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For all those who feel that Costa Rica is a dangerous place…………… This is the headline in a Vancouver, Canada newspaper! The city that won first place as the most livable city in the world.
Most of the killings have been gang or drug related, but it makes our little country here look pretty safe by comparison.
How are they proposing to manage this problem? Do they say?
Is this primarily an immigrant problem?
I’m assuming it’s Asian gangs is it?
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comMany are gang related or at least the majority are known to police.
From the names of those killed, it appears many are Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese and Indian. They have had problems like this before and it seems to have to run it’s course. For every shooting there is a retaliation until they run out of angry young bodies.
There was a long run of East Indian shootings several years ago by two young drug pushing gangs, but they eventually killed off the bravest and the war stopped.Part of the problem seems to be no one in that community wants to talk so it is difficult to prosecute anyone.
METRO VANCOUVER SLAYINGS
GANG-STYLE
March 19: Hark Hans, 28, is found dead in his parked car at Surrey’s Eaglequest golf course.
March 14: Jeff Gordon Cornell, 31, found shot to death at the roadside on 196C Avenue at McNeil Road in Pitt Meadows.
March 13: Peter (Smokie) Chan found dead in a home in the 7300-block of 12 Avenue, Burnaby.
March 13: Man who banged on a door on Mason Avenue, Coquitlam, is found shot, dies at the scene.
March 8: Kyle Richard Wong, 20, steps out of his car in 8600-block of Aqua Drive, Vancouver, and is cut down in a hail of bullets.
March 7: Nhant Tran, 23, sitting in the driver’s seat of his Mercedes in his driveway at 90th Avenue and 141A in Surrey, is shot and killed.
March 2: Zdzislaw (Jim) Kutyla, 51, found dead inside a house in the 8200-block of 19th Avenue in Burnaby.
Feb. 24: Patrick Hamilton, 28, shot dead in a driveway on the Katzie No. 2 first nations reserve in Langley.
Feb. 15: Earl Seymour, 40, killed in a minivan in 300-block Carrall Street, Vancouver, after being struck by bullets fired through the windshield.
Feb. 9: Chi Wai Liao, 32, shot to death while sitting in a pickup in the parking lot of the Delbrook Recreation Centre, North Vancouver.
Feb. 2: Pritpal Singh Virk, 19, gunned down outside a home on East 54th Avenue near St. George Street, Vancouver.
Jan. 29: A man was found with stab wounds on Ford Road between Bayne and McTavish in Maple Ridge. He died later in hospital.
Jan. 28: Tejvir Singh Bains, 24, shot at his home, 12585 72nd Ave., Surrey.
Jan. 27: Deward Ponte, 15, stabbed to death near 33rd Avenue and Fraser Street in Vancouver.
Jan. 22: Michael Allen Sing, 23, found fatally shot in a vehicle in Surrey.
Jan. 2: Ricardo Scarpino, 37, and Gilles LePage, 38, shot to death while sitting in an SUV outside Gotham Steakhouse in downtown Vancouver.
Jan. 1: Ruo Yu (Lucy) Cao, 26, found dead in a townhouse at 8088 Spires Gate in Richmond.
OTHER
March 12: Abbotsford’s Silas O’Brien, 21, is killed in an apparent act of road rage.
Feb 25: Justin Peter Vasey, 14, found dead behind a derelict home near 104th Avenue and 140th Street in Surrey.
Jan. 10: Gurnam Singh Johal, 41, died in Surrey Memorial Hospital under “suspicious circumstances.”
DOMESTIC
March 7: A 47-year-old man dies after a fight with his stepson in an east Vancouver apartment.
Feb. 24: Khanh Pho Mach, 29, stabbed to death on the front lawn of his home in the 15500-block 100th Avenue in Surrey. His girlfriend was charged.
Feb. 12: Kataryna Semenova, 27, found in shallow water by someone walking a dog along the ravine near Marine Drive and MacPherson Avenue in Burnaby.
Feb 14: Laura Eileen Coward, 26, is found dead in a Chilliwack jail cell.
Jan. 20: Rajvinder Kahlon, 2, stabbed to death in her Delta home. Her father was charged with first-degree murder.
