Prince George puts its best face forward to no avail

 Front steps of the Prince George Courthouse, a source of stability in an otherwise rancorous environment

Prince George, B.C., has been busy in the crime news these past few weeks. During the last days of September two premiers (Gordon Campbell, B.C.; Ed Stelmach, Alberta) and their cabinets (10 from Alberta and 11 from B.C.) came to the city of 70,000-plus in the central interior of B.C.. That's one. The Highway of Tears with dozens of pins on the map indicating missing and murdered women, is several other stories.

A number of joint measures on crime came high on the agenda as the governments made a series of announcements. It was a positive show from the two governments and well-received according to the daily press. Then, scant days later came a double homicide in the first week of October (the 2nd and 3rd murders of the year for the city).

Victims Garett John McComb, 23, and Brittany Joan Giese, 19, were residents of Prince George. The city of Prince George had been witnessing some spectacular outbursts of violence from gangs during the months before police were called to the scene of these last two homicides.

Reports did not specify whether the two murder victims were living in the rental house on Webber Crescent, which is part of a quiet suburban area in the far west end of the city.

Police said they were called to investigate 'something amiss' at the high-priced rental property, and that turned out to be double homicide. The house was familiar to police, they said, from a raid days earlier resulting in arrests and confiscation of a cache of firearms.

Police initially refrained from discussing motive then said the murders were probably targeted and gang related.

RCMP spokesman Const. Gary Godwin told media, "Both of these individuals are known to police."

And it so happens a vehicle in the driveway of the murder scene, 2347 Webber Crescent, was a shot up Lincoln Navigator which had been riddled with bullets in a gunfight earlier this summer in the city's rough and tumble downtown.

"It appears to be a targeted double homicide. Just the scene of the crime indicates it is a murder," Godwin said. "We're familiar with this residence." The murders and shootings in the city this year have been gang-related, said Godwin.

The murders came as a bizarre aftermath to the premiers' visit which endeavored to highlight crime on the bilateral relationship between the governments, calling especially for safer communities. (It was the sixth such annual meeting between the B.C. and Alberta provincial cabinets.)

The joint cabinet meeting focused on creating safer communities. They announced the two governments will be working on a joint missing persons' database and intend to share best practices on aiding victims of crime.

"We want to make it as difficult as possible for criminals to operate in our provinces," Stelmach said. The provinces agreed to co-operate on community safety initiatives and efforts to stem in particular the rising tide of gang crime.

The provinces also intend to get tough on repeat offenders, and will launch a pilot project to expedite warrants of serious offenders that call for return to the issuing jurisdiction.

"Our two provinces are partnering to crack down on crime and focus on making communities in B.C. and Alberta safe. By working in co-operation, we can be more effective at tracking offenders and supporting victims of crime," said British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell.

The two premiers expressed concerns about the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. They said they want to work with the federal government and other provinces in a few specific areas, including the range of sentencing for all criminal offences including youth sentencing; the principles of sentencing; review of bail provisions; review of procedures for preliminary hearings; and quick action to fill legislative gaps created by the courts that hinder police investigations and prosecutions.

Premier Stelmach stressed the importance of Alberta and B.C. joining forces to make the justice system work in order for citizens to feel safe. "Crime knows no borders. Our joint efforts today will focus on making it as difficult and uncomfortable as possible for criminals to operate in our provinces while at the same time boosting our efforts to aid victims of crime."

After the premiers and their cabinets had departed, the city turned to task at hand. Reports from the city this year contained explicit details of gang warfare as Crime Watch Canada reported last month.

Police were dealing with drive-by shootings, kidnappings for drug debt, and "a peculiar localized propensity for snipping fingers off crack users who fall into debt (fingers are lost for as little as $200 worth of crack cocaine)."

The gangs participating in Prince George included the Independent Posse (First Nations), the Independent Soldiers (Indo-Canadians), the Renegades (a splinter group of the Hell's Angels), and others.

