DOWNPLAYING GANG REALITY ISN'T PRUDENT

If Gordon Campbell really believes a British newspaper report on
B.C.'s gang violence is "a cheap shot," the premier is in serious
denial over the scope of the problem.

Campbell made the comment this week after a story in The Independent
last Sunday suggested the city's idyllic reputation had been eroded
by the 21 fatal targeted shootings since January.

The story, which describes a "suburban civil war" on Greater
Vancouver's "blood-spattered streets," recounts the rise in organized
crime over the past two decades as the province's marijuana crops
found international markets.

The story also quotes Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu on the rise in
violence: "We've always been told by media experts to never admit
that there is a gang war," he said. "Let's get serious. There is a
gang war and it's brutal."

Campbell's response to the story? "It's a shame that you have got
some people that are going to try and take some cheap shots," he
said. "It will be a great Olympics and I'm sure The Independent will
write the great stories when the time comes."

Recent arrests and prosecutions in the Lower Mainland offer a ray of
hope. Also, police rarely warn in advance of their actions in these
cases, so it's possible there is more going on in the fight against
gangs than the public has seen so far.

But the province's continued reluctance to seriously consider the
amalgamation of the patchwork of municipal police forces to tackle
the problem is a mystery.

As the killings mount, bad-news stories about B.C.'s gang problem
continue to appear in newspapers around the world - as they should.