- 注册
- 2005-04-03
- 消息
- 5,314
- 荣誉分数
- 173
- 声望点数
- 93
Southeast, Bayshore areas top spots for gang activity, report finds
Crack cocaine behind most gangs, says police inspector
By Jennifer Green, The Ottawa CitizenNovember 13, 2009
Maybe it's the poverty, feelings of pointlessness, problems mastering English or just nothing to do. Any of these factors might steer a young man toward gang life, says a city report released Thursday.
However, Chris Renwick, an acting inspector with the Ottawa Police who worked on the report, has another idea:
"The No. 1 reason for gangs is the distribution of crack cocaine and, to a lesser extent, prostitution of young girls," Renwick says. "Ottawa has a crack problem. All cities do. There is so much money to be made there."
Ottawa has relatively few gang members, with 110 at the centre and about 300 or so on the fringe, but they are violent. Dealers threaten neighbourhoods, even taking over people's homes to prepare and sell drugs.
"(Gangs) tend to work in communities with a lot of vulnerable people. They intimidate or take over someone's house, to prepare crack there and use cellphones to deal it.
"They don't do their dirty business in their own residences. They use someone else's," usually an addict who is shooed away into a bedroom and given drugs. The resident is usually too terrified to object, and with good reason. Normally, the whole neighbourhood is afraid.
"These people are armed," Renwick says. "Every week there are fights where someone discharges a firearm. We can't have them running gunfights in the streets."
In the first six months of this year, police seized 108 handguns.
Many residents, however, are not pleased to have an increased police presence in their neighbourhoods. Some accuse authorities of unfairly targeting their youth.
In reading the report, Renwick says he realizes the importance of police-community relations.
The report identifies the Southeast area (bounded by Bank Street, Heron Road, Russell Road and the railway right-of-way) and the Bayshore area (Pinecrest Road, the Queensway and Woodridge Crescent) as the biggest problem areas.
Four others were:
n The west-side area bounded by Carling, Clyde, Caldwell and Kingston and Fisher Avenues;
n Downtown from Elgin Street on the east, Laurier on the north, Queensway on the south, and west over to the Baysview, Bayswater area and Parkdale Avenue near Mechanicsville.
n East downtown between the Ottawa River, Rideau Road on the south, King Edward on the west and Rideau River on the east.
n Beechwood and Hemlock to the north, Vanier Parkway to the west, Queensway to the south and Aviation Parkway to the east.
Carleton University professor Katharine Kelly, who wrote the paper called Ottawa Youth Gang Prevention Initiative, found that, in each of the problem areas, young children lag behind in crucial benchmarks such as emotional maturity, physical health, social competence, communications skills and general knowledge. Even so, some neighbourhoods in the city do have large numbers of children with difficulty, yet have no nascent gang problems.
The report also found there were too few programs for children six to 12, meaning "young people are often entrenched in anti-social or high-risk behaviour by the time they are teens, which makes responding to their needs much more challenging."
The group will also have to grapple with how to deal with gang members who would like to leave the life. Is there any support for them to make good on a decision to go straight?
Kelly says her research showed her there is no quick fix, nor would there likely be one answer for everyone. People come to gang activity for as many different reasons as they come to any other life path.
Mike Justinich of Crime Prevention Ottawa, the group that produced the report, says they will next seek funding at the federal level from the National Crime Prevention Centre and try to find ways of getting youth more engaged in tackling the problem.
Figures from 2007 show Ottawa has only 0.53 gang members per 1,000 residents, compared to Winnipeg with 4.32, Saskatoon with 3.86, Regina with 2.57 and Toronto with 1.23.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
Crack cocaine behind most gangs, says police inspector
By Jennifer Green, The Ottawa CitizenNovember 13, 2009
Maybe it's the poverty, feelings of pointlessness, problems mastering English or just nothing to do. Any of these factors might steer a young man toward gang life, says a city report released Thursday.
However, Chris Renwick, an acting inspector with the Ottawa Police who worked on the report, has another idea:
"The No. 1 reason for gangs is the distribution of crack cocaine and, to a lesser extent, prostitution of young girls," Renwick says. "Ottawa has a crack problem. All cities do. There is so much money to be made there."
Ottawa has relatively few gang members, with 110 at the centre and about 300 or so on the fringe, but they are violent. Dealers threaten neighbourhoods, even taking over people's homes to prepare and sell drugs.
"(Gangs) tend to work in communities with a lot of vulnerable people. They intimidate or take over someone's house, to prepare crack there and use cellphones to deal it.
"They don't do their dirty business in their own residences. They use someone else's," usually an addict who is shooed away into a bedroom and given drugs. The resident is usually too terrified to object, and with good reason. Normally, the whole neighbourhood is afraid.
"These people are armed," Renwick says. "Every week there are fights where someone discharges a firearm. We can't have them running gunfights in the streets."
In the first six months of this year, police seized 108 handguns.
Many residents, however, are not pleased to have an increased police presence in their neighbourhoods. Some accuse authorities of unfairly targeting their youth.
In reading the report, Renwick says he realizes the importance of police-community relations.
The report identifies the Southeast area (bounded by Bank Street, Heron Road, Russell Road and the railway right-of-way) and the Bayshore area (Pinecrest Road, the Queensway and Woodridge Crescent) as the biggest problem areas.
Four others were:
n The west-side area bounded by Carling, Clyde, Caldwell and Kingston and Fisher Avenues;
n Downtown from Elgin Street on the east, Laurier on the north, Queensway on the south, and west over to the Baysview, Bayswater area and Parkdale Avenue near Mechanicsville.
n East downtown between the Ottawa River, Rideau Road on the south, King Edward on the west and Rideau River on the east.
n Beechwood and Hemlock to the north, Vanier Parkway to the west, Queensway to the south and Aviation Parkway to the east.
Carleton University professor Katharine Kelly, who wrote the paper called Ottawa Youth Gang Prevention Initiative, found that, in each of the problem areas, young children lag behind in crucial benchmarks such as emotional maturity, physical health, social competence, communications skills and general knowledge. Even so, some neighbourhoods in the city do have large numbers of children with difficulty, yet have no nascent gang problems.
The report also found there were too few programs for children six to 12, meaning "young people are often entrenched in anti-social or high-risk behaviour by the time they are teens, which makes responding to their needs much more challenging."
The group will also have to grapple with how to deal with gang members who would like to leave the life. Is there any support for them to make good on a decision to go straight?
Kelly says her research showed her there is no quick fix, nor would there likely be one answer for everyone. People come to gang activity for as many different reasons as they come to any other life path.
Mike Justinich of Crime Prevention Ottawa, the group that produced the report, says they will next seek funding at the federal level from the National Crime Prevention Centre and try to find ways of getting youth more engaged in tackling the problem.
Figures from 2007 show Ottawa has only 0.53 gang members per 1,000 residents, compared to Winnipeg with 4.32, Saskatoon with 3.86, Regina with 2.57 and Toronto with 1.23.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
