Guns and gangs, murder and mayhem — it sounds like the makings of another great murder mystery, except this time it’s real life in the Fraser Valley during the past two weeks.
Three infamous gangster brothers, Jonathan, Jarrod and Jamie Bacon, are linked to a drug gang known as the Red Scorpions. They live in Abbotsford, BC, under camera surveillance by the RCMP who have also issued a warning to the community “to steer clear of the Bacons, their family and friends” because rivals have been killing their associates, one by one, in locations around the lower mainland.
People are being shot down in apartment buildings, outside restaurants, in shopping malls, and innocent bystanders are being caught in the crossfire. It feels surreal. But how our communities are proposing to deal with it is just as bizarre.
In Langley where the most recent incident took place, the mayor in a TV news interview said that stopping the violence is “a legislative thing.” The brother-in-law of one of the victims thinks along the same lines, saying “[Attorney-General] Wally Oppal had better do something about it now.” On talk radio yesterday I heard a caller say, “Parliament has to outlaw the use of illegal firearms.” Oh, sure… just tell the gangs their weapons are illegal and no doubt they’ll hand them right over.
I can’t believe they think the solution is that simple. If it were, our communities would have been violence-free centuries ago. While I don’t know what the answer is, I know it won’t be discovered by expecting someone else to find it.
MUSINGS 
Very good article, Careann. And rightfully brought to light. We can’t let ourselves become immune to these killings. As a mother, and a former Fraser Valley resident, my heart breaks for those mothers. It’s bad enough to lose a child, but under such violent circumstances. I can’t imagine. But my son is at war, so I suppose I can.
I wish I knew what to do. On TV and in movies the solution seems so pact: stop them. Perhaps, we should do all of the above. Stop the automatic weapons at the border. Set stricter laws and tougher penalties. Punish the offender instead of smacking them on the knuckles and setting them free. If our sons acted this way as children, would we sit back and do nothing?
No, I’m sure we wouldn’t. To my mind the “tougher penalties” aspect would be an effective deterrent but it’s unpopular with those who favour rehabilitation over punishment and those who worry about the costs. It seems, too, that the more focus society puts on individual rights and freedoms, the more difficult it becomes to control criminal activity because the lawbreakers have rights that have to be upheld even when sometimes they seem to supersede the general population’s. It’s a legal/moral dilemma.