Take 50% of the cops that are part of the traffic detail and station them downtown on the streets. Start actually arresting the drug people as they are openly dealing drugs on the street. You can't walk through downtown without either being offered drugs or see a deal going down. Then once they are arrested, take as much time as possible to process them so it is at least a few days before they hit the streets again. Then repeat, basically make their life not so easy to operate and in general clean up downtown.

Oh boy, I can see all the dirt bag driven pearl white escalades driving out of town as fast as they can now!Our little mayor has been "having talks" with who?superintendent Chambers!, wow I feel safer already.Hey little Colin, wake up and smell the coffee dude, this is not a new problem, where have you been for the last 8 years?Now you are promising all resources to the RCMP.......please

LMAO, if anyone thinks they can do a damn thing about it without changing some laws, they are living in dream land.

The mayor flapping his lips about what he is going to do sure sounds good to the people that live in PG that are really clueless about anything in general, never mind gang problems.

Typical sheep herder leading the sheep.

As the article mentioned, the shootings are all targeted attacks, but it would seem that it's just a matter of time before some innocent bystander gets caught in the crossfire. It's almost a miracle it hasn't happened yet.

Many of the crack-shacks that get busted are back in operation a short time later.
Shut down and demolish the crack-shacks.

Laws need to change. Until that happens, PG will continue to be gang-friendly.

The thing is: the gangs have more money than the city/police do although the funds stay at the top. Money equals resources so they are able to keep moving around 1 step ahead of the police. The States have the Rico laws where proceeds of crime are seized on the spot. I say streamline the process in canada so the gangs can be hit where it hurst - their bank accounts. Then the glamourous movie portrayed lifestyle won't be so appealing to their rank and file.

Talk, talk, talk we need more police , more studies, special prosicutors. One unseccussfull drive by shooting and you would think the sky is falling. Great battlefield no shoppers.

We need government to change the frigen legislation if we want to stop these crimes.

Cheers

I agree Bridge and Imorg!
The problem is with the gutless politicians we elect!
There has to be a way to hold them accountable for the revolving door justice system we have.
The solutuions have to come from the top down,but that will never happen until our fearless and politically correct leaders grow a pair of cajone`s!

I agree with all!

Prevent a gang member from owning a gun for three to five years??!?!? and let him back out on the streets....

...because you KNOW he's going to abide by that ruling. Why wouldn't he after all? He's a law abiding citizen to begin with.

Get your heads out of your @%$#$%@!!

Put them in jail and throw away the key.

People cry about how much it costs to house them.

You are right people, it's much cheaper to hunt them down, arrest them, pay to transport them to and from court several times, feed them in the meantime, pay for their lawyer, pay a judge and then let them out so that they can report to yes, you guessed it, a paid probation or parole officer....only to do it all over again in a week or two.

Because they promise they won't do it again.

THROW AWAY THE KEY!!!!!!

The drug trade is to big and has to many resorces ie: MONEY!!. Nothing you, me or anyone does will even make a dent. But good luck! And good luck finding doors in which to throw away the keys for....lol Good luck! All we ever do is put the LITTLE guys away anyway, they are a dime a dozen! Freaks trying to keep the money flowing for their drug habit. You will hardly ever find the big guys... And you never will!! They are to well protected and never directly deal. But good luck! I truly do hope for the best but I will not fool myself at the same time.
Have a nice day all!

It will never happen without civil disobedience forcing it to happen.
The politicians/lawyers stand to lose way too much.

Dearest Shellshadow,

The LITTLE guys are the ones who are operating these new gangs. They aren't run by the high end business men of the past. These are disorganized groups of misfits who have managed to band together in smaller groups.

That is what we are now dealing with. Putting them away will make a difference!

The Hell's Angel's, however frightening and bad...not that I agree with what they do either, BUT...they have been around for a very long time, much longer than I can remember AND if they wanted to get rid of someone they just did it. It was the "underworld" and it's always been here, but it never put the average person at risk. Only those who played in that arena. If you play in that arena, then you are welcome to it.

This new breed of "punk" gangs do not follow any "dirt bag code" of ethics, they just run around high and act irrationally.

It's not a large group, it's small handfulls of very young people doing this right now.

Have you not heard of a "handful" of criminals actually being responsible for the crimes?

that is what is going on now.

DISORGANIZED CRIME!

Dearest Vigil :}~

Thank you for clearing that up for me. If you think for one minute that this is all about disorganized crime you are mistaken. And you give power now to the bikers and other forms of organized crime. That is exactly what they want us to believe. Who do you think supplies the drugs for these "new breed of unorganized punks" hmmmm. Come on Sweets! They neither have the organization (which you yourself said) or the money!

Actually pal, I do happen to know. That's the scary part.

wish I didn't.

And if you care to research it a little, you will find that the independent soldiers are little more than a few punks who have just united. Same as the Indian Posse and the Persian Knights. (we now have five gangs in PG)

Most of these have arrived as they have been the "enforcers" or have simply done all the dirty work for the larger more organized groups. Then they wanted a piece of the pie.

THUS the gang war!

What the hell do you think they are fighting over? If it was these "BIG GUYS" with their money, wouldn't they all be working for the same one?

They stay in just long enough to learn the trade and now they want to try and take it over.

These are the handful of criminals who are causing the late night gunfire and the gunplay in our neighborhoods.

The crew was set up by the Nomads, who are the elite of the Hells Angels and can set up in any city. They have no boundaries as to area.

The Renegades have been set up by the Hells Angels themselves and originated as a men's club until they could prove they could operate in business...but they can only operate in this city but no others.

You obviously have the internet. Do some research before you spout off.

So now they are here and the organized crime has stopped. lol Okayyyyy I think some one needs to go take a chill pill of some sort. And yes I agree with you in one area, I wish you did not know either!

PGTV should show the movie "Death Wish" with Chuck Bronson (ol'stone face) as many times as it takes to get noticed by our populace. Then wait.

The organised ones are who they are trying to take over from bean brain.

um...again...THUS the gang war?!?

Read the whole thing, don't just quit when your brain gets strained.

Vigil!!!! There is no need to get rude and abusive with someone because they do not fully agree with you!! You came down on me for saying exactly what you said only differently. You are not an expert on the subject otherwise you would be down at city hall and actually doing something about it. And you know, maybe you are an expert! I frankly dont give a damn ...I was just stating my thoughts on the subject. End of story!

I simply get frustrated with the "they are so big there's nothing we can do story".

That is why we are where we are. I won't even go downtown at this point. Why shop there when there are other places to shop where you don't have to dodge bullets and knives. There have been several stabbings downtown in broad daylight and some have involved innocent people.

They are not too big, putting them in jail once they do catch them is a start. People who think that won't do any good are simply adding to the problem.

That was my point to begin with...that you found so amusing.

Keep them in jail, don't let them out the very next day. It will make a difference, it has to. and we are getting desperate.

If people start to stand up, it will stop. They are just people too....not to mention, they ARE the minority, we keep forgetting that.

What you suggest is not going to happen vigil, I am sorry if that frustrates you. Yes we are the majority but we are law abiding. Unfortunately that is our downfall in fighting these kinds of people. I would gladly stand up! But againts someone with a knife or gun, what would the end result be Vigil? And the way you stood up for me today on here...just for speaking my mind....hmmmm I dare say there would be no one standing behind me when I did stand up. So you see, everyone is stumped on how to solve this problem but no one...even you, has any answers. I like your passion though..:}

I rather 81 club next door to me than these other classless pukes.

We don't need to restrict civil rights to tackle this problem... there will always be crime of this sort no matter how many laws we have. What we need to do is make life hell for them with the existing laws and fight their comforts smart with some viger from law enforcement. If they see PG as unfriendly to their business then they will move on (the violent big money gangsters anyways)... its not just the RCMP but the whole community, the city, and the province that need to coordinate their efforts to change perceptions at the street level. That is usually the role of the mayor to make sure this coordination is taking place.

I agree with eagleone on the "its not just the RCMP" that needs to deal with this huge problem. Good for the city to recognise and act on the problem--better late than never--better some than no help at all.
The city also did us a favour by recognising that pawn shops are a contributing factor in all this and by trying to do something about it.

So who else is needed to help deal with this problem of drugs, gangs and all the stealing, buying and selling of stolen property? ANSWER; EVERYONE and especially parents.

I don't know if most people realise just how much effect this all has on virtually everyone in some form or another. It costs each and everyone of us thousands of dollars each year because of drugs,theft and security and fighting these crimes. It costs us to catch them, to convict them, to defend them and to jail them. Everything we buy costs more and anything of value must be fortified by security systems and insured against theft which isn't cheap because everything seems to be stolen at one time or another.

"Resources" are needed and the more money which is allocated for fighting this particular problem the better.It costs money to catch these people and it costs lots more money to catch them as quickly as possible. It even costs more yet to have expertise which can coordinate the proscecution and conviction with law enforcement.

Many more things need to happen to reduce this problem of ours to a tolerable level-if there is such a thing. It takes everyone to do what they can at all levels,from parliment to the youngest kids to fight this collectively. It must target the importers of drugs, the major distributors and gangs right down to the smallest kid pushers BUT most of all we need to reduce the entry of new drug consumers which drive this whole criminal drug empire and economic system.

It took the horific events of nine eleven to take serious the threat of terrorism--change laws-fight dirty and get results quickly to protect the public.
I believe that what is happening everywhere in society-- that the problems caused by drugs are far worse than nine eleven. Its high time to seriously deal with OUR drug problems.

Our MP is no pot smoking burnout gimp that supports legalising soft drugs or tolerating all this other havoc. SO we must remind him that this is why we elected him to loudly voice this in parliment so that perhaps pressure will mount to change laws--fight as dirty as needed to protect the public.

I don't think Dick (oblivious) Harris is the solution.

And parliament can pass more laws, but it will only serve in most cases to restrict freedoms and rights in the name of a boggyman. These guys can be caught for the most part with current laws and better coordination from other stakeholders. Once there caught thats an entirely different argument when it comes to laws IMO.

Eagleone....I wasn't thinking of Harris, I was thinking of Jay Hill as he is in a very strategic position.

Not to be confrontational but I have to say that your mixed message is somewhat typical of why things stay status quo or worsen when it comes to change in our legal/justice and penal system.

I am no legal/human rights expert but it is obvious that change is needed. These existing laws/rights are not working when it comes to a dirty world which has learned how to outfox the limitations of our existing system. Its ineffective, unecesarily inefficent throughout and many people are needlessly suffering because of it.
I used the nine eleven analogy to stimulate the question of when is enough--enough to actually deal with OUR problem.

When do we pull our heads out of the sand and realise we must compromise a little--put a little trust into law enforcement to widen their options of catching these criminals who are doing enormous harm to our society. I say its wrong that criminals have more devices to protect their rights than we do and thats about where its at.

How many months,years and sometimes decades do you think we should have to wait until law enforcement can legally collect enough evidence which a judge will sentence someone who they knew all along was an active criminal? All the while they are selling drugs to our kids which need to steal our stuff to pay them and likely then are dragged into the lowlife and perhaps lifelong criminal world which perpetuates this cycle.

It is the same underlying overprotective philosophy towards rights of suspect/criminals as it is throughout the following stages of conviction, sentencing, duration and the whole notion of punishment that isn't working.

Part of the problem is we are importing the problems from other areas. P.G. even has programs for pedolphiles and they are sent her from as far away as Ontario. Now we are bringing in people from all over Canada to our new big Drug rehab out in the booneys. My question is, are they given tickets to go back to where they came from if they do not stick with the programs??? How many have dropped out ?? Where are they now?? Maybe Downtown staying at the HOMELESS SHELTER??Here we are building new apartments for them on Queensway to get their lives back ,more people to walk the the streets downtown.

You noticed Woodchipper lol. I was thinking that myself. I'm all for getting the bad guys off the street, but get leery when we start taking about giving law enforcement more powers... when they are already unaccountable as it is, and things like the Ian Bush fiasco stick out in my mind. It seems to me they have no problem catching the criminals... its once they are caught that deals made by the police or prosecutors are setting these guys free for the most part, and if they don't get out of jail free from pleading a deal, then they get out by lax sentencing.

So am all for tough on crime, but I'm not for the police state and its a fine balance which is why you might detect a mixed message.

I'd be in full support of a law cutting out the deal making process that allows criminals to tell stories to get out of their crimes. There should be a law against any deals being made either by the police or prosecutors so those caught serve time and those not caught will be in time though old fashion police work rather then the snitch networking which does more to sully the justice system then enhance it. The smart criminals with good stories never serve time and the flip side is often an injustice of double proportions.

I'd also be in favor of manditory sentencing once a person is conviceted in a court of law.

I'd also be in support of limiting the movement of convicted criminals in the country, as well as better emigration enforcement...

But on further reflection I don't support more powers to the police who already have more then enough to do their job in a free and democratic society where people have rights. Better coordination yes, but more encroachment on civil liberties no.

Eagleone..."Police state" is not what needs to happen nor do we need to go from one extreme to the other, but we do need to move towards the middle. The middle would be a state of which can effectively control its crime, its drug problems.

Status quo is unacceptable to most people including me and dismissing this as something which is not important enough to act upon is why it has gotten so bad. To give you a little credit is that the little changes which you propose will in fact do a little good, over time. But this is no little problem and time is not on our side. The longer this goes the harder it gets to bring under control--the more people which become addicts--the more people who cannot get out for one reason or another.

In response to your example of the "Ian Bush fiasco" you elude to only one of the many issues of which this unfortuante event illustrates. What about the other lessons learned from this--such as that our young people need to respect our police and not want to take a run at them.
That we are not able to recruit enough police or keep the senior ones we have.
Who would want a job that is demoralising because no matter how much effort you put into your work it seldom succeeds through the courts, because of the overprotective system we have--which isn't working.

Eagleone you refer to "civil liberties" as something important which I agree they are, but you cannot have your cake and eat it too. We cannot continue to allow all the crack houses, the rampant criminal element to keep spreading like cancer through our supposedly civilised country, and let this keep spreading because we don't want to provide our law enforcement the legal/justice system the directions that are needed to bring this under control.
Do you actually now have civil liberties? when you spend half of your day locking your stuff?, working more to pay theft insurance?, not feeling safe to walk our streets?, worrying about our kids? our families? living beside a crackshack? which the police cant stop? because of THEIR CIVIL liberties?

Good luck with your "tough on crime" stance of proven inadequate theories which haven't worked, won't work and will never work to-- the degree necesary- until the fundamental change is made to the civil liberties of criminals.

Take a drive downtown about 9 PM you will not belive what is going on, why is nothing being done??