I'm not too sure if anyone from To or out east has noticed, but the sixth homocide in Vancouver just took place. It's only Feb.
We already know at this point that there is a cancer in Vancouver that wasn't there ten years back. You can hear it in many of the stories, the high-profile murders with prohibited (already banned for all you fucks who think gun control is working) weapons, and the words of those who have already fallen in one fashion or another.
Two blocks from my friends place a shooting happened near an IGA grocery store. If you read the globe and mail, you may also hear some pretty well-written ramblings about how bad the situation gets..
However, my best rumours indicate a few things. The main assault weapon used was a Steyr - a high end one at that!
Also, that the shooter used three-round bursts, and dropped the weapon and walked away. Not run, but walked. This is the first time I've heard of that level of professionalism.
There is an issue. I was there drunk three weeks ago with a close computer scientist friend who lives two blocks away from where the incident took place. The primary residents are UBC students, YUPies, and homeowners.
The olympics are coming next year.
I see storm clouds brewing..
Part of the problem with using TO as a frame of reference is that it's the one place in Canada that's going to give you a real run for your money as far as murders go.
Was that second link supposed to go to the G&M's front page story from (was it Friday or Yesterday?) on the Downtown Eastside*? That article was pretty good, though it and others have basically summed things up by pointing out that as long as the place is AWASH in ludicrous amounts of drugs and as long as all of Canada west of Thunder Bay continues to use Vancouver as the dumping ground for it's undesireables then the problem is going to continue to get worse and the organized crime that feeds it is going to get scarier.
I think the elephant in the room is the MASSIVE inflow of drugs there. I've never been a big-war-on-drugs fellow, but I believe that you need a few sticks to go with all those carrots.
Apparently (I don't live out there after all) the 'stick' half has been an appalling failure... or more accurately, it doesn't even seem to exist. I mean if someone really wants drugs, they'll get 'em, but there's a difference between that and having them cheaply available ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE. If nothing else, it pretty much dooms any newcomers rolling into town and enriches all kinds of folks who shouldn't be seeing any of that money. Given that it's Vancouver, I suspect there's a good deal of human trafficking and other fun stuff that gets funded that way.
Regardless of anyone's thoughts on legalization, for now drugs are still illegal. There just doesn't seem to be much busting of traffickers heads for same though. Though, I don't mean users so much, or even some street level dealers, since the lowest end ones are nearly as bad in their use. This problem is huge, and needs to be hit hard at much higher levels to make any kind of a dent. I guess this is where speculation about corruption goes.
I'd agree that anyone out there should be really worried about a gang war as directed by John Woo, though it's open for speculation to guess how many bystanders out there would be killed, given that the gangs out there have a few more marbles between them than say... the Hell's Angels and the Rock Machine did in their own time.
Anyway... no solution in sight? Check.
Massive build-up in the criminal scene? Check.
Massive build up to a large public event? Check.
Vast (and growing) number of mental cases pickled in ungodly drug cocktails?
*
(or as one wit pointed out "Oh you mean the part of town that - up until an activist campaign in the 80's - was just called 'downtown'?")
