Pubdate: Wed, 28 Nov 2012
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html
Website: http://www.theprovince.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Page: A20

GANGSTERS' LIVES END IN PRISON OR IN DEATH

If young people didn't have the message already, this has been an
instructive week for anyone thinking it might be cool to join a drug
gang.

On Sunday, following what was described as B.C.'s longestrunning
criminal jury trial, five members of the Greeks gang out of Vernon
were convicted of three drug-linked murders. Then on Monday, Sukhveer
Dhak, a "high-ranking member of the Dhak-Duhre crime group," and his
bodyguard, Thomas Mantel, were shot to death in the lobby of a Burnaby
hotel.

As these two incidents demonstrate - as hundreds of previous cases
have done before - life in a drug gang generally either ends in death
or in prison - usually at a very young age. Dhak was 27; Mantel was
30.

Given what they had done in life, including victimizing others, few
will feel sympathy for them. But they leave family and friends who are
grieving.

While it's too late for Dhak and Mantel and probably so for hundreds
of others already living violent lives in B.C. gangs, it's not too
late for young people who may be feeling drawn to that life. If you
know one of them, tell them where that career will end: either prison
or a cold, dark box in the ground.
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