Thus it was that in the days preceding the double homicide in the city police were implementing a community-oriented strategy to intervene on gang developments. In fact, the RCMP organized an information session in the first week of October aimed at educating the Sikh community about criminal gangs.

A task force hits the Vancouver streets to tackle gangs

 Photo credit VPD  Chief Constable Jim Chu Vancouver Police Department

Vancouver is apparently undergoing a gang war and in Metro Vancouver police have decided to unify efforts like never before to stop gang violence, under a task force led by the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), municipal departments, and the RCMP. In fact the VPD had already created a special unit as the gangs went out of control at the beginning of summer '07, with gun battles and massacres randomly widespread over drug-dealing territories. The task force was formed even though police publicly dismiss suggestions of an out-and-out gang war.

The announcement came after several others came one on top of the other in the past few months with formations of units to deal with gangs. Vancouver and the RCMP had an existing joint task force prior to the onslaught of deadly events running through the late autumn.

Police chief Jim Chu of VPD announced the special task force of 60 officers from various agencies to form the largest street-level gang violence task force in the history British Columbia.

Vancouver's Violence Suppression Team (VST) is an initiative counter to increasingly brazen 'targeted hits' in the streets, in restaurants, and at homes, practically anywhere, and occurring at unpredictable hours of day or night, around the Lower Mainland, including Vancouver, Richmond, and Surrey and elsewhere. In fact estimates are that over 100 gang slayings have been counted in recent years.

The Metro Vancouver VST joint police task force wasted no time either, and by Nov 22 07 they conducted a widespread search involving 300 people and netting a number of guns, this action from the VST, "in the first week after it hit the streets," said a police bulletin. The VST officers went on street patrol every night in bars and clubs, and also conducted roadside checks mainly in the downtown Vancouver area.

Head of the team Insp. Dean Robinson of VPD, said, "We are very happy with the results," of November successes, "Known gang members we're interested in and their associates, though, aren't as available as they normally are — that was very expected. That was the point of this program." In other words, the heads of the hoods are ducking for awhile.

After public concerns skyrocketed about innocent bystanders falling in the crossfire in recent attacks the VST was designed to act preventatively to intervene and create a presence that pre-empts situations. There have been over a dozen deaths in the Metro Vancouver area from gang related violence in four months.

Many Canadians recall an  initial one of the attacks of heady violence that occurred in the summer, a paroxysm of shock one early morning with a shooting at a gathering that left two people dead, six injured, one critically, and dozens of spent shells strewn on a Richmond restaurant floor. It made a nationwide media splash, and police called it the worst shooting incident the west coast city has ever seen and call it a 'targeted' attack.

All the victims were Asian and two shooters remain unknown. The victims were known to police, and at the time the VPD called on governments to apply more resources to deal with gang-related violence. Since then the aforementioned professionals have pooled intelligence about gangsters to better identify levels of threat to public safety. He said the focus is on known gangsters.

VPD chief Chu said, "They will stop and search known gang vehicles, form quick response teams and respond to incidents of gang violence, and they will enter the bars and haunts of known gang members in of search of weapons and gangsters. You will see them everywhere in our community where we perceive there's a threat of gang violence."

The VST is deploying groups of six officers to conduct patrols wearing identifiable VST jackets. The overall program that deploys 60 officers is also focused on community intervention and awareness through outreach programs for young people who lack role models and mentors. Chu said, "Community groups, police, the government and the justice system have to work together."

The police chief said, "Young gang members, their parents and friends need to know that police will help them exit the gang lifestyle." Be that as it may, the law enforcement tactics will depend on the intelligence-driven team targeting gangstas at nightclubs, gyms, restaurants, and their homes. "This is all about guns and violence and drugs," Insp. Robinson said.

Violence suppression is a product of careful design, according to RCMP Supt. John Robin, the head of region's existing gang-violence task force, who also participates in the new wider regional approach. On the other hand, the Public Safety Minister John Les was unwilling to emphasize any changes to police approaches in the battles over big money in illegal drugs.

One thing remains the same for gangs, that gunfire might erupt anywhere, anytime, at church, in cars, in school hallways, in houses, in restaurants, at apartments, (six shot to Surrey apartment). Gangs range through all kinds of groups, and Vancouver's problems differ from problems in Toronto or Montreal, Winnipeg or Edmonton. In Toronto, for example, where so many youth were shot up in attacks this summer, black gangs operate from three major camps: the Bloods and the Crips operating side by side with so-called Jamaican posses.

The gangland activity centres around the infamous Jane and Finch. Regardless of the street corners named off in Canada, the discussion always comes down to people, and gangs are unusual formations based on testosterone and misbehaviour, some of whom emerged from poverty or a lack of education, others are university-educated and from affluent families. Dangerous events are indicative of cultural conflict, but also differences in status regarding money, and social alienation.

Gangs form around youth seeking a sense of belonging especially as they begin to hit mid-teens. In the Vancouver area gangs include the Independent Soldiers - primarily Indo-Canadian members; UN Gang - mostly Indo-Canadians, Asians, Persians. In Montreal there are Haitian and Jamaican gangs.

In Calgary and Edmonton: Self-named Asian gangs FOB (Fresh off the Boat, although many members born in Canada); FK (Fresh off the Boat Killers); Crazy Dragons, Crazy Dragon Killers. Winnipeg: African street gang Mad Cowz; aboriginal gang Indian Posse.

Representatives from the Solicitor General's office attribute many gang-related issues to B.C.'s gigantic and lucrative marijuana trade. This they say is the root of escalating violence.

According to expert criminology sources south of the border, an ideal task force investigation puts the entire gang under observation, from the street level thugs and dealers up through the crew leaders and ultimately the gang's command structure.

Whereas some citizen groups have been calling for an expanded regional police force, B.C. Solicitor General John Les said, "The province has a police team that's strong enough to fight gang crime in the Vancouver area. He rejected calls from others like the police community to form a metro police unit dedicated to fighting gangland crime.

The 60 officer task force is just the beginning, however, and the task force is intending to attack the problem, "with three broad strategies," said VPD Police Chief Chu. Strategies include pooling expertise from police departments all over the Lower Mainland, to be a highly visible presence, and to target gang suspects until they are arrested.

It is a fact that police chiefs and many levels of officers from suburban municipalities stood together before the press to laud the launching of the VST, which enjoys widespread support from law and order groups and organizations in society.

Jane and Finch being wrested from the gangs

A lot of people in civil societies are wondering if societies can run without gun control. By gosh, even sheriffs in the old west knew the importance of gun control when they put up signs restricting firearms in Dodge City. And they were only dealing with a few rampantly racist alcoholics out to battle ‘hostiles,’ (and a couple of peyote slammed Mexicans and a one or two pot smoking kung fu masters).  Guns and methamphetamine or guns and crack cocaine, whew, did not exist.

It has long been an area of discontent, the neighbourhood called ‘Jane and Finch.’  This neighbourhood is the urban sprawl around the corners of those two street names, an area which lies west of downtown Toronto but north and west of Bay Street, U of T, and Queen’s Park. While Toronto is Canada’s slice of heaven made from money, brains, and power, the nearby Jane and Finch is just another neighbourhood like any other in the land.

It is this invisibility that makes poverty disappear for everybody but those who live in Jane and Finch. Even still, the shooting in CW Jeffery Collegiate Institute stunned the area. Apparently Jordan Manners, a studious fellow with no gang affiliations, argued outside his school shortly before he was found laying fatally shot in the hallway.

It was during the second week of May, and the mayor of Toronto, David Miller decried the flow of deadly firearms over the border from the USA. It turned out two killers remained free for several days during the initial investigation, and, in fact, no arrests had been made nor weapons found before it happened again.

While policing and security were still atop the list of hot topics and everybody intended to show increased vigilance and security in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood, well, another street shooting erupted, a la the Gaza Strip. It was less than a week after Jordan's funeral, and resulted in more death.

It was Toronto's 26^th, and 27th murders in 2007 and 13^th and 14th with guns. Fact: Canada has seven million registered guns, including 1.2m handguns, closely restricted to police, gun clubs/collectors.

To begin with, the killers (turned out there were two) of Jordan Manners remained on the loose for several days after the shooting, until the youngish perpetrators turned themselves in. For several weeks this spring, therefore, and especially approaching summer, Toronto Mayor David Miller had to play the role of law and order Sheriff Matt Dillon on a mission to clean up Dodge City.

Right. Who wants to be run out of town by a bunch of tumbleweeds blowing in from Jane and Finch? One day, in mid June, the metropolitan police force of Toronto and cooperative police detachments of the Ontario Provincial Police made 70 arrests in several cities in southern Ontario. The drama included an early morning raid in Toronto, to take out the so-called Driftwood Cripps, a notorious Jane and Finch street gang.

The metro police said the arrests are part of larger long-term strategy, and, a day later, the number of charges rose to over 700 against 95 people. Police showed what they had seized in a large cache of handguns, assault rifles, and other guns, and a million dollars in cocaine and marijuana and other drugs.

The metro police in Toronto called this “a brazen gang that needed to be destroyed,” and for now the Jane and Finch Driftwood Cripps are gone and maybe no more.  It was the result of an 11-month operation and occurred separate from recent concerns about Toronto's streets gun violence.

Police in Canada are hoping new laws will deal a blow in their favour on gun-related issues. For example, the federal government’s crime legislation received Royal Assent, May 31 07, and the Minister of Justice, Hon. Rob Nicholson, discussed the legislation passed at the end of the parliamentary week.

“It deals out a Mandatory Prison Sentence of minimum five years for first-time offenders using firearms in the commission of a crime, and seven years minimum for second offense.” The government legislation on minimum sentences received Royal Assent, and that puts it over to the senate for approval.

Nicholson complained about watered down justice initiatives from his ministry because of the opposition in a minority parliament but “will continue” to work to strengthen sentencing laws and victims’ rights. The law designates mandatory sentences in prison for gun crimes, specifically, 5 years for first offense, and 7 years minimum for the second offense.

The ten year minimum for a third offense (presumably ‘dangerous offender’ territory) failed to escape the committee, said the minister.  Ironically for parents of 15 year old Jordan Manners, a funeral came on the same day as legislation received Royal Assent. The minister said he believes Canadians want new justice laws in place for summer while the senate examines the legislation.

He said, the law affects serious crimes to inhibit those who commit serious damage or killings in society. “Liberals watered down the legislation quite a bit,” but the Conservatives intend to support it and were satisfied at Royal Assent.

Canadians have watched the minster work diligently on several legislative initiatives against crime in a minority parliament. Last November Nicholson introduced ‘dangerous offender’ legislation with the concept of ‘reverse onus’ in criminal proceedings.

In fact, Prime Minister Harper introduced the dangerous offender legislation, and explained, the onus falls upon a person found guilty of a third violent crime to convince a judge not to designate them a dangerous offender; a convict would be considered a dangerous offender after the third offense (putting the onus on criminals to prove why they aren't dangerous offenders).

The Prime Minister said, "If the person fails to prove they are not a dangerous offender, he or she will be put in prison for an indeterminate period of time and won't be eligible for parole for seven years."

Returning to the cusp of summer ‘07, Premier Jean Charest tabled legislation in the Quebec National Assembly, Jun 15 07, to tighten restrictions on gun purchases, part of the new law involves funneling all applications to purchase guns through police detachments. “One government has taken the responsibility to step forward,” said Anastasia DaSousa’s father.

They are calling it Anastasia's Law in Quebec, in honour of the woman who died under a hail of bullets at Dawson College in downtown Montreal. Earlier in the spring the government announced victims of crime compensation from the Canadian federal government, and Hon. Stockwell Day announced a Victims of Crime Ombudsman. This was good news for crime victims in Canada, at least it was a start, said some advocates. Questions about funding may arise, said critics.