REMEMBER THE FAMILIES

There are many casualties whenever someone dies. The heartache and
anguish is far worse when someone dies violently.

The common reaction when we hear of someone dying as a result of an
outbreak of gang violence - which unfortunately, has been far too
common in Surrey in recent weeks - is "good riddance."

While this reaction is understandable, given the scourge that
gun-toting members of drug gangs are to society at large, it misses
out on one important point. There are people who loved that victim of
violence - parents, friends and relatives. Many of them do not
condone, and in fact abhor, the activity that person has been involved
in - but they love them anyway.

I was reminded of this fact when learning about a young man being shot
as he sat in his Range Rover outside Guildford Town Centre.

The shooting of 21-year-old Raphael Baldini took place in broad
daylight on Tuesday afternoon - at a time when many people were at the
shopping centre. The brazen nature of the offence put the lives and
health of many innocent people at risk, and that is
unacceptable.

Nonetheless, this young man had a family who loved him. I found out
Wednesday that one of my co-workers is related by marriage to him. The
family is devastated.

It's another reminder of just how tragic and pointless this endless
gang war over who controls the drug trade is. Young people are
attracted to drugs, often in school, by the easy money that comes
their way when they start making sales to their classmates.

They soon get caught up in a cycle that inevitably leads to serious
consequences, up to and including death. Yet this does not deter most
of them. The lure of easy money is too much - and they gradually lose
any sense of responsibility towards others than they may once have
had.

It is also disturbing that this young man had a link to perhaps the
worst gang-related murder in Surrey's history - the slaying of six
people at a Whalley high-rise in October, 2007. Thus far, no one has
been arrested in connection with that gangland slaying, which saw four
people with gang ties and two innocent people, Chris Mohan and Ed
Schellenberg, murdered.

Police will likely find it difficult to solve this latest killing,
just as they have had little luck with the 2007 slayings. The
witnesses who are directly involved will not talk, and many of them
are killed in further sequels of the gang wars.

In fact, this is one of the disturbing things about the latest
slaying.

Because he rented the suite where the six were murdered, he may have
taken to the grave some vital information.

There needs to be stiff consequences for anyone who is arrested with a
handgun. That is one of the few ways that some of this violence can be
contained. There also needs to be more intense efforts to stop weapons
smuggling into Canada, because almost all the handguns used in these
murders are brought in from the United States.

But as our society debates how best to reduce, even slightly, this
unbridled gang violence, let's not forget that the families of the
victims are often just as victimized.