It’s slow business for global terrorists these days with all the targets banged up under Covid house arrest. But there’s one place in the United Kingdom where it has been pretty much business as usual for violent extremism. Northern Ireland’s police service has just released its security assessment for 2020. This contains some startling information for a place with roughly the same population as Hampshire.
Last year there were 39 shooting incidents and two security related deaths, the same number as in 2019. The number of bombings – which include viable devices defused by the army – actually rose year on year to 17, with 8 happening in Belfast. Imagine this happening in Southampton.
There was better news on what are euphemistically referred to as ‘punishment shootings’. These are often by-appointment mutilations where self-appointed community sadists deal with alleged antisocial behaviour with a bullet in the arm, knee or some other hopefully non-lethal bit of you.
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