Man found guilty in Surrey crack shack murder

Steven Patrick Iyoupe was convicted of manslaughter Thursday in the death of Garry Glen Harder in 2006. Harder was killed by a group of people inside a Surrey crack shack on Jan. 28, 2006. He is the fourth person convicted in the murder.

William Thomas Walker, 40, of Langley, and Jordon Vojkovic, 26, of Calgary, were charged with first-degree murder and forcible confinement in Harder's death while Lauretta Marie Stevens, 32, of Surrey, was charged with forcible confinement and assault with a weapon.

Jordon Vojkovic of Calgary, was convicted of unlawful confinement and manslaughter and got 13 years. William Thomas Walker, of Langley, was convicted of unlawful confinement and aggravated assault and given seven years in jail. Lauretta Marie Stevens was convicted of unlawful confinement and assault with a weapon and got three years.

On the night of Jan. 27, 2006, Furman said she and Harder were interrogated about $300 that was stolen from a drug dealer at a crack house on 137A Street in Whalley. Although Harder, who worked as a doorman at the house, had taken the money and the couple spent it on crack cocaine he denied committing the theft.

Furman said she woke up the next morning to the sound of Harder being punched and kicked by several people. One of those people was Iyoupe, she testified. The group also used a board with nails in it to hit Harder in the head. “He was curled into a ball covering his head. I was sitting on the couch, made to watch,” she said before dissolving into tears.

Next Harder was dragged into the kitchen, where he was handcuffed to a chair and Iyoupe hit Harder with a pillow case filled with “food cans,” Furman said. Still cuffed to the chair, Harder was taken to the bathroom and put in the tub. “Steven got into the bathtub and started beating the crap out of Gary’s head,” Furman said.

Furman alleged that Iyoupe and a drug dealer known as “Robbie,” or Jordan Vojkovic, took turns hitting Harder. Harder ended up in a bedroom next, where Furman said Vojkovic and Iyoupe electrocuted Harder by putting live wires in his ears. “They were laughing hysterically,” Furman said. Another drug dealer also assaulted Harder with a string trimmer.

This level of violence is very disturbing. Laughing as the electrocuted the victim after beating him in the head with a board with nails in it. That is inherently disturbed. It reminds us of the murder of Annette Allan just around the corner at the Surrey House of Horrors. Annette's crime was being falsely accused of being a rat.

At the trial of contract killer Mickie (Phil) Smith the court was told one of his murders was done for the East Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels. Smith killed Paul Percy Soluk at a crack house in Surrey and said a man he called Yurik helped him chop up and dispose of the body. Smith said "Yurik's not an Angel but he works with the Angels. I know he's done a lot of hits." Paul Soluk was killed in 1999.

1) These were crack houses supplied by the Hells Angels. They brought the cocaine into the country and these guys sold it as crack. Both of these crack shacks were close to TBarz, the bar owned by Randy Jones from the Whiterock chapter of the Hells Angles. TBarz was implicated in another Hells angels cross border drug trafficking ring. John Punko was also selling cocaine in Surrey around that time.

2) The level of violence in all of these cases is outrageous.

3) Garry Harder’s girlfriend testified that Steven Iyoupe and Lauretta Stevens tried to make her work off Harder’s debt through prostitution, but as soon as she could she got away. That brings us to forced prostitution and the Hells angels in Surrey, Maple Ridge and Hamilton. Forced prostitution and the Hells angels. Well strike one up for the toy run. Get them adicted to crack and force them into prostitution to pay for the debt. Yeah David Giles is a great guy alright. For a clown.

Someone from Kelowna contacted me and said they recognized Giles from photos on my web site. He didn't know who he was at the time but thought it was odd he would be wearing Hells Angels colours. He thought at the time it was a clown dressed up as a Hells angels. Turned out he was right. David Giles does look like a Shriner in costume. Yet this forced prostitution thing is no laughing matter.

High-risk sex offender living in Surrey

Andrew Aurie Jefferson, 26, known as the Falconridge rapist in Calgary, has a criminal record of sexual-related offences. Police say his method of attack is to use a knife to threaten and then grab a woman from behind.

It is rather bizarre that a high risk sex offender from Alberta would be released in Surrey thank you very much. I remember when the balcony rapist was released in Surrey. There was a public protest held in Newton. He moved. This time we're not so lucky. He did go to Mission first after his plans of moving to Kelowna fell through.

He has to go somewhere but five years for three armed rapes with no counseling is not right. That's the whole point of our desire for judicial reform. Raising the penalties for nonviolent crime and demanding the provinces pay for it will continue to prevent us from fixing this problem of being able to properly address violent crime. Ten years is not life.

