Anti-gang strategy needs work, critics say
Minister defends government’s efforts amid daylight shootings and murders
A rash of brazen daylight shootings and murders shows that B.C.’s anti-gang strategies are failing to stem the violence, critics charged Tuesday.
Over past week in Metro Vancouver there were three targeted murders of gang-linked men, as well as a fatal stabbing and at least two other shootings.
Former solicitor general Kash Heed, a longtime Vancouver police officer, said gang violence is continuing because the main police approach has been to react to it after the fact.
“We are still in very strong reactionary mode to gang violence that is occurring,” he said. “And poli- ticians are not prepared to make those fundamental changes to law enforcement to ensure that prevention becomes the mainstay.”
Heed said that while some money has been put into anti-gang programs that have had success, “the effort is not sustained for a long period of time.”
“And that’s part of the difficulty. So we are not getting in front of this. So what we do is we react to it,” he said.
NDP public safety critic Mike Farnworth said more needs to be done to deal with the gang and gun violence that has plagued the region for years.
“In terms of the violence that is taking place, it’s clear that the government strategy has not worked to date,” Farnworth said.
“Government cannot take its foot off the throat of organized crime.”
But Public Safety Minister Mike Morris defended his government’s efforts to tackle the gang problem.
He said the Guns and Gangs Strategy, which was announced last year and recently expanded, provides money for police, prosecutors and programming to combat gang violence.
Morris said police-provided crime statistics show the strategy is working. For example, he said, Surrey saw a double-digit decline in violent crime last year, in spite of an increase in the number of murders over 2015. “We are seeing the curve coming back down again, which I’m pleased to see,” he said.
When asked if the problem is simply migrating from Surrey to other Metro Vancouver cities, Morris said the situation is improving around B.C.
“The entire province is vulnerable to gang activity,” Morris said. “We are going to see little pockets that are going to emerge from time to time, but the numbers aren’t going up; they’re still going down across the province. The police are doing a pretty good job of containing it.”
Surrey’s latest murder victim, Birinderjeet Justin Bhangu, 29, is a well-known gangster with links to the Red Scorpions and Wolf Pack.
He had a criminal record dating back more than a decade, including driving offences, property crimes and drug trafficking.
Bhangu was shot to death on March 13, just before 2:30 p.m. outside the Comfort Inn Hotel in the 8200-block of 166th Street. An hour later, a 22-year-old man was seriously injured in the 800-block of East 12th Street in North Vancouver in another targeted hit. On March 9, Navdip Sanghera, 32, and Harjit Singh Mann, 49, were shot to death in east Vancouver.
Terry Waterhouse, Surrey’s director of public safety strategies, said the recent violence “tells us this is truly a regional challenge.
“I think it’s important that we think about regional responses,” he said.
Surrey has come up with its own municipal strategy that implements regional and provincial elements, he said, and is also keen to work on region-wide initiatives to deal with gangs.
“We have our local approach and we’re keen for our next step to be linking in with those regional strategies,” Waterhouse said.
“We’re very much in the implementation stage right now … We’re pleased with the early indicators, but the proof will be in the measures as we go down the road.”
But Farnworth said the youth heading into gang life still don’t see enough deterrents. “They feel they can get away with it. When they read that an accused drug dealer gets to walk away free, not once, but twice, that sends the message they can get away with it. They feel they can take the chance, that they’re not going to get caught,” he said.