East Van doesn't look after it's own

The Vancouver Province ran an excellent article by a retired VPD officer about exploitation in East Van: http://www.theprovince.com/news/operation-phoenix/supply+young+kids/2085350/story.html

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He spoke about the exploitation of the youth and how predators are ready to take advantage of them. He compared it to throwing a poodle into a shark tank. He touched on prostitution as young as 14 and gave an example of even younger than that. All to pay for drug addictions from exploited addicts.

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I think the key word here is predators. That's exactly what they are. Many from East Van used to beak off and say we take care of our own. Perhaps it used to be. Perhaps it never was. Sick yuppies from the Granville strip occasionally participated in malicious beatings of the homeless. The recent attack on a homeless man on the Drive where three white males set a homeless man on fire as he slept on an abandoned couch was shameful.

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The theory was that the homeless were safe from those kind of attacks in East Van. Yet the VPD released videos of under cover officers dressed as vulnerable seniors in East Van. Often they would get beaten and robbed.

I remember taking teenagers into blood alley by Pigeon corner to hand out food, jackets and gloves during winter. The youth I brought were surprised to see the reaction of the homeless. First it was fear. The homeless were afraid the youth were going to assault them. Then it was shock and relief when instead of beating them the youth gave them something to help them make it through the night.

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I never really clued in until now but the elderly and the homeless have always been exploited in East Van. The reason people beak off and claim East Van takes care of their own is because the bullies don't want outsiders protecting their victims from being robbed. Nor do they want anyone to interfere with the money they make from exploiting the addicts. This is how the Hells Angels who import cocaine into Canada make their living.

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Once we expand the CCTV project from Scott Road Sky Train Station to Surrey Central, the next step is to do it in East Van. You can't recover from an addiction where you have predators yelling crack crack crack in your face pushing the drug on you. We need to target the dealers not the addicts.