mr.x
Nov 7, 2007, 3:26 AM
Police vow to get tough on gangs
Third and fourth homicide victims in a week found in car at 70th and Granville
Kim Bolan and Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, November 06, 2007
VANCOUVER - After four fatal shootings in a week, Vancouver police vowed today to form a new gang violence task force aimed at getting "in the face" of suspected local gang members.
"We're obviously extremely concerned about this escalation of violence and potential for innocent victims to be hurt and killed," Vancouver police Deputy Chief Doug LePard told reporters today at a news conference.
He said the recent spate of fatal gang violence in Vancouver appears to be series of unrelated disputes rather than a gang war.
"I would not say it's necessarily truly a gang war," he said. "There clearly is a conflict between two or more gangs right now....It's not a classic dispute between one gang trying to take over the territory of another gang."
The two latest victims, both known gangsters, were gunned down in a Mercedes about 2:15 a.m. today. The men were identified late this afternoon as Ronal Shakeel Raj, 31, of Surrey, and Ali Abhari, 25, of Kelowna.
A 45-year-old man shot to death outside his Shaughnessy mansion Saturday - Hong Chao (Raymond) Huang - was a top crime boss of the notorious Big Circle Boys and on the radar of the RCMP nationally.
This week's flurry of gang killings began Halloween night when a 51-year-old Richmond man Hiep Quang Do, was fatally shot at a Vietnamese restaurant at 4884 Victoria Drive.
Deputy Chief Bob Rich said the Vancouver police department's new gang violence task force will redeploy patrol officers to try to stop the outbreak of fatal shootings on city streets. "The public should be aware there is no greater priority right now than to deal with this issue," he said, adding the new squad will be "very much an in-your-face" unit.
"We will be confronting people who are gangsters moving about our streets and we will be checking on where they live," said Rich, who is in charge of the operations section, including patrol officers.
"Today we want to send a very clear message to gang members that we are going to be watching them very closely," he added. "We will be letting them know that these activities are just not acceptable."
He promised Vancouverites "we are going to take every step to ensure their safety," he added. Asked how many officers will be assigned to the new unit, Rich said details still are being worked out.
"I have placed Supt. Andy Hobbs in charge of putting this task force together," he said.
Rich added that Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu was meeting today with other senior police leaders in Metro Vancouver to consider a regional response to the brazen gang violence problem that has erupted lately.
Vancouver police are already part of B.C.'s Integrated Gang Task Force, which was formed three years ago after another rash of gang shootings.
The integrated task force was called to the scene of the latest gangland slaying at 70th and Granville, when two known gangsters were shot to death in a leased four-door Mercedes.
Police said two late-model sports utility vehicles pulled up and trapped the southbound Mercedes, which was turning east off Granville from the left-turn lane.
The passenger in one of the SUVs opened fire, killing both men in the Mercedes.
LePard said some people tend to romanticize gangster life.
"I was at the scene this morning," he said of the south Granville slayings. "Those who think the gang lifestyle is appealing, looking at these two men, full of bullet holes, they didn't look glamorous at all."
He said gang members are making tens of thousands of dollars a week, own fancy cars, live in penthouse apartments and spend a lot of money on drugs and women. "They make a lot of money and spend a lot of money," LePard said. "They live for today."
That's because they often don't live long, he added.
Supt. John Robin, head of the Integrated Gang Task Force, said Metro Vancouver is a North American centre for the drug trade and inevitably faces gangland violence. He said police are on top of the issue, but valuable resources are sidetracked by the increasing demands of disclosure once cases go to court.
Legislative changes may be needed to deal with the problem, Robin said.
Large court cases with multiple defendants are even more difficult to process.
"The whole court process is sucking up resources," he said. "So many of our police resources are sucked up with the disclosure process."
RCMP Supt. Wayne Rideout, the officer in charge of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said that in a metropolitan area of 2.6 million, a relatively small number are causing most of the problem.
"There are 300 or 400 people who are creating all of the crime. We need to get serious about those people. The police are serious...the community has got to get involved in this and we have got to have a no-tolerance policy."
LePard said it is now common for gang members to pack guns and use them when tempers flare over seemingly minor disputes.
"They're very cavalier about their use of violence and the use of firearms in settling their disputes," he said. "We're very fortunate that we have not had more innocent victims caught in the cross-fire." "I can tell you, in general terms, sometimes they are fighting about insults, they fight about women, they fight about drug turf - they fight about things that you or I might think are relatively trivial," he said when asked to explain what police believe gang members are fighting over.
LePard suggested gang violence goes in cycles, citing the spike in gang violence in the mid-1980s when there were open shootouts between rival gangs - the Los Diablos and Red Eagles - on city streets.
He said today's fatal shooting, using two SUVs to block the car, showed "a higher level of planning than we normally have seen and shows a certain level of premeditation."
