Metro Vancouver has a

Metro Vancouver has a history of spectacular and public gangland hits. The only surprising thing about the recent headlines is that...well...people are actually surprised.

I think the racism thesis only goes so far in explaining what's gone wrong with the current crop of pampered Indo-Canadian princelings with a penchant for guns, girls, bling and unearned social status. At some point the community is going to have to stop pointing the finger at Canadian society and start taking responsibility for the way it's been raising its boys.

The problem has been brewing for a while, and there have been many warning signs along the way. It's a long-established empirical fact in the West End, for example, that a notably high number of gay-bashings and threatening incidents over the years have involved young Indo-Canadian males acting in roving packs. There's nothing racist in simply pointing this fact out. So there's been a long-standing attitude problem there all along. The gangland nastiness is just the inevitable continuation of that kind of nastiness, in my opinion.

Bravo for Saying This!

There is not one iota of difference between the current "turf wars" of this century, and those waged during Prohibition in the US in the 1920's.

Then, booze was made illegal, despite the demand for it, and all it ever did was create the groundwork for organized crime.

Now, our insane insistence on restricting the use of certain drugs, that are in demand by much more than a few "rubbie-dubs", will ensure continuing turf wars and at some point, a consolidation.

But legalizing currently illicit drugs is not the answer either. There has to be one more step beyond that proposed by Ranj Dhaliwal, that "...helping addicts recover is probably the best thing to do." We also MUST address the essence behind this drug epidemic. Right now, we are living the White Rabbit world of Gracie Slick, and that in itself indicates a society on Barry McGuire's Eve of Destruction.

We need to say (to ourselves if no one else) WHY we are looking for the magic pill that will, as Frank Sinatra put it Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams and "....dream your troubles away....".

Dealing

Whatever glamour youth might experience from easy work, good money from drug dealing, it is true that they will get caught. I see middle age dealers fighting among their own, and under threat of being ripped off or arrested. Not much glamour. And they become users. They are a sorry sight by the time they are 30.

easy work, good money

Isn't this what our "leaders" are showing kids........?

Solution?

One solution you suggest Ranj is to get addicts straight,
which will remove the need. I agree. But how?

Through in-your-face confrontation like we currently see in the VPD's "Two-pronged WAR on drugs & gangsters," or by using intelligence strategies to infiltrate the network and cripple it from the inside while simultaneously developing health care solutions for addicts?

The supply of soldiers is endless, however, leaders are harder to find.

For example, who gets replaced first or leaves the biggest hole if they are removed from the network, the addict selling and doing meth on the street, or the alleged leader of the Big Circle Boys who was assassinated here a couple of weeks ago in Shaughnessy?

For long term impact it makes more sense to go the intelligence route, but we have to do this by February of 2009 in order to give the world the confidence to plan to come here for the Games in 2010.

Realistically, this last airport taser incident might have sealed the deal, especially when you consider that journalists like Dan Rather are already putting our homeless scandal under an international microscope.

It's a homeless, drug, gangster trifecta by a nose.

If our civic leaders do not manage local and international outrage properly issues like this can and do bring a Games to a point where it is impossible from which to recover. I seriously question whether our local leaders have the sophistication to pull it off.

There is no guarantee that anyone will show up in 2010. If our push to civility means we have to pay for the Winter Olympics by struggling through two more years of escalating violence then I vote for the slow steady route. Surely this violence also cannot be good for tourism.

So far, it's not a matter of which strategy is best for the community, but which strategy is best for the Olympics and its sponsors like Visa, RBC & HBC, and also local mainstream news media who have a huge financial stake in the Games? NBC boasts they place advertising in front of 4 billion viewers at recent Games.

It is now easier to see that they do it on the back of the host community.

Law enforcement decisions are being made based on 2010, and less on what is good for the long term view of Vancouver.

If local mainstream news media, law enforcement and politicians were really concerned about our community they would back off a bit and quit putting us all at so much risk.

They would formulate a less wild west antagonistic approach.

BC has lived with drugs and gangsters for a long time.

What's the rush?

It's reckless.

