The shootings in Surrey this year are already making last year look calm and orderly.
Last year there were 60 shooting incidents in Surrey, and this year, after three in three days, the city has already hit 31 incidents. One man was hospitalized after one of the recent trio.
The only silver lining in the cloud of gunsmoke over Surrey is that most of the shots have been fired by gangs who can’t shoot straight. Unlike in the spasm of violence that engulfed the Lower Mainland almost a decade ago, there have been relatively few deaths.
Murders actually declined in 2015 in Surrey from 2014, despite an increase in attempted murders and the shell casings littering the roads.
The dark side is that the violence, as with past gang wars, can always spread.
There has already been a recent shooting incident in Langley, and Delta was embroiled in the violence fairly early on.
It’s easy to call for action, but it’s sometimes hard to say what more could be done.
The Surrey RCMP is already in the middle of a historic expansion, with 100 new officers requested, and the majority already arrived and working.
Since the Red Scorpions/UN Gang/Independent Soldiers/Hells Angels gang war of 2008/09, the police had stepped up on every front. They had locked up many of the key gang members who weren’t already dead, and the province had put forward new anti-gang programs to keep kids from joining.
But despite everything – a booming economy, anti-gang efforts, more Mounties – the violence has started up again, and shows no sign of calming down.
How many avenues of attack are there on a problem caused by a bunch of violent fools with too many guns?
– M.C.