Pubdate: Sat, 05 Sep 2009
Source: Abbotsford News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Abbotsford News
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/BkAJKrUD
Website: http://www.abbynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1155
Author: Andrew Holota

LINING UP TO BE FODDER FOR THE SLAUGHTER

Sean "Smurph" Murphy, 21

Ryan "Whitey" Richard, 19

Joseph Randay, 18

Dilsher Gill, 17

Jaswant "Billy" Rai, 36

Paul "Pockets" Denis, 36

Bobby Digeorgio, 24

Jessica Illes, 23

All of them had family. All of them had friends.

All of them had connections to crime and drugs.

And all of them are dead.

Murdered in the past four months. Fodder for the slaughter between 
rival gangs, rip-off paybacks, and vengeance wrought for real or 
perceived transgressions in a dark world with its own stunningly 
brutal code of justice and retribution.

The bullets fly and the knives slash.

The cops investigate, and the media reports.

Law-abiding citizens mourn a further loss of community security and a 
sense of peaceful living.

Family and friends grieve the loss of their loved one, such as that was.

And the debate ebbs and flows...

He was such a great guy.

She was awesome.

He'd give you the shirt off his back.

Sure, he made some mistakes, but who doesn't?

Unless you've been an addict, you can't understand.

She was trying to get out of that life.

He was a super dad.

She was so fun-loving.

He was a real person.

How dare you say anything bad about him.

She didn't deserve to die like this.

What did she expect?

Good riddance.

Do you have no respect for life?

If you follow our website, you've read posts like this on virtually 
every story on the latest victim of drug and gang violence.

For the friends and family of the victim, the individual ascends into 
virtual sainthood, where all is forgiven or forgotten, and saccharine 
tributes flow with the tears.

For readers with no such sensitivities, the slain are just another 
statistic, someone who got what was coming to them by virtue of their 
choices in life.

Did they deserve to die?

If you subscribe to the notion that there is intrinsic value in every 
life, the answer is clearly no.

If you believe we are all responsible for the choices we make in 
life, then the Seans and Bobbies and Jessicas made conscious, ongoing 
deadly decisions.

And they knew it, or ought to have known it.

If there is a message of any value in all of this worthless killing, it's this:

If you are a Sean or a Ryan, bit players in the drug world, your turn 
to die may be next.

If you are a Bobby or a Jessica, involved in crime, making dangerous 
enemies, you should expect to die.

If you run anywhere in these circles, your time is running out.

If you are thinking about getting out - of addiction or the trade - 
do it now, and don't look back.

If you are none of the above, but are attracted by the bling and 
bravado of the drug/crime underworld, you need to know that your new 
career could, and likely will be, short-lived. Literally.

The heartbroken online commenters who eulogize their dead buddies in 
badly spelled web-speak, are right in one respect. All of these young 
people didn't "deserve" to die.

But they did. And so will others.

If the sweet tweets and makeshift memorials are worth it to you, step 
right up, the line starts here.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom