When will it end?
More shootings rock Metro Vancouver Couple shot in Burnaby Shootings
have Surrey Mounties scrambling Man shot in East Van
By MATT KIELTYKA, 24 HOURS
Those wanting to know when the region's gang violence will come
to an end may not like the answer.
According to several experts, the rampant bloodshed may get worse
before it gets better.
"There could be a lot more violence before police wrestle
this to the ground," said Julian Sher, a renowned journalist
who has published books about the Hells Angels and organized crime.
But unlike the infamous motorcycle gang, Sher said the gangs
operating in the Lower Mainland are more unpredictable.
"The problem is that it's a lot more complicated than people
think. It's not just two warring factions," he said. "It's
a bunch of rival gangs and undisciplined shootings. There are
a lot of loose cannons out there."
Even the police trumpeting the arrest of Barzan Tilli-Choli -
an alleged high-ranking member of the United Nations gang - will
have little impact on the violence, at first.
"There are many players. People in Vancouver have to realize
this is a very complicated battleground," Sher said.
"The beginning of arrests doesn't make the whole house of
cards collapse."
The only way to bring down these organizations, according to
Sher, is with extensive intelligence and infiltration.
"Those are long-term operations, they take years,"
he said. "These are not crimes of passion that are solved
within 24 to 48 hours."
And even when this latest spike of shootings comes to an end,
the gang issue will be far from over.
"There is no end," said Robert Gordon, the head of
Simon Fraser University's criminology department. "Every
time these die down, there will be more because we don't have
a coherent policy on the illegal drug trade."
Gordon pointed to the rash of gangland shootings in 2007 that
culminated in the October killing of six people at a Whalley condo.
"[Gang activity] closed down due to police officers and
over-surveillance, but that only lasted a few months," he
said. "You can shut down the operations but the market is
there. So people try to get at that market and they start shooting
each other over it."
The problem is, according to Gordon, that that U.S. war on drugs
makes it difficult for Canada to set its own policies that stray
too far.
Until that changes, police need to focus on disrupting the numerous
groups doing business in the streets of Greater Vancouver.
