Vancouver Featured on The Economist
May 31st, 2009 Posted in All about Vancouver
Vancouver’s violent streets compared to Colombia
Vancouver, BC’s largest city, has gained notoriety for gun crime, especially among drug gangs. Since 1997 nearly 450 gangsters have been killed there. The surge in shootings is “directly related” to a crackdown on gangs in Mexico and the United States, says Pat Fogarty, a senior officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Recent arrests by the three countries’ police forces have disrupted a Mexican-run cocaine distribution chain, leaving Vancouver’s street dealers fighting to secure their supplies. “The price goes up and the guns come out,” says Mr Fogarty.
The funny thing is that Colombians are taking exception to being compared to Vancouver…
“As a Colombian, I find the implication of your title offensive. All forms of crime and violence have plummeted since president Álvaro Uribe took office some seven years ago. Several other Latin American nations now boast much higher crime rates than ours. Why not rather compare the situation in Canada to Socialist Venezuela for instance, where violence is out of control, or any of the crime-ridden American cities such as the one from which its current president emerged?
By the way, I’m glad Canadian and American degenerates are shifting their preferences for locally-made poison. Perhaps now they’ll leave us the hell alone.”
As the Olympics get closer, we’ll see a lot more exposure of our underbelly. Not that it’ll change anything.