Pubdate: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2010 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Daphne Bramham IT'S TIME TO BITE THE BULLET ON GANG AND DRUG PROBLEMS Progress Has Been Made but the Root Causes Must Be Addressed Al Capone and Chicago nearly 100 years ago, Mafia families with their godfathers -- all provide riveting narratives for movies, books and television. But when real bullets start flying in your own neighbourhood, at a favourite restaurant or the mall where your kids hang out with their friends, gangs don't seem so intriguing. And they certainly don't seem benign. The largest gunfight yet in Metro Vancouver happened last weekend in Mayor Gregor Robertson's leafy neighbourhood. Robertson, who is also the head of the Vancouver police commission, called it shocking, despicable and scary. Ten people were injured when a masked gunman with an assault rifle opened fire on guests leaving an Oak Street restaurant about 2 a.m. Sunday. For a long time, we've known that Metro Vancouver's got a drug problem, which has bred a gang problem. And as much as we'd love to think it's confined to the suburbs, the nightclub district or even the Downtown Eastside, that's never been true. Drugs, prostitution and crime are lucrative. Rich gang leaders live, dine and dance in all the best places, not the worst. They want to be seen. They want to be noticed in their sleek and sexy fast cars. One witness who lives nearby described the Saturday night party guests as "walk[ing] around with egos the size of skyscrapers." But most of all gangsters are risk takers of the highest order who want to be both noticed and feared. They're succeeding because it's hard to feel safe. It was blind luck that no one unconnected to the party was struck. But when might the next stray bullet hit an innocent? What if that bullet hits you? There's no pattern to where these ambushes, gunfights and targeted hits occur. There's no warning when they're about to take place. As frightening as all that uncertainty makes it, there will never be enough police to keep every citizen safe every minute of every day. But we need to remember that as bad as this seems -- 10 injured in a single outburst -- this is not Chicago in the 1920s. It's not South Central Los Angeles. It's not even Abbotsford, which has the distinction of having the most murders per capita, or Regina, Sask., which has the highest level of violent crime. As my Sun colleague Kim Bolan points out in her blog, 2010 has been less violent than 2009. The murder rate across the Lower Mainland is down. There are many senior members of mid-level gangs behind bars awaiting trial. Others have been charged or convicted in the U.S. in the last 12 months. Groups such as the United Nations and Red Scorpions are shadows of their former selves. Of course, statistics are cold comfort against the blaze of fear that must surely follow when you've been awakened suddenly in the middle of the night only to realize that the noise isn't firecrackers but gunshots. Vancouver has a problem with gangs and drugs. But rather than cowering in our homes, we need to act boldly. Solving it will take all the tools, cooperation and intelligence we can muster. We need to address the root causes by figuring out how to keep young men out of gangs and finding a way to end the illicit trade in drugs by asking hard questions about both the supply and demand sides of the drug trade. We need to do this because every neighbourhood should be a safe one. But unfortunately, there's no magic bullet for that. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom