Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Solemn Reflections



Since the flood gates of death threats have opened wide open, understandably I've been forced to reflect. My daughter's pissed. She's like well if we die I hope it was worth it. Not really. Making fun of gangsters isn't something I'd be proud to carry on my tombstone. Yet it really is much bigger than that. Yes gang members who walk around with man purses and get their eyebrows done at Merl Normans look in my opinion ridiculous. Yes I do believe that. I do think puppet club bikers who wear tennis shoes on their motorcycle also look ridiculous. I do believe that. It is what it is. However, the intent of my web site and blog goes much deeper than that.

Once upon a time two innocent victims were executed in a gang hit known as the Surrey Six. That created a lot of public outrage. I attended a rally against gang violence at Bear Creek Park when the mother of one of those innocent victims spoke. She was heart broken. She made a public appeal for a website to identify known gang members. She said the public needs to know. Every time there's a gang related shooting we hear the victim was known to the police. Well if they are known to the police why aren't they known to the public? She said they did not know they were living next door to gang members and if they had known her son might still be alive today.

I thought to myself, I could do that. I knew there would be legal challenges over privacy issues but weighing that with public safety created a grey area. When I started the blog and web site the Abbotsford Police department said they would actually be doing it themselves. I said three cheers. Please do. They never did. Kash Heed made a public appeal for a similar web site. That never went anywhere. Then someone, I believe Bill Fordy, sent out press releases to Kim Bolan saying they were actually going to do it themselves. That still hasn't happened.

Now I know my blog and website has created a lot of controversy. Some said I started off with good intentions but went crazy. Sorry to say I was crazy before I started the blog. I had to have been to take the project on. Yes I have made mistakes. Yes making those kind of mistakes are serious. However, if it was brought to my attention that I ever made a mistake, I promptly corrected that mistake. Just like a newspaper prints a retraction.

I want to be clear that I have never made a penny from this web site. People have offered to donate and I said thanks but no. Donate to a homeless shelter in East Vancouver instead. Then people criticized that too. Some people just need something to complain about and will never be happy no matter what you do. I wasn't in this for the money or the glory. I answered the heartfelt plea of a grieving mother. It wasn't about selling newspapers or making money from advertizing on the site. There was more to it than that. It was a cause I genuinely believed in.

All the death threats when I started the web site became rampant and toxic. I turned comments to moderated to reduce them. The consistent threats to rape my daughter were outrageous. That really crossed the line. It enraged me. How dare they do that? It just showed how important it was to expose these kind of criminals. I have never put anyone's life at risk. Ever. I've had some people send me pictures of some low level dealers and I refused to post them because like the Dhurry Dhak Pack I knew posting their picture would likely see them executed. That was not the purpose of my blog. The purpose of my blog was to stop the violence not perpetuate it.

So what did I get right? An online news source did an interview with me after I posted the name of a person who was decapitated for a drug debt and named the group responsible for the murder. They did the interview after the police confirmed that the name was right and so was the group responsible. I posted it before any other media source. I got that one right.

I also posted the names of two individuals arrested in a top level drug bust on Vancouver Island months before the police released their names. I got that one right too. However, I did make a mistake in my interpretation of a funeral photo that looked very similar to a UN photo. It turned out none of the people in that picture were members of the UN. I had made a colossal mistake. Thankfully no one was hurt and I took the picture and claims down.

Now I realize getting five thousand things right does not make up for getting one thing wrong. Especially when getting something like that wrong is so serious. This is why it's so important to check the source and be absolutely sure before you make any claims that aren't true. That is why for the most part, I simply quote a newspaper or report on criminal records I found in the online database. Sometimes I have reported on what I felt was a credible source, one time I made a mistake. A big one.

It turns out that funeral was for a high school friend who had epilepsy and was never allowed to get a drivers license. Turns out he died in an ATV accident. Tragic and it had absolutely nothing to do with drug trafficking or the gang life. Although many people in that picture had criminal records for B&E as well as grow rips. It was nonetheless, just a bunch of friends from school in Surrey who knew each other. It was not a UN photo.

What makes matters worse is the guy I saw at the Front Room collecting money from a resident wasn't a supplier collecting from a dealer. It was a guy who admitted he used to sell crack but stopped simply collecting money for a used ipod he sold to a guy at the Front Room. When I first heard that explanation I said to myself bullshit. Then I thought, what if it really was true? That would be a huge mistake to make. Ya gotta admit what I saw looked very suspicious. Especially when then guy admitted he used to sell crack in the past. Yet when he said he doesn't like going there because it's still a temptation for him to use and that it's easy to see who really is selling there something in his words just rang true. He was telling me the truth and I made a big mistake.

Recently it was brought to my attention that there was one picture related to that group photo I forgot to take down. I said the guy had a ship load of friends who were members of the UN. There were a ship load of guys in that group photo who were his friends on facebook. Only they weren't members of the UN. I finally caught up with a member of the UN that was bitching me out for something and asked him. He said there was not a single guy in that picture who was with them. That confirmed I had made a mistake and the unlikely story these guys were giving me was true.

So it is what it is. I've got some things right and I've got some things wrong over the years and whenever I have made a mistake I have promptly corrected it. Everybody talks about doing what I do but no one has ever been able to pull it off yet. No doubt the reason is the possibility of error. What if you say someone is with a gang and they're not? That is a huge mistake to make. We could put bar watch online to help promote public safety. Then again enters the part about being innocent until proven guilty. A Charter Right I passionately believe in.

To that end it's time to make a change. I remember the intent of Eileen Mohan's plea. If these people are known to the police they should be known to the public. I agree. However, I will leave that up to the police. My new gang member registry will only have names and pictures of people charged or convicted of criminal offenses. Peace.

9 comments:

  1. I wouldn't beat myself up too much. Mistakes happen. Nobody has attempted to do what you do because nobody else would be as good at it. I hope the death threats aren't to serious. There is no way anyone has found out your identity....have they? Surrey is a shitty neighborhood and even the good guys are criminals that have gang ties. They try to be normal and make honest money but someone needs to knock gang members down a few pegs. So future kids don't glorify them. Keep on keepin on Agent K. I'm always watching.

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  2. Ah yeah, that's the whole point. Someone posted a picture of me with my daughter online and have been sending pictures of my family to gang members blackberries. Shit is off the hook.


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  3. Ah yes, gotta love the Irish. Easter Rising coming up by the way.

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    1. It sure is ! ... already noted. You have a lot of support including mine. I wasn't kidding by the way. When a mans daughter is threatened all bets are off and I'd go to the grave for it in a heartbeat.

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    2. Thanks. Vin Diesel actually said that in the last episode of Fast and Furious. Didn’t anyone ever tell you never to threaten a man’s family: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syCDEgSD0D4

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  4. The sad thing is, things are completely out of control. My relationship with my daughter has been destroyed. She’s terrified. When she found out that not only has our picture been posted online, but other pictures of my family taken from her facebook are being sent over all the gang member’s blackberries she freaked.

    We had a big argument and when I woke up in the morning I saw all this plywood blocking the stairway and her door with nuts and bolts on the top of the stairs. I thought to myself what the hell is all this stuff? Is she moving? Then later on in the day I clued in. It was a scene from Home Alone. She was scared someone was going to break in during the night so she set up booby traps like in the movie Home Alone.

    My kids are Irish twins and when they were young they loved to watch Home Alone and pull pranks on me. One April fools day when they were very young I fell asleep on the couch. When I woke up my daughter was spraying shaving cream all over my face and I leaped up with my temple hitting the can in her hand as I yelled wft? That’s when they all ran for cover giggling and laughing their heads off as I set off each booby trap they set up.

    I poured my cereal and my car keys fell out of the box into the bowl. I sat them down afterwards and said OK the keys in the cereal box was really funny but I have to work and I don’t have time in the morning to look for my keys or I’ll be late for work. It was impossible to get mad. It was really cute.

    After she grew up it often felt like a scene form Steve Martin’s Father of the Bride. When the daughter was freaking out about something as an adult, the father kept having flashbacks to when she was a little girl throwing temper tantrums. I get that a lot. Today was one of them. She was freaking out on me because she was scared. I reassured her that no gang member has ever told me to take down the blog or they will kill my daughter. Never. I have had three million trolls say that but never an actual gang member.

    The thing is I don’t give a f*ck if they shoot me. If I wasn’t afraid of dying when I was young and crazy I’m certainly not going to be afraid of dying when I’m old and senile. My biggest fear is that something happens to my kids. Yes, if anything happened to my kids because of something I said or did I would feel very guilty.

    Many years ago when I did work for the Post Office I had two coworkers in Surrey who each lost a child to suicide. One was a boy who was bullied in high school, the other was a girl who struggled with mental health issues. Her father was a talented musician and she hanged herself with a guitar string. That heart wrenching story scared the life out of me.

    My daughter hasn’t had it easy. She’s not with me because I’m some great guy. She’s with me because she has no place else to go. That’s gotta hurt. When she was young she would quote Green Day about walking down the boulevard of broken dreams. It broke my heart.

    Yet like one blog reader said to me, you’re an asshole but she’s a good kid. Goes to work and volunteers. She is. I am. It is what it is but the threats have to stop. If anyone’s going to shoot someone shoot me not my daughter. After all these years I deserve that much at least.

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  5. So heartbreaking for me to get this news. At a loss for words. You are fighting the good fight. Sucks knowing they found out who you are the same way you found out who they were. This is the world we live in. So tempted to start a similar site of my own. I pray the idiots considering coming after you know it'd be quite high profile and they'd certainly get busted so going after children or your family will only raise the stakes and make the penalty that much greater. I believe that someday your daughter will respect your courage and all the good you've done in such a short time. More than most in a lifetime. I also hope the site doesn't change much. As my mother would say, 'go with your gut instinct'. If you get a tip that just feels right then go with it!

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  6. Makes my blood boil when I hear about this sort of shit!!! MY family is also dealing with death threats due to a punk ass "troll"/heater all because of a "look" !!! He sent punks to my house. Buddies "troll" busted in and beat me and my son then took off laughing. After I find out he's just out of jail for stabbing a guy over a 20$ drug debt and paralized another over another petty debt. This "troll" was grabbed a few days later for breaching while they did the investigation but then the shit hit the fan for US!! My son then got another beating at a house party from the "troll's" friends .... then my daughter got jumped and was told to tell us to shut our mouths or we were gonna end up dead. Cops didn't listen to what we had to say. Just that it would be hard to prove who did it. WOW!! Then we got harassed by the cops when we got scared to testify. We were getting gunned off by the "troll's" friends all the time, what was I to do???? The cops were doin nothing to keep us SAFE!! My son doesn't sleep at night anymore because he is on "watch"!!
    Then we got the news that the "troll" pled guilty and I was relieved, until I saw that he was then posting on line??? Guess what ... the troll was taken up to local area jail .. processed and then RELEASED because there was some loop hole his lawyer found to keep him out due to a Federal charge and probation situation of his. Are you friggin kidding me!!!! Sooooo ... "Troll" is now living in Vancouver area at a half way house until May 29th and then guess what ... comin back home to continue his shit! He has NO conditions to stay away from us ... Why???????
    So far everything I told the cops would happen with this punk HAS happened .... so I guess all I can do now is sit and wait for the "troll" to try it again!!!! This time WE are ready for him ......................

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  7. Sorry to hear that. Another example of how screwed up and disproportionate the system is. Yet even in Canada we are legally authorized to use reasonable force in self defense. I'm sure you can figure out what reasonable force is against a lethal attack.

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