Gang Violence...

haffajappahaffajappa British Columbia Posts: 5,955
edited February 2009 in All Encompassing Trip
I live in East Side LA.


or... wait, no i don't...
I live in a small-to-average size city East of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley. Not only that, I live in the Northern part of this city, in an area by the Fraser River that USED to be classified as the quiet life. Apart from it being a borderline suburbia, it was pretty much encompassed by either countryside farms or forest, with the river bordering one side and the freeway bordering the other.
That was until little by little you'd drive by development proposals on what-used-to-be large acreage and within months townhouse after townhouse complex started to spring up and the population has grown. With population comes more development, with more development more population, and with more population more trouble. I used to just get frustrated over the amount of nature being destroyed in the name of a bunch of people who move into this area with no appreciation for what it used to be... my friends and i have lived here all our lives and we've all noticed the change...

But now its more than just the general development of what used to be such a nice and pretty and quiet area... the recent gang violence has moved into my area with a driveby shooting on Sunday at one of our local stores... it was done with an automatic so it wasn't contained at all... luckily no one else got injured (only parked cars got bullet holes). To paint the picture about how close to home it is hitting, I walk my dog to that store 3 or 4 times a week, tie her up outside and go to get groceries... I leave her in the front (where the shots were fired). My mom arrived there 5 minutes after it happened with the intention to do that and get groceries...

Think i'm over-reacting? I just recieved texts that 2 more shootings in my area happened since last night...
So far there have been 6 shootings (4 fatal) in the last WEEK alone in the lower mainland (the area of BC below the north shore mountains and between the coast and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains).

That doesn't include one of the worst murders in present BC history a year ago when 6 people were killed in an apartment near my university... 2 of them were innocent bystanders and got tortured and killed.

10 years ago we apparently had 10 gangs, now we have over 100.

So just add this to BC's homeless and drug problem and continue to ignore it all in the wake of the olympics... why deal with real issues when we've got olympic villages to fund?

Our government must go seeking irony... we'll put people on the streets and then scramble to find a place to hide them when the world comes, and now we'll probably spend more on olympic security for 2 weeks than we will on the violence problem in BC that has been going on for over a year and a half...


Sorry for the rant.
live pearl jam is best pearl jam
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • its bad but it could be worse. you could live in Mexico or something

    "Organized-crime slayings in Mexico more than doubled in the first 11 months of 2008, as powerful drug cartels fought increasingly bloody battles for control of trafficking routes and territory, the government said Monday.

    Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said gangland killings rose by 117 percent to 5,376 as compared to the first 11 months of 2007, when there were 2,477 slayings. The government had previously not provided a total number for such killings and the figure came days after Washington began releasing funds from an anti-drug aid package.

    Underscoring the brutality of the conflict, authorities on Monday reported that at least 18 people were killed in a single day in southern Guerrero state and two human heads were left in buckets outside the governor's office."
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  • In fact doing a little digging on yearly per capita murder rates and I can't even find Canada on a list

    http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_m ... per-capita

    Its basically an eye for eye mentality I guess, they are all retaliatory killings. It will stop soon.

    dont get me wrong im not trying to underscore the significance but it could be far, far worse.
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  • Also not to derail this thread but.....

    You are way off base with your homeless assessment as well, our new mayor is doing loads for the homeless and DTES, they have bought like 5 of the run down hotels and are making them low income housing for people as long as they go to NA or AA meetings, you can rent a room for 50 bucks a week in one of these places now, they have also opened a whole crapload of new shelters for the homeless this winter so they don't freeze to death. They have a 13 person team driving around picking them up off the streets and driving them to the closest shelters, fuck they even have kennels for the people with animals. I fail to see how this is just shoving them under the rug.

    http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1053117
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  • haffajappahaffajappa British Columbia Posts: 5,955
    yah, you can always compare it to something worse... but its frustrating because i have lived here all my life.

    you can make fun of me for living in the sticks as much as you want, but there is usually a reason people live out in the country, and that's to not have to live in the same way that an urban center does.

    and the homeless/drug thing was from the bad mood I was in today with Gordon Campbell, not Robertson... there IS a homeless problem not only in Vancouver ...shipping homeless people out my way isn't what I call a great solution.


    you just have a love affair with the olympics, haha.
    live pearl jam is best pearl jam
  • South of SeattleSouth of Seattle West Seattle Posts: 10,724
    Surrey? :mrgreen:
    NERDS!
  • vedderfan10vedderfan10 Posts: 2,497
    Well, it's not fair to compare the lower Mainland to Mexico. We don't live in Mexico. It doesn't matter what happens in Mexico...We live in what used to be a relatively safe city, that is no longer that....Eastern european gangs were a huge problem in the early 90's and there was a major shooting on East Broadway where the Trev Deeley used to be. Middle of the afternoon, a hail of bullets across Broadway, bullets into the strip mall across the road, and one person dead. Later that same year there was some other gang violence during rush hour on Kingsway that left two people dead -- shooting at each other from opposite sides of the road, across traffic...But there'd be maybe 3 shootings every year at the most....Anyway, the problem is obviously out of control now...

