THE WAR ON GANGS
Youth still lured into deadly lifestyle, despite lessons of the Surrey Six trial.
Seven years after B.C.’s worst gangland massacre, teens and young adults are still lured into the deadly gangster lifestyle, police experts say.
And while law enforcement agencies are having more success getting gangsters charged and convicted, many agree more needs to be done to steer kids away from the perilous gang path.
Former solicitor general Kash Heed credits investigators for the progress made in gang cases like Surrey Six, where two Red Scorpions were convicted Thursday of executing six men on Oct. 19, 2007.
Two of those slain were innocent bystanders caught in the slaughter on the 15th floor of Surrey’s Balmoral Tower as they went about their daily business.
“We have had some success in these gang cases and you have to credit law enforcement for it,” said Heed, a Vancouver Police officer for 30 years.
“However, where we are failing once again is preventing our youth from getting involved in this type of behaviour and that’s why we have these ongoing gang issues in the province of British Columbia.”
Heed thinks B.C. should consider following Los Angeles’s lead and create an anti-gang czar to co-ordinate a strategy to deal with the province’s gang problem.
“There are so many other components that have to come together to prevent kids from getting involved in this activity. While law enforcement is doing their job, there are so many missing stakeholders that are not doing their job. That’s a concern for me.”
If B.C. were to hire an antigang strategist, that person would have to be completely independent, Heed suggested — something like B.C. Representative for Children and Youth Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond.
After L.A. opened its Gang Reduction and Youth Development office in 2007, gang crime plummeted to near-historic lows.
Doug Spencer, who does antigang presentations for the Odd Squad Society, thinks there should be some provincewide curriculum about gangs and drugs for B.C. students.
“You are not going to die from not knowing what 2 plus 2 is, but you could end up dying if you make that bad choice,” said Spencer, a former VPD gang cop who is now with Transit police.
“You’ve got to set your priorities. You’ve got kids getting gunned down right and left.”
Odd Squad, made up of retired and current cops, does its powerful presentations in schools and for community groups whenever it’s asked.
But Spencer said there are still young guys who buy into the glamorous gangster image perpetuated in popular culture and by social media.
B.C.’s anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit has also developed a campaign called End Gang Life that it has been taking to schools and community forums.
CFSEU Chief Officer Kevin Hackett said Friday the agency plans to expand the successful initiative.
“We have always tried to not only be the enforcement arm, but to continue to make strides in becoming the educational arm too and to show the consequences associated to the behaviour and the lifestyle,” he said.
“We are passionate about it. We also get touched by the consequences of the violence because we attend the scenes and deal with the next of kin.”
Hackett said anti-gang policing in B.C. has evolved over the last decade.
“We are at a place now where we have never been at in the past. We are well-situated by being co-ordinated, by being collaborative with our other policing partners … to take out the worst of the worst and those that cause the biggest risk to society.
“We are doing that more effectively and more efficiently by working together.”
RCMP Supt. John Robin, who heads the Surrey Six investigation, told The Vancouver Sun “gang violence will continue to be a law enforcement priority in British Columbia for the foreseeable future.”
He added: “Although I have been directly involved in gang investigations for the past 14 years, I still find it difficult to accept there are those who believe that somehow involvement in gang life won’t end with tragic consequences.”
Few communities were as affected by the Lower Mainland gang war as Abbotsford, which was declared the murder capital of Canada in 2008 and 2009.
The Fraser Valley city was home to some of the most violent Red Scorpion members and their rivals in the United Nations gang.
The Abbotsford Police Department implemented a successful community campaign that it took to school kids across the city. The violence has subsided dramatically.
“I think in Abbotsford we have seen a really profound turnaround. We understand more in our community about what’s going on,” Det. Andrew Wooding said Friday.
“But the problems are still really big and really difficult to deal with when you’re talking about young men deciding whether they want to get into easy money or not.”
Wooding, who worked on a CFSEU investigation that resulted in convictions of seven UN gangsters for conspiracy to kill their Red Scorpion enemies, said the public now is much more invested in tackling gangs in B.C.
“I think we’ve come a long way. I think the public understanding the issue of the subculture that has been secret for many, many years is really important because I think that’s what’s going to change our ability to deal with the problems once they arise,” Wooding said.
A series of successful gang prosecutions, including the UN case and the Surrey Six murder convictions this week, have impacted some of those involved in gangs and organized crime, he said.
“I think some of the quiet we’ve seen is because the police and the justice system and the media exposing all these things have really put pressure on these guys. None of them want to get caught. None of them want to go to jail for 10 or 15 or 25 or life.”
But he said as long as there is easy money to be made, some will always be willing to take the risk.
The allure of gang culture is still there and is still real, Wooding said. “I know that these groups are not going away.
“The violence has subsided but it is cyclical in nature and it’s only a matter of time before some other group decides it’s OK now to start machine-gunning people down.”