DIFFICULT BATTLE TO WIN RIGHT NOW

On Saturday, Solicitor General John van Dongen came to Kelowna to talk
tough about our law enforcement's crackdown on gang violence.

He was joined by local MLAs Al Horning and Rick Thorpe, and members of
the RCMP.

While his words were tough, phrases like taking back the streets of
British Columbia and clamping down on the illegal sale and possession
of firearms, how the government's new policies will have an impact on
the gang violence raging in the Lower Mainland is hard to see.

While one wants to be optimistic, you get the sense that this issue is
beyond the control of police at the moment.

Gang warfare over drug turf is nothing new in the Lower Mainland. It
happened during the mid-1990s, and the problem was resolved then only
when the main small group instigating all the trouble was run out of
town or its members killed by rivals. The police seemed as powerless
then to stop that violence as they are now.

And while the public may be outraged by the violent antics of recent
weeks, perhaps we need to look in the mirror and realize many of us as
individuals are a big part of the problem.

How many of us are drug customers of those gangs that profit from the
sale of illicit drugs? How many of us look the other way when crimes
are committed, when we could help police to solve them?

How many wayward kids end up in gangs because of a broken home
life?

The illegal drug trade in B.C., as it is across North America, is a
sophisticated economic enterprise that preys on the weak and vulnerable.

Just adding more cops on the organized gang beat by itself isn't
enough to change that.