Pubdate: Tue, 30 Oct 2007
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Darah Hansen

WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO CRACK DOWN?

Ultimate shock hasn't yet been felt, expert says. The level of
violence in Metro Vancouver is rising, but where's the outrage?, a
criminologist asks.

VANCOUVER - It may take the death of a child to prompt B.C. to follow
Quebec's example and make meaningful changes in the way it tackles
gang-related crime, says an expert in organized crime.

"The death of an innocent child . . . seems to send people over the
top, whereas the death of innocent adults is, somehow, more tolerable,
because we've had innocent adults killed before," said Robert Gordon,
director of the school of criminology at Simon Fraser University.

He said the recent murder of six people, including two innocent
bystanders, in a Surrey highrise may be shocking, but it won't provoke
the kind of response needed to force change.

He noted that it took the death of 11-year-old Daniel Desrocher in
Quebec in 1995 to get that province to tackle the gangs then wreaking
havoc on the streets.

Gordon said B.C. residents should be sufficiently outraged by what has
gone on here already to demand change.

"In some cases, it's just been a fraction of an inch between not
getting hit and getting hit and none of that has produced any kind of
response from government," he said.

Desrocher was killed after a remote-control bomb exploded under a Jeep
along a quiet tree-lined neighbourhood in Montreal's east end.

He was the victim of a growing turf war over the drug trade between
the Rock Machine bike gang and the Hells Angels that, by the time it
had ended, claimed 160 lives.

Public pressure from Quebecers to put an end to the gang wars
following Desrocher's death prompted sweeping and expensive changes at
both the municipal and provincial levels. The changes included the
creation of special police squads to investigate the gangs, as well as
a team of special prosecutors to shepherd the cases through courts.

The effort effectively put an end to the turf wars, and resulted in
the arrest and successful prosecution of hundreds of biker gang
members in subsequent years, including the notorious Maurice (Mom)
Boucher of the Hells Angels.

Gordon said there are similarities between the Quebec situation and
the rising levels of violence in Metro Vancouver recently.

Both, he said, are the result of conflict over turf and market share
related to the illegal drug trade, and both have resulted in the death
of innocents, most recently Edward Schellenberg, 55, and Christopher
Mohan, 22.

They were among the six people murdered in Surrey on Oct.
19.

Neither Schellenberg, a gas fireplace repairman, nor Mohan, a popular
basketball fan who lived on the same apartment floor where the
killings took place, had any involvement with the criminal world.

Their deaths, according to police, were the unfortunate result of
being "in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Four other young men murdered in the incident were all involved "more
or less," said investigators, with "guns, gangs and drugs."

The mass murder was the third in a series of high-profile
gang-violence incidents involving members of the public, beginning
with a shooting inside the Fortune Happiness restaurant in east
Vancouver in August, which left six people injured and two dead.

A month later, two masked men shot and injured two people through the
window of the Quattro on Fourth restaurant in Kitsilano.

Gordon said the kinds of changes he is advocating require political
courage.

In particular, he's in favour of instituting a metro-wide police force
as an important means of tackling organized crime that regularly
overlaps jurisdictions.

Right now, he said, a combination of politics, a lack of
intelligence-sharing and communication gaps between municipal forces
and the RCMP can and do stymie investigations that affect the whole
region.

He called existing integrated police units -- such as the Integrated
Homicide Investigation Team and integrated gang task force --
impractical, pointing to the lack of formal involvement by large
police forces, such as the Vancouver police department.

"On the surface these ideas are good . . . the folks who are working
in the field are doing their best, but you don't resolve the problem
by using this sort of Band-Aid approach," he said.

Gordon said that to date, the political will has not been there to
push for a regional force.

B.C. has taken some steps to better tackle gang violence, borrowing
from the Quebec model.

Early in 2005, the government announced a $122-million investment in
organized crime-fighting, including creating a new five-member
"prosecutorial team" to help speed cases through the courts.

More recently, Solicitor-General John Les called for tougher jail
sentences for B.C.'s worst criminals -- such as those involved in the
killings in Surrey.

"We need to reinvigorate the notion of deterrence in the criminal
justice system," Les said in a recent interview, urging that criminals
be imprisoned for each crime they commit, as opposed to serving
multiple sentences at once.

But, said Gordon, more lawyers and tougher sentences won't help unless
police are able to investigate and arrest the offenders in the first
place.

To accomplish that, he suggested giving more money and resources to a
specialized police force aimed at tackling organized crime. Right now,
he said, police are forced to prioritize their investigations to the
point where more than 100 active organized crime groups in B.C. last
year were able to carry on their business without police
interference.

"I was utterly astonished to hear that," he said.

But, he cautioned, "It's just not a matter of throwing a big bag of
cash at the Mounties. There has to be a carefully coordinated effort
and there has got to be accountability."

In Ontario, Irvin Waller, director of the Institute for Prevention of
Crime at the University of Ottawa, said B.C. could learn a thing or
two from Toronto, which is dealing with similar levels of violence
involving groups of young men, mainly aged 15 to 25.

Turf wars over drugs, women and personality clashes have resulted in
murders and violence.

It took the death of a 15-year-old girl -- killed by a stray bullet at
a downtown shopping mall on Boxing Day 2005 -- to prompt action to
curb youth violence.

Waller said city council is pursuing a strategy aimed at the most
violent neighbourhoods, helping to keep at-risk children in school or
employed.

The plan also calls for the creation of a special panel to advise
officials on what should be done, and a secretariat to make sure the
actions are carried out.

Waller said other cities, such as Boston, have proven that youth
violence can be effectively curbed through a combination of "smart"
policing targeting the worst offenders, and keeping at-risk young
people from feeling disenfranchised and isolated.

Waller said understanding the causes of what leads individuals into
crime will ultimately help authorities come up with solutions that
work.

It's not a new concept, but it is still controversial, he
said.

"What we are doing at the moment is we are reacting to this [violence]
with more cops, more prosecutors. We are ultimately trying to
incarcerate people. But it's all optics," he said.

"It's going to give the impression that a lot of people are offering
real solutions.

"But they haven't been talking about real issues: How come these young
men grew up and got into this situation in the first place? How could
we have intervened? How can government be better organized to address
this?"

- - - -

IN YOUR OPINION, HOW SERIOUS A PROBLEM IS GANG VIOLENCE?

In the Greater Vancouver Region; In your local community

Serious 95 52

Not serious 5 48

Don't know 1 1

Over the past five years, would you say there has been an increase or
a decrease in the amont of gang violence?

In the Greater Vancouver Region; In your local community

Total increase 91 59

Total decrease 2 2

No change 6 34

Don't know 1 5

How would you rate the performance of each of the following at dealing
with gang violence in Greater Vancouver?

Total good job; Total poor job; Don'tknow

The police 67 31 2

Local/municipal government 19 73 8

The provincial government 10 85 5

The federal government 9 82 9

The court system 7 92 2

Source: Ipsos Reid for Global TV News Vancouver Sun
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MAP posted-by: Derek