Jan. 17: Subaline (Subi) Ratnansen, 50, found dead in her Surrey home at 15480 91A Ave. Her husband was arrested.I live in Vancouver British Columbia Canada. In my view our weak drug laws and our whole plan to deal with the drug issue is to blame for the sharp increase in murders here. Down on the skids we have a government funded safe injection site were addicts can come in to a nice clean and warm clinic to shoot drugs. We even supply the gear and clean up the mess after the deed is done while the addict sips coffee in the “chill-out lounge.”
A few blocks away you can sign up for the heroin treatment program where taxpayers fund free heroin and a safe clean clinic to inject it. Members only please. Back up the other way there is a Health Contact Centre (funded by the taxpayers of course) where you can come snooze on the couch or on a mat if you spend all of your welfare rent money on drugs and have no other place to go.
There is no need for our drug addicts to spend any of their welfare money on food because there are endless free food lines all over the area. Free used cloths are handed out in several locations. Free perscriptions are part of the welfare deal here so all of that is covered. And get this – if you’re unemployable due to a disease you got shooting dope, we’ll put you disability welfare where you’ll get about $1300 a month instead of the regular welfare rate. So just about 90% of our addicts have Hep. C and that can qualify them to collect disability. About 25% (and rising) have HIV disease and that gets you in too.
We have something called the CTCT (I think) where ill drug addicts who need IV lines or are seriously ill can lay in a hospital type bed with nurses and doctors rotating in and out. This thing is located on one floor of a run down skid row shooting gallery so there’s no need to go too far to get high.
Even the downtown hospital has an unofficial crack smoking area on a forth floor outdoor lounge. The AIDS ward also has an unofficail crack smoking balcony where drug use is tolerated.
Police down on the skids don’t bother arresting folks for simple possession that often because they are viewed by the courts in British Columbia as ill rather than as law breakers and they almost never get time in jail. Even any dealers who claim to be dealing to support their own addiction (and of course you know they’re all on to that loop hole) are diverted to “drug court” instead of jail.
We have needle exchange sites all over the skids where addicts and prostitutes can get free needles, free condoms (lubed, nonlubed, ribbed and even flavored!), free little packeges of personal lubrication, little sani wipes, alcohol swabs, crack smoking pipes, little cotton balls for cooking drugs – even little blue bottles of water for mixing drugs. Of course the needles are free too and so you see this stuff tossed away all over the downtown area of Vancouver.
The health care system puts everyone with a heroin problem on methadone or free heroin but the funded recovery and treatment centers don’t take people on those perscriptions. So even if they wanted to get out of there they can’t until the kick the methadone witch is much harder to kick than heroin.
Of course the gangsters all come here. This is the pot growing capitol of North America. There are indoor grow operations on almost every street because they don’t put first time offenders in jail for that here. Or at least not very often. So you can buy some grow lights and potting soil and turn that spare room into a grow-op and make an extra $4000 tax free dollars every few months. Hell, why not just quit work and turn the basement into a grow-op too? You get into more trouble for stealing the power than you do for growing the pot in this part of Canada. I did hear something about tougher laws coming, but I’m not sure if that went through or not.
We’re also a port city and of course that means the cocaine comes here first before being shipped out to the rest of the country. Cheap prices, weak laws, weak law enforcement, a health care system that supports the drug addicts in there nutty lifestyle.
And of course we have very weak immigration laws so if you get yourself here it will take us a year or more to get your butt out of our province. In the mean time I guess if you’re a would-be gangster you can collect welfare and sell drugs until the deportation order finally comes through. By then they disappear into the woodwork until they have earned enough to afford a good immigration lawyer.
If they shut down the pot growing industry in this province our economy would probably take a huge hit. I saw a story in the paper last week saying some of our smaller towns depend on indoor pot growing for about 70% of their economy.
With all that money comes gangs and turf wars.
God help us!
Folks may think the drug laws in the US are too tough, but looking at the other end of the spectrum I’ll vote for the tough approach!
Sadly, neither the “tough” U.S. approach nor the lax approach taken in Vancouver appear to have either reduced illegal drug use or mitigated the violence associated with the drug traffic. This is not to suggest that I have any better idea how to approach the problem, but maybe some new approach bears consideration.
Prohibition of substances (or beliefs) throughout history has never worked successfully.
Perhaps the answer is to determine why so many people are drawn to these things in the first place and deal with those issues.
While I am not in agreement with everything happening in Vancouver with respect to drug use harm reduction, it is pretty obvious by now that the heavy handed method does not seem to be working in the US.
Perhaps the money spent on fighting the US drug war could be directed into programs which reduce the underlying causes of drug use and actually have a far greater impact overall?Gang killings, immigration problems…to…smoking marijuana? Anyone read about the prescription drug addictions in the high schools in the US? Try some cause and effect logic before you make such ridiculous leaps in logic. Why are the somewhat draconian US drug laws passed…and what has been their effect? Liberal Canadian laws? It’s being “liberal” to allow another person to determine whether they smoke a cigarette or a joint? A marijuana source of relief from their pain or another toxic drug handed out by the AMA with YOUR total blessing? Please.
I also live in Vancouver. No, the local drug scene is not at all pretty, and harm-reduction (which I basically agree with) has its limits like any other approach. It would be nice to see the other three of the four pillars that harm reduction is a part of, namely, education, enforcement and treatment, being given equal play. I would say, especially treatment. Whether we tackle this through harm-reduction or through stricter drug laws, the outcome is still going to be imperfect and messy, because life and the world we live in is imperfect and messy. As for blaming immigrants, well, it seems that we all have our scapegoats. It seems to me that both Canada and the U.S. are countries made up primarily of immigrants and their recent descendants. As for many of the people using the needle exchange and safe-injection services, a lot of them are first-nations people (aka aboriginals or “Indians”), and they are the walking wounded of nearly everything that has been done to make Canada what it is today, cultural and ethnic genocide included. I would suggest to anyone who wishes to pass judgment onto a lot of the people here whose lives have been wasted by addictions and HIV and hepatitis, to be very careful not to pass judgment on someone until you have walked for a while in their shoes. Or at least take some time to hear their stories. I would also like to recommend Gabor Mate’s latest book, “In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts.” Dr. Mate is a Vancouver physician whose practice is fulltime in our downtown eastside among addicts, homeless and other marginalized people.
Aaron, I thank you for your post, your logic and your heart. The obvious (to me) is that many in our societies just cannot cope with the “modern” world, and to many the way to cope is to cauterize their own moral outrage. What is the drag on a society of humans with at least the semblance of a caring interest in each other? For those of us who have vested interests that condone the acts perpetrated in our names…wake up and at least acknowledge to yourself your responsibilities for the results. Our so-called leaders have drug us over the line of moral responsibility and its not the time to put on blinders.
Well Aaron,
you can pretend that those being gunned down are third generation immigrants that only want to live a peaceful life there, But the reality is that gangs from around the world find Canada a soft touch. Take a flight there and then file refugee status. It takes years to go through the process. It has allowed many undesirables to enter North America and then slip away never to be seen again. It has also allowed many to flee prosecution in their own countries under the guise of persecution.When you will be prosecuted for going against the laws of your own country, it seems to be a good time to head to Canada. What is happening to the aboriginal population and the drug addicts is another matter. They are not the ones getting into gun battles. It is the lowlife scum who are taking advantage of them that are taking turns at the OK corral.
I also understand that some immigrants that do want a quiet life find it hard to be gainfully employed. The offer to grow bud for the gangs is a lucrative option. We have also read of the home invasions in Vancouver by rival gangs on these otherwise quiet people.
The body count continues there and it’s not of farmers in Surrey. The names on the list of bodies give you some glimpse of the truth.
Cheers from Costa Rica,
AlbertoIt would appear that the ‘soft touch’ doesn’t work, it seems that the ‘hard touch’ does not work either – Where does that leave us?
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Pew reports record number of Americans in jail or prison by Ken Morgan.
Baltimore Times
Originally posted 3/24/2008
The Pew Charitable Trust Foundation’s Center on the States Public Performance Project released a report three weeks ago stating that as of the beginning of the year, 2,319,258 adults were incarcerated. This number represents a ratio of 1:99 of the U.S. population.
The report indicates that the United States is the world leader when it comes to incarceration. China has 1.5 million people locked up. The report identified increasing costs associated with the rise. This ratio is a historic first.
“For all the money spent on corrections today, there hasn’t been a clear and convincing return for public safety,” said Adam Gelb, director of the Public Safety Performance Project. “More and more states are beginning to rethink their reliance on prisons for lower-level offenders and finding strategies that are tough on crime without being so tough on taxpayers.”
The 2006 U.S. Department of Justice data recorded one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 were behind bars. For black men between the same ages, it is one in nine.
Men are about 13 times more likely to be incarcerated than women. Still, the female population continues to grow at a rapid pace. One out of 100 black women in their mid to late thirties are incarcerated. This is compared to 1 out of 335 white women of the same age.The report reports that “prison growth and higher incarceration rates do not reflect a parallel increase in crime, or a corresponding surge in the nation’s population at large.”
It attributes more persons behind bars “because of a wave of policy choices that are sending more lawbreakers to prison and, through popular ‘three-strikes’ measures and other sentencing laws, imposing longer prison stays on inmates.
Susan K. Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States suggested alternatives to incarceration in some cases. She said, “Some state policy makers are experimenting with a range of community punishments that are as effective as incarceration in protecting public safety and allow states to put the brakes on prison growth.” These are for lower risk offenders.
Some methods cited in the report include day reporting centers, treatment facilities, electronic monitoring systems and community service. The report cites that Kansas and Nevada reduce prison and jail time for inmates who successfully complete programs that are designed to reduce recidivism, such a drug treatment programs.
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Scott Oliver- Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comMaybe at least part of the cure is to legalize it and tax it. Take the profit out of the pockets of the criminals and put it to use fighting the problem. I get the feeling the last federal government was heading in that direction until getting their little Canadian fingers slapped by the DEA.
The money could go to better education for parents and kids. There are a lot less people smoking these days and I imagine that’s because of the tons of money spent over long period of time in this country on education and prevention. Imagine the money we’d have for health care, social programs, treatment centers and so on. Far less stabbings, shootings, murders, prostitution, break and enters etc. so the police can go more back to preventing crime instead of responding to it.
In Canada the government funds some growers for medical marijuana already. If you have cancer, HIV, arthritis etc. you can sign up and get a perscription. I say lets try it full on with cocaine and heroin. It can’t be worse than what we have now. But if it’s ever done, it should be done right and not like how it’s done now where we just dip one toe in the water and yell out to the world “look what we’re doing here.” “Aren’t we progressive?” We’re not. We’re not even close to making a dent and we’ve been at it for 9 years.
As part of the plan I think we need to have the courts get serious on those who choose to break the drug laws – whatever they are. It’s a joke around here. People smoke crack and shoot heroin on Hastings St. all day long. I recall seeing a documentary where they were interviewing a crack smoker on a busy street corner (Hastings and Main)with two cops right behind him but facing the other way. He takes a hoot off of the pipe just as they’re turning around and it was like a little joke to him as they asked him what he just did. He knows all they would do is step on his glass crack pipe and search him for more. As long as he’s not holding dealer amounts he’d walk away a free man. They knew what he’d just done and they walked away so they wouldn’t look like they didn’t care I guess. They can’t arrest him because there’s no penalty and sometimes the crown prosecutor won’t even take the charge!
I can’t speak out publicly where I live because part of my work/income comes from public money directly related to drugs, addiction and treatment. So it’s been really nice to be able to express myself here. Thanks for listening.
I agree with you ssure on more or less everything you have to say here. I work in mental health and some of my clients have concurrent (addiction and mental health) disorders. It seems that here in Vancouver we have gone overboard on harm reduction while doing squat about education, enforcement and treatment. I have some freedom to speak out and I do whereever possible. I have recently done some writing on homelessness for the Pivot Legal Society and, if you’re interested, as soon as it’s printed I can forward the information to you through Scott if he would be so willing. Cheers.
Aaron
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