Maurice Cardinal
Editor: www.OlyBLOG.com

Quote:...it is true that

Not in Vancouver. Designated club dealers have more job security than Teamsters Union members (to exagerate only slightly). The only time there's a "crack down" seems to be when non-designated dealers start to move in on the turf, or when someone starts to get out of hand. You literally have some of the same faces dealing in the clubs that were doing it nearly 10 years ago. That's not what I would call "effective law enforcement". That's why I believe some elements of Vancouver's law enforcement are complicit in the drug trade. They keep certain elements out, and turn a blind eye to the "approved" sources and their back-end supply network. Ever wonder why it's so rare to hear of a "bad batch" anymore? You used to hear it all the time in the '80s. The recent incident on Vancouver Island was the first one I'd heard reported in the Lower Mainland since 1995, when two West End men died as a result of a bad mix of blow and heroine purchased at the Dufferin Hotel. The whole Vancouver drug operation has been running smooth as a finely tuned engine for quite a while now. You can't tell me there's not complicity - or at the very least what I call contrived incompetence - on the part of authorities in Vancouver.

I am a dealer:

and I thank:

1) the politicians for making drugs illegal (some of them needing a little persuasion sometimes),
2) women and men who support those politicians, thinking that we can eliminate all drugs and all druggies, and
3) the few policemen and women who are complicit in this (directly or indirectly).

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to all!

(Writing from a beach in the Bahamas)

PS: Please, keep that war on drugs going. Things have never been so good since Ronald Reagan and company made it so difficult to get it!

As far as the article is concerned ...

As the article points out kids who do not live in the West part of town are looking to get ahead and think this is the easiest way tyo get ahead! I disagree that this is just an immgrant problem. I think this is a poverty issue and a societal issue. The poor immigrant kids and the poor kids who are not immigrants are indeed looking to get ahead and get approval from the rich and well networked BC kids (espcially the prima donnas), who do respect (because society does) people who have money, as they equal wrongly financial success with success!

The kids are just a tool in the drug dealers. They are cheap labour!

Media (big and small) and people (particularly women) extolling the virtue of success by how big one's house is and how many SUVs one has parked in front of it are all provoking this as well as the way governments (and their big business friends [drug related or not]). Is there anyone who doubts that crime has infiltrated government when one sees how kind they have been to pub owners (extending hours of operations) and expanding casinos.

People need to wake up to the facts that the war on drugs has been lost a long time ago and the only to beat the criminals is to elect politicians who are for a four pillars' approach.

reality_check

Hitting the nail on the head! And our "education" system does not help, it still being mired in the notion of "taking kids off the farm and teaching them to spin the wheels and pull the levers in the factory". The system hasn't learned that there ARE no more factories, and those that exist successfully, run quite nicely in nearly full automation.

RickW - education not the monster

Rick just said:

I really must protest. Education has moved ahead a great deal since the days of which you speak (except for the last six years of regressive education policies, another hallmark of the Campbell government's regime.)

The problems are societal problems and family problems. I am reminded of the dark and promiscuous art that was seen in Germany for the first half of the last century. Now we have those same sorts of images in our everyday lives thanks to TV, movies, music videos, shopping malls, bling-filled ipod gangsta' rap, violent video games, newspapers and our politicians. Face it, when a generation of children play video games where they steal cars and kill ho's for their money, can we expect anything different? When most elementary children have access to TVs and videos with tremendously violent and explicit sexual content - how could we you expect them to remain innocent while they develop. Why have parents given up on monitoring their children's activities?

Kids are only in school 25-30 hours a week, and schools are overworked as it is trying to teach everyone to read while accomodating the special needs children in an integraed setting. Though schools promote moral behaviour, they do not monitor and attempt to control the other 200 hours a week that children are not in school.

Not only has the Campbell government made huge cuts to the most needy of people during the last six years, they have increased sales of alcohol as well as increased gambling. These increases have been astronomical. Those young families trying to have as much property as their parents had are having to work harder than ever during this time when the "economy is going great". Phhh.

I'm not sure I buy the

I'm not sure I buy the poverty argument when it comes to this particular brand of drug dealer. I think these are kids from priviledged middle class backgrounds who grew up with big houses, fancy cars, and an overbearing sense of entitlement. It really shows.

My family arrived here about three centuries ago with the very first French habitants. Yet I and my siblings and cousins are the first generation to attend university, to not till soil, dig coal, or lay brick & lumber for a living. No easy short-cuts there.

One of the most canny and ubiquitous drug dealers in the West End is an honour roll Queen's Engineering grad who attended Upper Canada College (and who also happens to be a "Brown", as referred to in the article). So gimme a break. They guys aren't poor and deprived - they're riding the crest of a mountainous sense of self-entitlement. Those of us who get up every Monday morning for our paltry paycheques are completely suckers in their eyes.

