Pubdate: Thu, 13 Sep 2012
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 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: Ian Mulgrew
Page: A4

BLOODSHED CRIES OUT FOR CREATIVE SOLUTIONS

With recent brazen murders in Toronto and Port Moody, the country is
again confronting the reality that our policing-focused, antigang
policies aren't working.

The community dynamics in metropolitan Toronto and those in Metro
Vancouver are different, but the need for concerted public action and
a betterfinanced, multi-pronged approach is obvious.

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair last month called on governments,
businesses and community leaders to recognize we require a new
solution to this testosterone-fuelled, drugdriven
culture.

He admitted more busts and harsher sentences aren't enough - there are
too many replacement wannabes waiting in the wings.

And by the time many of these kids are 14 or 15, it's too
late.

Port Moody- Coquitlam NDP MLA Joe Trasolini, a former longtime mayor
of Port Moody, echoed Blair at the public forum Monday night in that
most recently bloodied city.

B. C. is spending $ 66 million on anti-gang programs, but most of
that is on cops and beefed-up enforcement.

We need to improve the other parts of the equation because thousands
of young people continue to become gangbangers.

Not to mention, the number of gang- affiliated federal prisoners has
increased 32 per cent, to more than 2,300, in the last five years - be
it belonging to a street ( 43 per cent), aboriginal ( 24), motorcycle
( 16), Asian ( 3) or old-time group like the Mafia ( 7). On the
Prairies, that figure climbs to 40 per cent. Provincial jails aren't
much different.

The federal Conservatives argue it's because gang convictions are up
due to the mandatory minimum sentences and tougher laws they've championed.

Others more persuasively point out it's because overcrowding and other
prison conditions make membership a matter of self-
preservation.

North American jurisdictions have been dealing with gangs for decades
and the social science is pretty solid.

If you want to stop young people taking the wrong road, you've got to
improve lower class neighbourhoods, increase social programs, provide
better role models and, most importantly, give them other economic
opportunities.

Traditionally, gang recruits come from families mired in poverty and
riven by domestic violence, alcoholism and abuse. That's not to say
the middleclass doesn't spawn its own little savages, like the Bacon
brothers.

In a world where celebrity offers a crown only a click away, the rise
and ubiquity of social media and YouTube have made bling and infamy as
desirable to young people from every class as true, hard-to- achieve
accomplishment.

And this isn't a case where we have lost a generation - we've lost
many. Gangs and murderous public violence are not a new phenomenon:
Hollywood did Boys Town in 1938.

Aside from improving our social programs and youth outreach, we also
must reform our drug laws.

Considering what smart people around the globe have said for half a
century, I say legalize pot.

We have created a massive underground global economy that generates
billions for organized crime - drug profits are the vital lifeblood of
gangs, the primary source of the disposable income supporting their
lifestyle of conspicuous consumption.

As well, the present prohibition on marijuana and the criminal regime
for processing addicted offenders is a humongous drain on legal
resources that could be much better channelled.

In B. C., we've moved drunk driving cases that don't involve severe
injury or death out of the courts. Why not do the same with pot and
non-violent drug-possession cases? Why not treat them quickly and
cheaply through a similar administrative process and direct the
considerable savings into treatment, education and housing?

The change on our roads is said to have saved lives and to have cut
the provincial trial wait-list to a level not seen since the early
1990s.

Drug-law reform could save even more lives and eliminate the court
backlog.

The recent spate of killings should trigger a realistic public
discussion, one that considers radical solutions and broadens our
approach to dealing with gangs.

Yes, we need effective law enforcement.

We also need more programs to direct and keep kids on the right path,
and we need better strategies for bringing them back into the light
once they have ventured beyond the pale.
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MAP posted-by: Matt