    And people who are on income assistance in the Downtown East Side have their rent paid by the government. Explain to me why the government allowed rents to get out of control... I used to work down there it was obscene what the governments (NDP included) let the landlords get away with...Also, many mentally ill people do not want to be living in a room with restrictions and conditions - paranoid people just don't like that sort of thing. And some people just want to be homeless...The homeless problem in Vancouver/Victoria just won't ever go away...we live in a mild climate with good drugs. If you're going to be homeless, why live on the street in a very cold or very warm climate...

    Yeah, I worked down there for three years...and only now (ten years later) Victoria is experiencing that type of homelessness...and drugs...and you know the guns are next...At least Victoria is still relatively small, Vancouver just got too big too fast...

    Developers move into outlying areas and just build build build...but no infrastruction improvements or funds from the developers are collected (at least not anywhere near the $$ required)...DTE, I am in complete agreement with you on that issue...
    be philanthropic
  • vedderfan10vedderfan10 Posts: 2,497
    Surrey? :mrgreen:
    Scary...I HATE visiting the rellies in Surrey... Give me Burnside in Portland any day!! (or middle of the night for that matter -- or downtown Seattle at 3am...MUCH safer)....Unless you're skulking around in your EV trucker had carrying PBR!! ;)
    be philanthropic
  • South of SeattleSouth of Seattle West Seattle Posts: 10,724
    Surrey? :mrgreen:
    Scary...I HATE visiting the rellies in Surrey... Give me Burnside in Portland any day!! (or middle of the night for that matter -- or downtown Seattle at 3am...MUCH safer)....Unless you're skulking around in your EV trucker had carrying PBR!! ;)

    When I was in Whistler, our front desk guy said to watch out from people from Surrey. They like to start fights on the weekends ;)
    NERDS!
  • Surrey? :mrgreen:
    Scary...I HATE visiting the rellies in Surrey... Give me Burnside in Portland any day!! (or middle of the night for that matter -- or downtown Seattle at 3am...MUCH safer)....Unless you're skulking around in your EV trucker had carrying PBR!! ;)


    Surrey is far safer then downtown Seattle at 3 am. I had a gun pulled on me for no reason in downtown Seattle at 2:30 am after going to a show at studio 7
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  • haffajappahaffajappa British Columbia Posts: 5,955
    I go to school in surrey and it is right by the major bus-loop... the campus is nice but ugh i hate being out there when i'm there late.
    plus my bf lives in surrey and so i hafto bus through on the bad route since its in between where i go to school and where he lives...


    hey vf, i heard that Vic PD are trying to organize stuff because theyt hink that the gang violence is gonna start up on the island soon too
    live pearl jam is best pearl jam
  • haffajappahaffajappa British Columbia Posts: 5,955
    oh yah and that incident that my friends texted me about was a car chase involving 2 gangs shooting at each other... happened on one of my walking routes.


    everyone around here is getting paranoid which is annoying as well...
    ahhh!!
    live pearl jam is best pearl jam
  • Hitch-HikerHitch-Hiker Posts: 2,873
    With any luck they'll all kill each other before any harm can be done to innocent people. I realise that's a horribly callous thing to say, but it's true. Gang violence had increased a lot in Dublin recently too. I think too innocent bystanders have been killed, which is far more than I consider to be acceptable. These people seem to live to inflict misery on others and we'd be all better off without them.
    Stay safe Steph.
    I'll Ride The Wave Where It Takes Me
  • oh yah and that incident that my friends texted me about was a car chase involving 2 gangs shooting at each other... happened on one of my walking routes.


    everyone around here is getting paranoid which is annoying as well...
    ahhh!!


    I guess they have a right to be, its kind of crazy for Langley. My Dad even mentioned it on the phone today.
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  • Thoughts_ArriveThoughts_Arrive Melbourne, Australia Posts: 15,165
    Glorified G's!!!
    Adelaide 17/11/2009, Melbourne 20/11/2009, Sydney 22/11/2009, Melbourne (Big Day Out Festival) 24/01/2014
  • haffajappahaffajappa British Columbia Posts: 5,955
    oh yah and that incident that my friends texted me about was a car chase involving 2 gangs shooting at each other... happened on one of my walking routes.


    everyone around here is getting paranoid which is annoying as well...
    ahhh!!


    I guess they have a right to be, its kind of crazy for Langley. My Dad even mentioned it on the phone today.
    i hear there was one in coquitlam too yesterday...
    i sent them out your way cos we needed a break.
    live pearl jam is best pearl jam
  • vedderfan10vedderfan10 Posts: 2,497
    Kelowna is having huge gang problems too....

    So far in Victoria, they just shove homeless people under buses....people are sick...
    be philanthropic
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