More to the above

As long as citizens continue to accept the lie that, despite all evidence (and the whisperings in the back of their minds)to the contrary, things have been getting worse. People have been doing drugs and marketing drugs to escape their reality. They've been becoming addicted to alcohol, gambling, drugs, and internet porn. The children of these people live it day and night. They have become addicted themselves. The children of people of colour can face an additional burdern of feeling disenfranchised by the larger population for being noticeably different.

People don't feel safe to walk outside.

The years since Reagan, Mulroney, Thatcher and Kohl first got in power have been worse for Canada and the US. The only reprieve that the citizens of either country got was under Clinton and that was more of a slowdown in the rate in which the rich had gotten richer as opposed to a reversal of the trend. The corporate gangters rule at the top.

With years of the federal Liberals and Conservatives as well as provincial Socreds and Liberals (not to mention Alberta's Klein) BC has been heading down privatisation of everything. It won't be long before we have privatised police (ie Blackwater) safeguarding our Legislature at this rate. All it will take is a crafty politician to say that we must do it to save money and that it is obvious that the RCMP and city police can't be trusted...

The pre-Campbell-era Socreds/Liberals, though not for the common man, did have some decency: they didn't give everything away. The people of BC now own much less of this province than they did pre-Campbell; it wil be exceedingly difficult for the citizens to have what their parents had without taking back from the corporate elite. If BC does, the corporate world will punish us until their huge hunger for natural resources has them begging at the back door or US tanks rolling through the front.

Night-bloom

You are absolutely right about many of the young having a sense of self-entitlement. Second generation immigrants often regect the morals of their parents. They are following the emotional and moral lessons learned in their video games that they have played hours on end. They are folowing the example set by our leaders.

Gordon Campbell - Hawaii, conduct business in secrecy.

Klein - drunken limo-ride to bash people in the shelter.

Bush - escape the draft by joining Air National Guard but fail serve and subject self to drug tests, convicted of driving under the influence.

Federal Liberals - Sponsorship scandal

Mulroney - directorships in over thirty huge corporations after leaving office.

Harper - conduct business as much as possible in secrecy.

The main stream media always has its spin and though the lies in the press and on the news are obvious, people don't dare admit they have bought in to the lie.

erratum

regect = reject

S.I.G.

Has it really, Sig? The system is controlled by old farts like me, who (as bureaucrats) tend to be linear thinkers (if only because it makes their jobs easier). I was among the last generation who could expect to take their career all the way to retirement, and who didn't have to give a thought to what one was going to do, because there was lots out there.

Then shortly after I entered the workforce, women entered the workplace in a big way, and employers began favouring part time people (because it allowed them more flexibility in the workplace, not to mention it saved them millions because they didn't need to pay the benefits they had to with full time). Then the outsourcing began, and both of these made it necessary for people to find extra employment. Then, the school system began to make noises about "expecting to have several careers" (without incorporating the fundamental changes necessary for kids to cope with a job market where five years became a long time).
Now, the teachers I know just want to get through their career and get that pension. They are burnt out, mostly because the futility of actually trying to teach kids something useful.......

I would vote "yea" though to the especial backward-facing last 6 years of this government.

Some valid comments here, but ... (1/2)

IMO, there are darker forces at work here!

Governments and big business needed cheap labour years ago and they got ... women. Women at work and men at work, and who cares about raising kids (or worse, getting them love and attention)! One has to keep up with the Jones! Right? Just put them in front of the ad machine, consumerism machine, AKA the TV. As a further consequence (as stated by RickW), many men (and their wages) dropped! Many women bought it and are still buying, as they are the target of highly focused ad campaigns where men are silly and women are in power/smart/in control.

So, about the education system needing to shift? Yes! It is happening to some degree, but like Rick stated there are old farts that will not or cannot change their pedagogy to account for the change in times! Do realize, however, that teachers do not have as much flexibility as we think they have! There is a curriculum to follow and there are provincial exams to administer (exams that are used to compare the "efficacy" of the teachers/school,...). The whole thing is rigged right from the start by the you-know-who. How can a farmer's kid get to be a lawyer or a doctor (if that is his or her desire or calling)? Luck and genius-like abilities would be essential! Do you know how much of an advantage it is to have both of your parents (or one) highly educated and/or rich (well-connected). It is a huge advantage (just think of the probable "genetic" advantage! ) So, yes, I agree that the education system needs to offer a teaching that is student-based and more process-based. To some degree that is taking place more and more, thanks to some incredible teachers who get spit at by many in society, including some of those parents of farmers who cannot see the forest before the tree! Of course, there are really smart farmers (or sons/daughters) as there are really stupid rich business people (or sons/daughters). BTW, if money is the only factor that counts, technical jobs such as welding or plumbing are great alternatives to the medical and legal professions for some kids. I wish all parents would see this more! But, then there is prestige!

