Barricades up outside gangsters' homes to deter drive-by shootings
 

Barricades up outside gangsters' homes to deter drive-by shootings


By Katie Mercer, The ProvinceMarch 28, 2009Comments (107)
StoryPhotos ( 3 )

http://www.theprovince.com/1440591.bin



More Images » The City of Vancouver has set up barricades on southeast Vancouver streets to deter the threat of drive-by shootings at two alleged gangsters' homes.Photograph by: Arlen Redekop, The Province


Vancouver police are deterring drive-by shootings by setting up cement barricades outside of gangsters' homes.

The temporary cement blocks sit in front of two houses in southeast Vancouver in the 1200-block of East 63rd Avenue and the 900-block of East 54th Avenue.

Const. Jana McGuinness confirmed the barricades are to prevent drive-by shootings.

They were set up as part of Project Rebellion, which has police concentrating on the city’s most violent gangsters.

The barricades are meant to slow down people driving by the homes, deterring them from firing shots and speeding off.

City engineer Murray Whiteman, who is responsible for street operations, said the barriers are a cost-effective way to curb gunplay.

“It’s just the cost of loading the truck and moving them there,” he said, adding he believes there are only two locations currently set up.

Citing the ongoing investigation, McGuinness declined to comment further on why the locations were chosen. But The Province has learned the targeted residences are home to Udham Singh Sanghera, 58, and Gurpreet Singh Bains, 23.

Sanghera is the alleged patriarch of the Sanghera crime group, who police say is at war with the Buttar gang. He was arrested Feb. 23 through Project Rebellion and is facing several gun and ammunition charges.

Also arrested from the crime group was Robert Gordon Taylor and Sanghera’s son Bobby, who police say was wearing a bulletproof vest and had three guns in his car when he was taken down “in hunting mode.”

Both Sanghera and Taylor were denied bail on March 16.

A man who answered the Sangheras' home phone Saturday hung up when questioned by a reporter about the barricades.

Likewise, Bains covered his face and went back inside his parents' home at 996 E. 54th Ave. when a reporter approached him in his driveway on Friday.

Bains, who is allegedly a member of the Independent Soldiers, has been the target of drive-bys at least twice before. His house was shot up in September 2007 and again last November.

Just four months before the last shooting, Bains had an attempted-murder charge and several weapons offences against him stayed.

The charges stemmed from a July 6, 2006, shooting at another south Vancouver house that targeted a teenager charged with impaired driving causing the death of Sukhvinder Singh (Bicky) Dosanjh, the leader of the Independent Soldiers.

A young woman who lives in the Bains’s residence told The Province that she didn’t know the reason for the blockades. She refused to comment on why there are surveillance cameras mounted on the house.

But residents in the neighbourhoods aren’t fooled. They say they knew immediately why the barricades were set up.

“It’s to stop shooting in between the houses and it’s a way to slow down traffic,” Amber Atwal said. “It’s a nuisance and a problem for parking for the whole neighbourhood, just because of them, but it’s working.”

kmercer@theprovince.com

© Copyright (c) The Province

LOL your tax dollars at work! protecting criminals instead of aresting them.

the baracades are now big "shoot the house here" signs LOL...

^ couldnt have said it better myself =p

im glad im slaving hard and honest at my job, so i can pay for these guys' protection and allow them to continue to make illegal money many times greater than mine.

Fucking ridiculous...Canada is a fucking joke...

Nice S5.

Kev

The baricades do nothing. If they really wanted to shoot up the house, they'd ride by on a bike instead.

:thumbsup:

This and cops acting as bodyguards for gangsters on taxpayer money.

my mom couldn't stop laughing when she saw this on the news

useless you can get out and shoot, then have get away car waiting!!!

lol
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/n...-jap/o_rly.jpg
ahhhhhhh their neighbours must feel so safe nao
thx vpd <3

you have got to be fucking kidding me.....


do the police not realize that this is just going to get us pissed off.... we want you to stop the crime not to protect the criminals so they can keep on being criminals


if they want to remove the risk of these criminals of being shot they should put them into the pre-trial centre until its decided that its safe for them to come out ;)

LMAO!!!
this is fucking unbelievable!

drive-by's are usually inaccurate anyways. gangsters should just rig each other's houses with bombs and save the community's taxes.

guys, i got the perfect plan, tell me what you think:

http://i40.tinypic.com/2r2rrtd.jpg

wouldn't shots fired diagonally increase the risk of stray bullets and hurting pedestrians ?

stupidest idea ever!
protecting gangsters...wtf!

The VPD doesn't have enough financial resources to think about neglible things, like cars driving around the barricades or increasing the odds of stray bullets. They have to focus our tax dollars on ways to catch speeders (50.6kmph counts as speeding), street racers (huge epidemic in vancouver), no front license plates (kills millions per year), or VI for a chip in your windshield (don't care if you're on your way to autoglass shop)

Yes it would, but clearly, the shooters wouldn't care if they hit anyone else.

once more another fine example of why Canada is a haven for criminals.

This might possibly prevent drive by shootings.... now instead of driving by a house and shooting at it they will wait till the guy goes grocery shopping and shoot at him in front of IGA instead.

reported to police

we need the death penalty :\

theres a reason why they call them "drive-by" shootings. and not "walk-by with get-away vehicle waiting" shootings.

for fcks sake I drive past the barricades by the house on 60th right around the Knight street area almost everyday, my wife lives right around there. I never knew what they were for until now, thanks OP ! I thought they were to prevent those assholes in the area who keep parking and driving their fckin Big rigs all around those small streets !

I will take another way from now on since my car is way to fckin heaty for me to pass through there without attracting attention.

I gotta say though, shit's effective I can barely drive through them in the coupe, have to go really really slowly..