Harvey Specter
05-31-2009, 02:30 AM
What a shame this city has become.
VANCOUVER — Vancouver’s reputation suffered another black eye this week after a story in an international magazine compared British Columbia to Colombia, a country infamous for drugs, cartels and violence.
In an article titled “British Columbia or Colombia?” The Economist said organized crime had brought fear and violence to Vancouver’s streets.
“Canada remains one of the world’s safest countries but in recent years Vancouver, B.C.’s largest city, has gained notoriety for gun crime, especially among drug gangs,” said the article, going on to cite the nearly 450 gangsters killed in Vancouver since 1997.
The article quotes Pat Fogarty, a senior officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, linking Vancouver’s drug war to a crackdown on drug trafficking in Mexico and the United States disrupting the cocaine distribution chain to Canada, putting supply at a premium.
The article points the finger of blame in part at jurisdictional conflicts between the various police services charged with keeping the Lower Mainland safe. Rob Gordon, a criminologist at Simon Fraser University, told The Economist that past efforts to create an agency to fight drug gangs have foundered on conflicts among the various participating police forces.
“Despite some recent high-profile arrests of gangsters, Vancouver’s local police admit they are not winning the war,” the article states. “They complain of having fewer officers per head of population than other big Canadian cities. The provincial government is planning a $20 M cut in annual spending on police and the courts by 2012. The gangsters, by contrast, are well funded and have little trouble replacing those lost in shoot-outs.”
It’s not the first recent example of bad European press for Vancouver. Last month, The Independent, a British newspaper, described Vancouver as a “blood-splattered” city.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
VANCOUVER — Vancouver’s reputation suffered another black eye this week after a story in an international magazine compared British Columbia to Colombia, a country infamous for drugs, cartels and violence.
In an article titled “British Columbia or Colombia?” The Economist said organized crime had brought fear and violence to Vancouver’s streets.
“Canada remains one of the world’s safest countries but in recent years Vancouver, B.C.’s largest city, has gained notoriety for gun crime, especially among drug gangs,” said the article, going on to cite the nearly 450 gangsters killed in Vancouver since 1997.
The article quotes Pat Fogarty, a senior officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, linking Vancouver’s drug war to a crackdown on drug trafficking in Mexico and the United States disrupting the cocaine distribution chain to Canada, putting supply at a premium.
The article points the finger of blame in part at jurisdictional conflicts between the various police services charged with keeping the Lower Mainland safe. Rob Gordon, a criminologist at Simon Fraser University, told The Economist that past efforts to create an agency to fight drug gangs have foundered on conflicts among the various participating police forces.
“Despite some recent high-profile arrests of gangsters, Vancouver’s local police admit they are not winning the war,” the article states. “They complain of having fewer officers per head of population than other big Canadian cities. The provincial government is planning a $20 M cut in annual spending on police and the courts by 2012. The gangsters, by contrast, are well funded and have little trouble replacing those lost in shoot-outs.”
It’s not the first recent example of bad European press for Vancouver. Last month, The Independent, a British newspaper, described Vancouver as a “blood-splattered” city.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service