Some valid comments here, but ... (2/2)

As far as Nightbloom valid comment about gangs and drug dealing not being linked to poverty, I think we need to colour each other's statements! As alluded earlier, if both parents work, kids of any economic backgrounds will be potentially at risk! Of course the rich can have an au-pair offering some structure. Not sure if they are getting love, but ... And the very rich can have --usually-- the wife taking care of things, so the kids should be getting enough love (USUALLY)! If you are poor or middle class, both are USUALLY working and, depending on one's upbringing and intellect, more or less trying to keep up with the Jones! So, IMO if one parent is at home (poor or rich), kids will not likely be part of gangs! I am not too sure it is "entitlement" as much as a lack of love, low self-esteem, lack of guidance, peer pressure that are at work here! (I think SIG has a point here!) Again, the whole system is based on proving one's worth with material possessions (as some of those parents and TV programs/movies model). Many women are both the worst victim and the worst offender, many shopping until they are dropping, literally, and still expecting guys to make more money to get in their pants/skirts. And, of course, it still helps to state that you are dating a doctor or a lawyer as opposed to a welder! Men are led by women and women are led by men! It is a vicious circle! From my own personal experience, akin to NightBloom's (although I am a first generation immigrant that had one parent at home and did not mess), I was not lured into drugs or big money, but I cannot say I had many GFs either! :).

As SIG alluded to, what do you expect of a system that demands of a successful politician to be the greatest liar, promising pink skies and sunshine all the time! Is democracy has we have it really implemented so that fairness will prevail over injustice? We know that kids of alcoholics are great liars! And, I would thin the criminal elements are more than happy to be dealing (pun intended) with them than with a straight shooter! A straight shooter with a slingshot, however!

Sorry for the disjointed thoughts! :)

Lastly, ... from my own experience,...

As a special education teacher, I can state without a shadow of a doubt that there are great teachers out there who are trying to do their best to accommodate all kids from all backgrounds. But, guess what, their hands are mostly tied by time, by curriculum pressures, by 5 special needs students in a classroom,... Of course, things are different in affluent neighbourhoods!

I can state that at least 2 kids last year have/had the potential of not being vixctims when their teachers provided differentiated instruction and assessment techniques to allow those kids to shine in their own terms! But, folks, to have that happen to 2 kids, 2 were left behind as our professionals' hands were tied by time, money, parents (interference or lack of), circumstances that were beyond our control!

If we need to lower gangs and drug dealing/use in our society, we need to think of a highly planned 4 pillars' approach to the problem. Notice I stated "lower"! I do not believe that eradication is possible, but control is, at huge expenses, although if we were to legalize drugs (as the last step in that 4 pillars' approach, we could reduce police force dramatically). I wonder how the police force (and its union) feels about that? I wonder how lawyers feel about that? I wonder how drug dealers feel about that? And drugged or drug politicians, for that matter? And our partner to the South, obsessed to eradicate the problem by the force of the belt or the bible? Of course, for every bible-belt believer, there is one that is benefiting from the drug trade/prohibition. But, I digress!

The illegal drug trade is as much

a permanent fixtue in our Canadian society as hockey.

There's one way to reduce, even eliminate its ability to lure young people to the fantastic profits:

Destroy the market!

There's one way to destroy the market:

Legalize the product.

And yes, as Nightbloom says, the drug-dealing infestation among members of the East Indian community has absolutely nothing to do with poverty. I live in Newton, in Surrey, where the East Indian population is approaching 40%. Trust me, these are not poor people! (With the exception of the farm workers who are exploited by their own people).

The fear among East Indian youth is not about being poor; it's about having a mediocre lifestyle. For some reason, beyond my understanding, the Indian culture (whether Sikh, Muslim or Hindu) mandates that only those with extreme wealth will receive great respect.

And so for many of the young men it's 'be rich or be a failure.'

If we're serious about controlling the violence, we've got to stop harrassing the dealers and addicts merely for their participation in the trade.

The new anti-violence police unit merely lends a bigger 'cops and robbers' excitement for the idiots driving around in the Escalades and Hummers.

A complete moratorium on prohibiting drug use would destroy the entire illegal-drug industry in about fifteen minutes.

Scrap the four pillars and adopt my special ONE pillar approach: Use drugs if you wish, but if you break our other laws, you're going to jail for a very long time.

