ANTI-GANG MEASURES HAVE LITTLE LASTING VALUE

The mounting body count from brazen daylight street-gang shootings
across Canada, but especially in British Columbia, seems to make a
very strong case for beefing up the laws on gang-related crimes.

But the stiffer sanctions proposed last week, when Prime Minister
Stephen Harper and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson introduced new
anti-gang legislation, might please voters but will have little lasting value.

Automatic first-degree charges for gang-related murders, and new
charges against drive-by and public shootings, complete with
mandatory minimum sentences, will not add much to the dissuasive
power of existing laws. Murder and attempted murder, whether
committed in a suburban mall, from a moving car, or in an empty
field, by a member of a gang or by a solo shooter, are already
criminal acts with hefty sanctions against them.

Redrafting legislation is cheap, but rarely effective. If criminals
routinely made risk assessments, announcing tough new laws every so
often might be useful. But they don't.

As Quebec well knows, successful prosecution of street gangs depends
not on posturing politicians and stern laws, but on well-funded,
well-staffed and well-co-ordinated efforts across the justice system.

In this province, the 1990s biker wars kept growing because police
and the government did not know how to respond. Desperately
underfunded, police forces in Montreal and beyond were scrambling
just to count up the more than 160 killings during the drug wars.

But Quebec did finally get its act together, funding an anti-gang
squad, building a special courthouse, and providing its
long-suffering prosecutors with the tools they needed. The result was
an end to the bloodbath.

In fairness, Ottawa's plan to change the criminal code is one of the
few things the federal government can do. The B.C. government is
handling the practical part: hiring more police and prosecutors, and
building more courts and jails to handle the expected influx.

The first step must always be policing. Vancouver is a major entry
point to Canada for illegal drugs. Street gangs there are battling
for control of the trade - just as the Hells Angels did in Montreal.

In Quebec, the tide turned after the formation of a special anti-gang
squad, with various police forces participating. The same could prove
true in Vancouver - if one is ever created. Astonishingly, metro
Vancouver does not yet have such a framework. A number of area police
forces are not involved in greater Vancouver's gang-or homicide task forces.

Canadians want to feel safe when they're out shopping or strolling in
their downtown. And in fact, violent crime has dropped throughout the
country, with the exception of gang-related crime.

This suggests that the solution must begin with police forces, which
now need to devote more energy to fighting gang crime.

Today Montreal has a new generation of gang problems, not as
spectacular as those in B.C.'s lower mainland, but bad enough. Our
city, after easing up on its commitment to fighting street gangs, has
had to get right back in the game, with a dedicated police unit and
budget. That's how to do it. There are no legislative shortcuts to success.