Third and fourth homicide victims in a week found in car at 70th and Granville
Kim Bolan and Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, November 06, 2007
VANCOUVER - After four fatal shootings in a week, Vancouver police vowed today to form a new gang violence task force aimed at getting "in the face" of suspected local gang members.
"We're obviously extremely concerned about this escalation of violence and potential for innocent victims to be hurt and killed," Vancouver police Deputy Chief Doug LePard told reporters today at a news conference.
He said the recent spate of fatal gang violence in Vancouver appears to be series of unrelated disputes rather than a gang war.
"I would not say it's necessarily truly a gang war," he said. "There clearly is a conflict between two or more gangs right now....It's not a classic dispute between one gang trying to take over the territory of another gang."
The two latest victims, both known gangsters, were gunned down in a Mercedes about 2:15 a.m. today. The men were identified late this afternoon as Ronal Shakeel Raj, 31, of Surrey, and Ali Abhari, 25, of Kelowna.
A 45-year-old man shot to death outside his Shaughnessy mansion Saturday - Hong Chao (Raymond) Huang - was a top crime boss of the notorious Big Circle Boys and on the radar of the RCMP nationally.
This week's flurry of gang killings began Halloween night when a 51-year-old Richmond man Hiep Quang Do, was fatally shot at a Vietnamese restaurant at 4884 Victoria Drive.
Deputy Chief Bob Rich said the Vancouver police department's new gang violence task force will redeploy patrol officers to try to stop the outbreak of fatal shootings on city streets. "The public should be aware there is no greater priority right now than to deal with this issue," he said, adding the new squad will be "very much an in-your-face" unit.
"We will be confronting people who are gangsters moving about our streets and we will be checking on where they live," said Rich, who is in charge of the operations section, including patrol officers.
"Today we want to send a very clear message to gang members that we are going to be watching them very closely," he added. "We will be letting them know that these activities are just not acceptable."
He promised Vancouverites "we are going to take every step to ensure their safety," he added. Asked how many officers will be assigned to the new unit, Rich said details still are being worked out.
"I have placed Supt. Andy Hobbs in charge of putting this task force together," he said.
Rich added that Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu was meeting today with other senior police leaders in Metro Vancouver to consider a regional response to the brazen gang violence problem that has erupted lately.
Vancouver police are already part of B.C.'s Integrated Gang Task Force, which was formed three years ago after another rash of gang shootings.
The integrated task force was called to the scene of the latest gangland slaying at 70th and Granville, when two known gangsters were shot to death in a leased four-door Mercedes.
Police said two late-model sports utility vehicles pulled up and trapped the southbound Mercedes, which was turning east off Granville from the left-turn lane.
The passenger in one of the SUVs opened fire, killing both men in the Mercedes.
LePard said some people tend to romanticize gangster life.
"I was at the scene this morning," he said of the south Granville slayings. "Those who think the gang lifestyle is appealing, looking at these two men, full of bullet holes, they didn't look glamorous at all."
He said gang members are making tens of thousands of dollars a week, own fancy cars, live in penthouse apartments and spend a lot of money on drugs and women. "They make a lot of money and spend a lot of money," LePard said. "They live for today."
That's because they often don't live long, he added.
Supt. John Robin, head of the Integrated Gang Task Force, said Metro Vancouver is a North American centre for the drug trade and inevitably faces gangland violence. He said police are on top of the issue, but valuable resources are sidetracked by the increasing demands of disclosure once cases go to court.
Legislative changes may be needed to deal with the problem, Robin said.
Large court cases with multiple defendants are even more difficult to process.
"The whole court process is sucking up resources," he said. "So many of our police resources are sucked up with the disclosure process."
RCMP Supt. Wayne Rideout, the officer in charge of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said that in a metropolitan area of 2.6 million, a relatively small number are causing most of the problem.
"There are 300 or 400 people who are creating all of the crime. We need to get serious about those people. The police are serious...the community has got to get involved in this and we have got to have a no-tolerance policy."
LePard said it is now common for gang members to pack guns and use them when tempers flare over seemingly minor disputes.
"They're very cavalier about their use of violence and the use of firearms in settling their disputes," he said. "We're very fortunate that we have not had more innocent victims caught in the cross-fire." "I can tell you, in general terms, sometimes they are fighting about insults, they fight about women, they fight about drug turf - they fight about things that you or I might think are relatively trivial," he said when asked to explain what police believe gang members are fighting over.
LePard suggested gang violence goes in cycles, citing the spike in gang violence in the mid-1980s when there were open shootouts between rival gangs - the Los Diablos and Red Eagles - on city streets.
He said today's fatal shooting, using two SUVs to block the car, showed "a higher level of planning than we normally have seen and shows a certain level of premeditation."