Drug gangs

One thing the author doesn't investigate or comment on nearly adequately enough: the LOST GENERATION of Indo-Canadian, Chinese, Vietnamese and Caucasian non-hyphenated Canadians! Regardless of race, creed or colour there exists a significant cohort of sociopathic Young Princes who've been indulged, spoiled, and enabled to feel that in this materialistic, commodification-of-everything and everyone society – they deserve it ALL. And they deserve that material success NOW. The parents say they "don't want (our) children to have to go through what (we) went through." Ironic isn't it? The very life processes that many of us have gone through and that have enabled us to evolve moral and ethical compasses – are to be denied the Pampered Princes. Poor, entitled babies – STILL ACTING OUT THEIR ADOLESCENCES in young adulthood. This too shall pass, but let's cut out some of the "victims of society" rhetoric. The behaviour of some of this generation reflect our COLLECTIVE failure to provide and model more depth than the dominant vales of our "GOT MINE!", society. Atomism breeds atomism.

Alternatives

By-the-by:

A high school grad with a little help can obtain a Trade Ticket in any number of in-demand skilled trades. I have recently had young Master Carpenters and Electricians in my house from Ireland and from England – recruited internationally by our contractor. These young folks have used their portable, ticketed skills to travel the world, to work in host countries and earn decent livings all the while. Owing to our stupid social prejudices – we encourage EVERYONE to go to university and or college – whether it suits their temperment or not.
And BTW, by their late twenties, depending on Trade and personal initiative, these young folks can be earning incomes ranging between $45k and $90k. This demand for skilled trades, although Regionally variable, will continue for the foreseeable future in Canada. Especially given the appalling neglect of our civic infrastructures we've allowed over the past 20 to 30 years. In Britain, a young trades person, if they feel underemployed in later life, can go back and upgrade their qualifications to para-professional (diploma) or to academic level (University engineering) professional levels. And the system is desighned so they can do so part-time, keep bringing in income, and keep paying the mortgage all the while. Here in B.C. NOTHING even remotely resembling the progressive, integrated approach to acquiring and subsequently "upgrading" skills and education later on! I'm a high school drop out who over reacted and ended up with three university degrees and a bunch of letters after my name. :) Today, I'd get my plumbing/electrical/gas fitting ticket and later roam the world with my portable skills. Get the BA or whatever later. Maybe The Princes haven't noticed all this. Again, ironically, I see these young Trades folks with rec. property, with antique cars parked in their garages, owning homes, and working like the blazes to build their versions of a life...

Truman Green: yes, but ...

I agree that legalization is the only answer, BUT IMO it cannot be done overnight (not that you are saying so)!

You need to educate (brainwash in a clever way) the youth about the danger of abusing and using drugs. It worked with smoking. But, IMO, you need to phase these changes in and I think the 4 pillars' approach (protracted over one generation) can work. Of course, there are going to be all kinds of initial reaction by the criminals. They will try to discredit anyone who promotes this, find all kinds of subtle and not so subtle ways to deter anyone who brings these changes, and try to show the failure of these programs by artificially manipulating the system. These people are clever (in their dysfunctional ways) and have money, power, and connections. It might take one and probably 2 generations to change things. No! Eradication will not take place! They will be addicts! But, if there is not much money into it, there is likely not going to be much business to push the drugs onto our youth.

The war on drugs has exacerbated the problem. It will never continue to exacerbate the problem. But, i am sure that there are many people who are making lots of money because of it and who are very happy to keep the status quo! Police and lawyers included!

Mr. K.

Do you think that a lack of self-esteem/love, peer pressure, and media brainwashing do not contribute to the problem? I have seen many children who have everything, but do they have love, care, and attention (not to speak of guidance) from their parents? I have also seen permissive parents who let their kids go to rave parties. One was a Vietnamese lady who was virtually illiterate in English. I think the problem is more complex. Don't you think so?

I agree with the post you wrote about trade opportunities. Like I said in an earlier post, many people (including many women) will judge people who are in the trades. I have seen a parent who was pushing his son to go to medical school, but who anyone with a sense of awareness could see that this kid was cut for something else. Not to say that the trades are for the idiots. Not at all! But, you know how much pride some parents get to state that their child is going to university. I think we should change the name of these instutions that provides technical training and call them technical universities? Of course, pushing a pencil is much easier than holding a torch, which might explain why some parents are pushing their children to go to univeristies versus the trades. Maybe governments and unions need to factor in these slight disadvantages, although to be fair, a doctor who needs to work night shift in a surgical room is not so glamourous or safe also.