. They're under pressure. They're taking their frustration out on the community."
They also claimed that they have more weapons in Derry than the IRA had prior to the ceasefire.
"We can do everything the IRA used to do, we have the capability," they said.
'Six-pack' shooting
Talking to parents whose sons have been shot in the legs, it is clear they are afraid of the gunmen.
Ciaran McFadden's 21-year-old son fell foul of RAAD when he got involved in a fight with one of its members.
Mr McFadden was told that the young man would be shot as punishment, but that since he himself had been in the IRA, RAAD were willing to do their old comrade a favour and only shoot him once.
Mr McFadden felt he had no choice and took his son to be shot. The bullet remains lodged in his calf because surgeons believe it would do more serious damage if it were moved.
Other parents are making similar desperate calculations. Newsnight met one woman who had taken her son to be shot in both legs after RAAD accused him of drug dealing.
In her case she did so because she feared he might get a worse punishment, the dreaded "six-pack" - where someone is shot six times, in both elbows, both knees and both ankles.
When I asked Mr McFadden why he did not go straight to the police, he was furious:
"We don't live in a normal society," he said. "I could go to the police but where does that leave me? I'd have to leave this country."
The police are promising to redouble their efforts against RAAD and have renewed appeals for witnesses to come forward.
However, in the areas in which RAAD operates there is a traditional mistrust of the police.
And police say it is their background in the IRA that is making the group so difficult to stop. The PSNI's area commander, Chief Superintendent Steve Martin, told Newsnight:
"They are a small group which makes them difficult to target. They operate in a fairly tight geographical area. They comprise people who were involved in PIRA [Provisional IRA] activity and therefore have developed a certain level of ability in carrying out their crimes and evading detection."
Better ban guns, right? 
Fucking prohibition.
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Rail_Gun
wizard
Registered: 06/30/01
Posts: 9,268
Loc: Knockturn Alley
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Re: Vigilante Group Shoots Drug Dealers [Re: withoutawire]
#16412510 - 06/21/12 03:24 AM (10 months, 24 days ago) |
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They should shoot British occupation trash, like the Queen and her police and military, not other Irish.
It's a mixed up world.
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 Celestial Traveler
Random Observer
Registered: 03/04/11
Posts: 6,540
Loc: Idaho
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Re: Vigilante Group Shoots Drug Dealers [Re: withoutawire]
#16412919 - 06/21/12 08:21 AM (10 months, 24 days ago) |
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Fucking bastards. Hearing this really angers me. Somebody should form a group whose purpose is to shoot them on sight.
Really they're not any different than a normal street gang, they just preach slightly different "values" but they're still the same.
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withoutawire
Bunny Lover
Registered: 08/16/09
Posts: 10,915
Loc: San Francisco
Last seen: 1 day, 1 hour
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There's not guns in the UK. How can people defend themselves when only the criminals and unenthusiastic police are the ones with firearms?
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Celestial Traveler
Random Observer
Registered: 03/04/11
Posts: 6,540
Loc: Idaho
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Re: Vigilante Group Shoots Drug Dealers [Re: withoutawire]
#16413914 - 06/21/12 01:31 PM (10 months, 24 days ago) |
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I guess they'll have to become criminals in order to defend themselves. Sad, but bad laws were meant to be broken.
The same type of situation can be seen with the War on Drugs in the U.S.
We often insist otherwise, but technically speaking, drug users are criminals under definition of U.S. law. Even though most drug users act morally and are good people, being a "good person" is not synonymous with not being a "criminal." The term "criminal" is strictly a legal connotation and does not necessarily have any relationship with an individual's morality.
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MaxFresh
I made this
Registered: 03/03/03
Posts: 71,840
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Re: Vigilante Group Shoots Drug Dealers [Re: withoutawire]
#16414000 - 06/21/12 01:55 PM (10 months, 24 days ago) |
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Quote:
withoutawire said:
There's not guns in the UK. How can people defend themselves when only the criminals and unenthusiastic police are the ones with firearms?
That's the main reason I'd never move to Europe.
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Humility
Working on it
Registered: 10/07/08
Posts: 6,696
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Re: Vigilante Group Shoots Drug Dealers [Re: MaxFresh]
#16414444 - 06/21/12 03:14 PM (10 months, 24 days ago) |
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This story is not accurate, this issue is more complex than it appears.
A month or so back there was a thread about a Northern Ireland youth being kneecapped for "selling drugs" in the area. Apparently what's really happening is that there are still political groups who sell drugs to make money (NP imo). The problem arises with market control.
These individuals pose as Anti-drug groups and shoot people who don't sell drugs from them yet sell in areas they consider under their control. The same is true of employees who step out of line or pocket money or drugs. The difference is that the event is spun in the press (PR) to make it seem like instead of drug gangs shooting people it's really "just a bunch of folks that are fed up with all of these drug dealers", which disgustingly enough gets WAY more positive reaction than drug dealers simply handling business.
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withoutawire
Bunny Lover
Registered: 08/16/09
Posts: 10,915
Loc: San Francisco
Last seen: 1 day, 1 hour
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Re: Vigilante Group Shoots Drug Dealers [Re: Humility]
#16418318 - 06/22/12 03:01 AM (10 months, 23 days ago) |
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That's really interesting.
You should link us to that story. I'd really like to know more about this, especially since I am a huge advocate of 2A rights, I find this all really fascinating.
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Spiderbaby
?
Registered: 08/20/06
Posts: 1,221
Loc: Ireland 
Last seen: 2 days, 1 hour
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Re: Vigilante Group Shoots Drug Dealers [Re: withoutawire]
#16418906 - 06/22/12 06:36 AM (10 months, 23 days ago) |
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Theres a time and a place for everything and its called college,
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durian_2008
cornucopian eating an elephant
Registered: 04/02/08
Posts: 2,497
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Re: Vigilante Group Shoots Drug Dealers [Re: withoutawire]
#16419548 - 06/22/12 11:19 AM (10 months, 23 days ago) |
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Quote:
withoutawire said:
There's not guns in the UK. How can people defend themselves when only the criminals and unenthusiastic police are the ones with firearms?
...and "vigilantes."
IMO, the use of force was discriminate and not explicitly geared toward prohibition.
So long as someone is being respectful, I don't think they're interested. 
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withoutawire
Bunny Lover
Registered: 08/16/09
Posts: 10,915
Loc: San Francisco
Last seen: 1 day, 1 hour
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Re: Vigilante Group Shoots Drug Dealers [Re: Spiderbaby]
#16419845 - 06/22/12 12:33 PM (10 months, 23 days ago) |
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Quote:
Spiderbaby said:
Here's the other thread http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/16164286/page/2
I don't see where the vigalanete group was actually selling drugs, according to humility. I'd like to read where that may be the case because I haven't heard anything.
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Pilz
Think of the Children!
Registered: 10/19/10
Posts: 574
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Re: Vigilante Group Shoots Drug Dealers [Re: withoutawire]
#16420687 - 06/22/12 04:02 PM (10 months, 23 days ago) |
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Quote:
withoutawire said:
Quote:
Spiderbaby said:
Here's the other thread http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/16164286/page/2
I don't see where the vigalanete group was actually selling drugs, according to humility. I'd like to read where that may be the case because I haven't heard anything.
i believe there was a story about this on the shroomery within the last couple of months, cant find the thread right now though...
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