Pubdate: Sat, 16 Apr 2016
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Kim Bolan
Page: A13

PROVINCE ADDING $23 MILLION TO TACKLE GUN AND GANG VIOLENCE

Announcement Made in Surrey After 32 Gang Shootings This Year

The B.C. government will spend $23 million more for police, 
prosecutors and programs to combat the province's gangs and gun problem.

Premier Christy Clark announced the new funding in Surrey Friday, 
where there have been 32 shootings so far this year, primarily over 
drug-trade turf wars.

But she stressed that B.C.'s gang problem is not isolated to one 
community because gangsters are like "cockroaches" who move 
frequently to ply their illegal trade.

"The frequency and public nature of recent gang shootings is 
unacceptable and demands this additional, strategic deployment of 
resources. People deserve to feel safe no matter where they live in 
B.C.," Clark said. "This needs to be a province-wide initiative."

The money is going to several programs:

- - B.C.'s anti-gang police unit, the Combined Forces Special 
Enforcement Unit, will create two new 10-person teams "to support 
police in communities around the province," Clark said.

- - Some money will go to an existing program that targets the most 
violent gangsters and their networks, no matter where they are in B.C.

- - Funds, which will be "flowing immediately," will pay for dedicated 
prosecutors to push forward cases against priority criminals, Clark said.

- - She said there would also be money for increasing the capacity for 
electronic monitoring of high-risk offenders when they're on bail or 
serving sentences in the community.

- - Crime Stoppers will get $450,000 in cash to offer rewards to those 
with information about gangs or guns.

- - Some of the money will be put into CFSEU's successful End Gang Life 
program, where officers do presentations to schools and community 
groups around B.C.

- - Funding will also be used to establish an Office of Crime Reduction 
and Gang Outreach, which will help gangsters wanting to change their lives.

- - The province is also creating an illegal firearms task force to 
study and strengthen provincial and federal programs related to 
illegal firearms.

Clark stood with her Public Safety Minister Mike Morris and senior 
RCMP and municipal police officers outside the RCMP's B.C. 
headquarters in Surrey. Just a week earlier, it was a similar scene 
with Morris addressing the media in Surrey about the danger of gangs, 
but without committing any new funding.

On Friday, Morris said "enhancing public safety in the face of recent 
shootings means pulling out all the stops."

"We are strengthening our strategies and our front-line capacity to 
get guns off the street, putting gangsters behind bars and increasing 
our efforts to ensure young people understand gang life is a dead 
end," he said. "Our multi-faceted approach is designed to effectively 
and quickly counter both the gunplay and its roots."

RCMP Deputy Commissioner Craig Callens, the top RCMP officer in B.C., 
welcomed the news.

"We appreciate the additional funding and support being provided to 
the RCMP, CFSEU-BC and our law enforcement partners, who are all 
working together to target, investigate, prosecute and disrupt those 
individuals and groups that pose the highest risk to public safety in 
our province," Callens said. "As part of B.C.'s guns and gangs 
strategy, we will be heightening our enforcement activities, 
increasing the level of information and intelligence-sharing and 
enhancing our prevention and community engagement programs."

B.C. will look at whether laws need to be changed to better deal with 
gangsters and gun crimes, Clark said.

"Gangs evolve. Criminals come up with new ways to commit crimes," she said.

Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner attended the announcement and said 
afterwards she hoped the extra money would make a difference.

"I really like the fact that they are adding prosecutors," she said.

Surrey-Newton NDP MLA Harry Bains said he was pleased the government 
was finally investing in resources to fight the violence.

"Overall, I am happy because after three years of ignoring this 
problem, three years of pressure from us the opposition and the 
community, they are reacting," said Bains.

But he said there wasn't enough focus in the announcement on 
prevention programs.

"There are parents out there who are looking for support when they 
see their child is having some problems and may be moving in the 
wrong direction and they are not getting the support right now," he said.

Even the Surrey school board's successful WRAP program for at risk 
students has a waiting list, Bains said.

"These children should not be waiting when they need help today, they 
should receive help today."

Bains said some of the money should be going to the Integrated 
Homicide Investigation Team given that dozens of gang murders in 
recent years remain unsolved.

"Those who kill, they walk around knowing no one is even going to 
catch them, arrest them, never mind putting them in jail. So there is 
no deterrence there."

His own nephew Arun Bains was gunned down in Surrey a year ago and 
the murder remains unsolved.

"Individual families deserve support from government so they can put 
an end to their suffering or at least they can move forward and know 
the person who committed that crime is behind bars and they are not 
going to harm anyone else," Bains said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom