I gotta wonder if all these recent busts involving firearms are for real? Are people actually being charged here....isn't it a min of 5 years in jail for possesion of restricted or prohibited firearms...or more? Usally the firearm charges are the first to get tossed....if your a thug. Unlike a tax payin citizen who likes to get out to hunt or to plink at a few cans now n then.

Could we get a chart that shows us all these "units" that the RCMP have going at the moment.

This one is the "Prince George Serious Crimes Unit". It is picking up guns in this case plus some drugs.

The previous articel referred to the "Special gang unit" in the title.

Then that article spoke about, and then spoke about the "Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit" (CFSEU). Sounds like the Army, Navy and Air Force. It also picked up guns and drugs.

What "forces" are combined? Regional and local? Interpol and RCMP.

All these fancy title just for a bunch of police doing the work they are supposed to do. Maybe we can get the code names of the projets they are on.

Project Blue Pills. Project Smart Catch. Project Things go better with Coke. (TBWC)

I don't care what we call them as long as they keep busting the bad guys.

gus,

I dont care what they call themselves, as long as they clean things up a bit around here.

I'd like to thank The Prince George Serious Crimes Unit. Because of them more weapons are off the street. People are quick to judge police officers but they have chosen that profession to protect us. They put their lives in danger to keep us safe. If you think you can do better then maybe you should become an officer yourself. They see things that we can't even imagine. Keep up the good work.

If the police are making such advances in the world of gang activities, why is it that everytime they announce a new bust it is bigger than it was the last time? If things were getting better, shouldn't things be calming down instead of growing at an exponential rate? Want to really impress us? Put a program in place where kids who want to exit the lifestyle have a means of being protected so they can share what they know and get out. That way, since everyone knows who did the shootings at moxies, (The police admit that they have been told over and over who did the shooting but never by an actual witness who could lead to a prosicution), the individual could be charged but this is not the case. The definition of insanity is repeating the same behaviours and expecting different results. That is why the bust are getting bigger and a sign of policy failure instead of policy success. Sure busts are great but curing symptoms and not going after root causation will only lead to failure. Go to a community gang task meeting and watch the social service leaders use the time to promote their ideas instead of working co-operatively and you'll see why the consentrated and focused gangs are winning the battle for our kids hands down. After all how many of us think the movie scarface is a great film when in fact it has become the best recruting film ever produced.

Our society is sick and we are all sheep.

Slightly off topic, but why are cops suddenly driving around in pick-ups, and regular passenger cars, flashing the red & blue, and making traffic stops, as if driving a normal police cruiser? Can't anyone get their hands on flashing lights? I think if a Honda with flashing lights, was trying to pull me over somewhere questionable, like driving through the hood, I might wonder if its legit. And what is a driver to do, if uncertain that the car pulling them over is really a cop?

Grumble grumble. Grumble. grumble.
Grumble grumble.
I can't think of anything nice to say, so I will just G...... away.
metalman.

Ghost cars have been around for as long as I can remember, the idea being that a marked patrol car tends to cause people to behave themselves, an unmarked car is more likely to catch people in the act. If your not sure it's a cop, stay in your vehicle with your window rolled up and door locked, the officer will show you id when he\she approaches you.

And REALIST....there are plenty of programs available to help people escape the shackles of gang life, but like drug addicts and alcoholics, they have to want it.

The more "units" there are, the less versatile the operation becomes and the more people they will need. The RCMP through the Division, dictates the programs we need and the staffing for those programs. The City has little say.

The single largest hit on our tax dollars is the RCMP. These are federal crimes. The feds should be taking care of paying for that, not the municipalities.

That still makes it the taxpayers. But it is those who pay income tax, not the property owners. And we can then put the blame on the people responsible for escalating the costs.

Municipalities should be taking care of policing the roads.

For all I know, some of these people, such as the serious crime unit, may be working out of the district on 5th, rather than the City.

In that case, I believe, the city taxpayers are not funding them, rather the province is.

"bad guys", eh?? I remember themn from my Saturday movie matinees when I was a kid. Cops and robbers. Great movies. Good guys (I think those were the cops in those days) always won! We knew the ending, yet we kept on paying that quarter to get in to see 3 movies.

A quarter... how old are you

1956/7 at the Rialto on Bank Street in Ottawa.

Triple matinee geared for kids. Lone Ranger & Tonto, Hop Along Cassidy, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers & Dale Evans, John Wayne ..... well, cops 'n robbers western style ... LOL.

We moved to suburbia in 1957. $17,000 for the house. Suburbia was for the pits. Preferred downtown. Lots of kids to play with.

StreetWise2:

Like most Canadians you still think of Canada as a place where we take care of our most vulnerable. Sadly, the reality is that the neo-conservative drive over the years has erroded what most Canadians consider to be available. The public remains perfectly ignorant about this until a service is needed for them or a family member. Only then do the public see how bad things have become. If you do not have a need for these services why would you take the time to find out that they are gone? Ignorance has been the best tool used by the neo-cons. There are some programs left but due to government underfunding of social services a kind of competitian has been fostered where one agency is forced to protect their funding through hiding it from other agencies. No co-operation exists and fierce competition ensure that what forces are available, can not safely work with other agencies. We saw this when the Native Friendship Centre started to have nights were youth can drop in. The problem was that Thursday nights had traditionally been used by YAP as a drop in. Instead of co-operation we get competition where this usefull service could have been provided on two night but, was thus only offered on one night.
As for the police, a witness protection progrma has in fact been non-existant and thus kids do not go to the police. Ask your own kids about this and they'll tell you how wide spread it is known that kids do not rat out gang members. This is rule number one in the kids gang knowledge. Not trying to be preachy but, the average citizen really has no idea how badly our social safety net as previously outlined in the social contract has been destroyed. This leaves nothing but open territory for gangs who are highly organized and motivated to grow and thrive.

"Sadly, the reality is that the neo-conservative drive over the years has erroded what most Canadians consider to be available."

Sadly we have what we can afford. The easy money days are gone. Services dont grow on trees and either does the money to support them.

gus, I agree with a lot of what you post, but you sure can can hung up on the most inane of points sometimes. You're so busy focussing on the tree when there's a whole forest around you that you've completely missed.

Mr PG .... can you please focus on what made you say that. I would be prepared to redpond, but forest responses rather than tree repsponses leave a lot to the imagination and I prefer to stay away from hypotheticals. :-)

BTW, if it were not for the tree, the forest would not exist. Lots of people have a hard time understanding that.

I was looking at your second post when I wrote that comment. My point being, who cares what the unit is called as long as the police are doing their job?

I understand that trees make a forest, but spending all your time looking at one or two trees is not the best way to go... IMHO.