MURDER CAPITAL MONIKER A MISNOMER

No city should have to be labelled the "Murder Capital of Canada,"
especially considering that the name is a misnomer.

It is not a title bestowed by Statistics Canada after analyzing the
number of homicides in cities and regions in relation to population.
Rather, it is a label given by the media as it reviews these stats.
The title might just as easily be given to the area with the most
murders, regardless of population.

Or to the city, and not the CMA - such as Pitt Meadows - whose three
homicides with 16,800 population gives it an alarming homicide rate.

The rate of homicides per 100,000 population is not calculated by
city, but rather by census metropolitan area (CMA), which in our case
is a grouping of Abbotsford and Mission. The five murders in Mission,
relative to its small population, brings the homicide rate for this
CMA up dramatically.

What's more, the victims are mostly those involved in organized crime
- - people whose chosen path put them in danger. Average citizens who
don't get caught up in the underground world of illicit drugs and
grow-ops need not feel less safe.

That said, everyone who lives in the Abbotsford area is aware of the
gang violence that has rocked the community. With the targeted
killings have come other non-fatal woundings, drive-bys where houses
and vehicles are shot up, and other brazen acts of violence.

So it is good to hear that the Abbotsford Police have made suppressing
gang violence their number one priority.