When you have, on average, a gun crime every other day for an entire month (there has been 15 gun incidents the last 30 days), you have a problem. When shots were being fired in the middle of the day, on major streets, in large parking lots of shopping mall, you have a big problem. When people shot a mother right in front of the eyes of her four-year-old child, you have a problem that is almost incomprehensible.
When federal public safety minister Peter Van Loan called Metro Vancouver the “gang capital” (see article) in Canada, he did not say that for effect. Truth is, gang crime has gotten out of hand, and it has become increasingly unsafe to live in the Lower Mainland.
While I appreciate the various levels of government vowing for more police force and stiffer sentences for these criminals, few seem to be talking about the root of the problem: the Lower Mainland is a major hotbed for drug trade, and our justice system has been systematically letting the bad guys get away with either no punishment or a mere slap-in-the-hand penalty. As long as the lucrative profits of drug trades are staying, so would the criminals. We can put out 1000 more law enforcers on the street; they can be working 24-7 to bust crimes; they can even be arresting hundreds of criminals, and the courts can even put these criminals into long sentences… but it still would NOT solve the problem.
The problem is the drug culture here in Western Canada. If we continue to have this cavalier attitude about drugs (in particular, towards marijuana), if the justice system continues to turn a blind eye to the marijuana culture and people in general condone or even endorse it, the problem will persist, because the profit would stay.
Stop suggesting that if marijuana is legalized or de-criminalized, the profit would stop flowing in for the criminals. It won’t. Cigarettes and alcohol are legal, but black-market cigarettes and alcohol are still rampant because criminals can still make a profit through selling “better” cigarettes and alcohol in the black market. What makes marijuana any different?
Look at the recent gang busts and you will see footages of cops carrying bags and bags of marijuana into their police trucks. I know some of you feel that pot-smoking is okay. Look at the killings, look at the violence, think again.
When federal public safety minister Peter Van Loan called Metro Vancouver the “gang capital” (see article) in Canada, he did not say that for effect. Truth is, gang crime has gotten out of hand, and it has become increasingly unsafe to live in the Lower Mainland.While I appreciate the various levels of government vowing for more police force and stiffer sentences for these criminals, few seem to be talking about the root of the problem: the Lower Mainland is a major hotbed for drug trade, and our justice system has been systematically letting the bad guys get away with either no punishment or a mere slap-in-the-hand penalty. As long as the lucrative profits of drug trades are staying, so would the criminals. We can put out 1000 more law enforcers on the street; they can be working 24-7 to bust crimes; they can even be arresting hundreds of criminals, and the courts can even put these criminals into long sentences… but it still would NOT solve the problem.
The problem is the drug culture here in Western Canada. If we continue to have this cavalier attitude about drugs (in particular, towards marijuana), if the justice system continues to turn a blind eye to the marijuana culture and people in general condone or even endorse it, the problem will persist, because the profit would stay.
Stop suggesting that if marijuana is legalized or de-criminalized, the profit would stop flowing in for the criminals. It won’t. Cigarettes and alcohol are legal, but black-market cigarettes and alcohol are still rampant because criminals can still make a profit through selling “better” cigarettes and alcohol in the black market. What makes marijuana any different?
Look at the recent gang busts and you will see footages of cops carrying bags and bags of marijuana into their police trucks. I know some of you feel that pot-smoking is okay. Look at the killings, look at the violence, think again.
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