LET'S KICK THEM OUT!

Neighbours in Whalley have a warning for crack-house owners and
occupants: Get out or we'll get you out.

They've done it before and they say they'll do it again.

"We want to organize this whole neighbourhood, not just our block, to
get the message out that these degenerates have to go somewhere else,"
Block Watch organizer Brent Boyd said yesterday.

Boyd and other residents -- reeling at revelations of at least two
murders as well as torture, extortion and prostitution at a
crack-house at 13832 108th Ave. -- say they "gathered courage" last
year to form a Block Watch group.

They forced out the tenants of at least three drug
houses.

But some of the dealers and users "just shifted a block away" to the
so-called house of horrors on 108th Avenue.

Boyd confronted landlords and the druggies; the police increased
pressure with numerous patrols and the Surrey bylaw department pursued
infractions vigorously.

Some of the landlords "were making a lot of money by getting the
tenants' welfare cheques deposited directly to their accounts," Boyd
said.

"We told them we wouldn't stand for what their tenants were
doing."

Now, said Boyd, landlords are getting the message that they can't
"just rent to anyone and let their property deteriorate."

Resident Sandy Gillis, 60, who has lived in her house for 28 years,
calls Boyd "our knight in shining armour, who refused to be
intimidated by these people."

"This is our neighbourhood and when we finally got the courage to
organize and do something about these degenerates, we made progress,"
she said.

"We had Mayor [Doug] McCallum come to our meetings and he fast-tracked
our Block Watch organization.

"But when it came right down to it, it was up to us. Neighbours have
to organize because the city, the police and the bylaw people all have
limited powers."

Block Watch members who visited some of the crack-houses described
them as "disgusting" and "utterly depraved."

"There were junkies shooting up and smoking, girls 14 and 15 years old
paid to have sex while others watched, and the houses themselves were
just trashed, human feces everywhere," said one.

"We'd convince one landlord to get them out and the same faces would
show up at another house a few blocks away."

Joseph Francis Legassie, 38, and Joanna Lee Larson, 31, were charged
yesterday with the first-degree murder last April of Annette Allan, a
28-year-old prostitute who hung around the 108th Avenue house. Her
body was found in the Fraser River last June 4.

Both accused are in custody. Three others arrested last week were
released yesterday.

Surrey RCMP Cpl. Pete Cross said police believe a man who is yet to be
identified was murdered last May 12 at the house.

"Torture definitely took place at that house, not a torture chamber
exactly, but torture of people who owed money for drugs or were needed
to do robberies," Cross said.

Blood at the house yielded DNA from five unknown people, four of them
women.

An elderly neighbour who has lived nearby for 40 years said she knew
"Joe" Legassie as the main tenant of the 108th Avenue house.

"I'd say hello to Joe but I was terrified, especially of men going in
night and day, and the women, who were prostitutes. I've been robbed
and threatened and I saw them right in my yard many times," she said,
asking not to be identified for fear of reprisal.

Legassie's elderly father, Gerald, said he visited his son at the
house "but I didn't like what I saw, people openly smoking drugs, and
some very strange people there. The drugs are just very bad."

The owner of the house is Ching-Cheng Lai, a businessman, and his wife
Hsui-Feng H. Lai, a homemaker, who also own two nearby homes. They did
not return messages left on a Chinese-language voice mail.

Jim Clow, 64, owner of the Cozy Cafe in Whalley, remembers murder
victim Annette Allan as "a real tough girl" who often arrived at his
restaurant at the 6 a.m. opening.

"They close one [crack house] down and within a week another one opens
up," Clow said.

The neighbourhood has slipped a great deal since he opened his
business 11 years ago.

"On any given day, there's 10 to 15 people trying to sell you
something that is hot," he said.

"Over the years, it's changed dramatically. . . It's gone downhill and
downhill."