In Kelowna we have a Hells angels associate out on bail having been charged with sexual assault. His case won't go to trial until a year after his arrest. What is his victim supposed to do during that time living in the same small town?

We also are waiting for the results of that gang rape at the Renegades clubhouse in Prince George. Hells angels associates accused to gang raping someone in one of their drug dealing puppet clubhouses. The sad thing is, Andrew Jefferson isn't the only rapist running free in BC. Even police officers have been charged with committing rape. We can't address this like we should if we prioritize nonviolent crime.

Fixing the RCMP

It's impossible to keep up with all the bad press the RCMP is getting. Evey day a new horror story. Police brutality, sexual harassment, sexual assault, impaired driving, hit and run, the list goes on and on and on. We've gone from accusations of the police blackmailing prostitutes to having sex with them and trying to smuggle a prostitute onto a police cruse ship doing security for the Olympics to numerous allegations of sexual harassment at the workplace and even several allegations of police officers raping fellow police officers. The number of cases is absurd. It forces the average civilian to ask what the hell is going on there? The professional image isn't just tarnished, it looks more like a circus of unprofessionalism.

Making a politically incorrect statement is one thing but raping a fellow officer is another. During the Olympics a police officer was accused of raping a fellow officer. We are told alcohol played a factor. Yet back in 2003, Four female RCMP officers alleged they were sexually assaulted by one of their superiors.

We are well aware of the disastrous affair with a witness in the Surrey Six Murder trial. The front page of Friday's Vancouver Province contained yet another accusation from another witness at the current sexual harassment trial involving Cpl. Catherine Galliford. The married female officer claimed she was pressured into having a sexual relationship with her fellow officer after she was caught by her husband who read text messages on her cell phone. It was either consensual or it wasn't. Either way having sex in patrol cars on duty pretty much demonstrates how unprofessional that force has become. It's a huge problem.

Since many of the allegations are of a sexual nature, it is tempting to fix the problem like you would fix your cat and nip it in the bud so to speak. Yet I'm looking beyond the sexual perversions in the force. I'm looking at the root of the problem. Galliford says the command and control structure at the RCMP means Mounties are instructed to do as they're told, or risk getting reprimanded. We need soldiers not sheep. Soldiers like General Romeo Dallaire not abusive idiots and wing nuts.

The problem I see begins at the beginning. It begins with Depot. Ever see the movie Full Metal Jacket? Abusive training breed psychopaths. The theory was break someone down then build them back up. It is a self defeating process because it teaches breaking someone down is good and right when it most certainly is not. It also leads to an undesirable conclusion.

Depot training can be hard and demanding without being so degrading and abusive. Get someone exhausted then build them up. That's how you train a reflex. What you train when you are exhausted trains a reflex. Abusing recruits when they are exhausted trains them to be abusive. That is what we are now seeing in the farce. To change that we have to begin at the beginning and make depot challenging but positive. Build their self esteem, build their self respect, then they will show respect for others.

The Eagles have Landed

Once again, this has absolutely nothing to do with gangsters, drugs, prostitution or the gang war that has plagued British Columbia. It's about what TI and Rhianna refer to as Living your life.

We had a life before the Hells angels came to BC and before the gang war started. Back in the day our motto was Beautiful British Columbia. Gordon Campbell changed it to The Best Place on Earth which is absurd. BC is not the best place on earth and Gordon Campbell significantly diminished it with his insane tenure as Premier. Nevertheless, BC is still beautiful just like many other places on earth.

Australia kinda has the best of everything - nice beaches, warm climate, Kangaroos and even has snow in their mountains during winter. Like that's not fair. They seem to have everything. Nevertheless, we do like our mountains. I remember speaking last year with a girl visiting from Brazil during winter. I said oh you have nice beaches in Brazil. Her eyes lit up and said yes but not like here. Our beaches are HOT. Indeed there are many wonderful places on earth. Yet this is our home and we do appreciate it's rustic beauty.

This weekend is the Bald Eagle Festival at Harrison. The eagles come to feed on the chum after they have spawned. It's wonderful to see. Usually very cold and wet this time of year but something to see nonetheless. Eagles are pretty private. If you get too close they just casually fly away so bring your binoculars. The boat tours don't do it. The motorboats scare them off and too many boats will disrupt their feeding habits.

I put the Kayak in at Kilby at Harrison Mills today and paddled up past the bridge where the Harrison river spreads out wide to less than a foot deep. The boats can't get there but that is where the eagles are feeding on the rotting salmon carcasses.

Insider Trading in Congress

Freddy already posted a link to this but I also just saw it on MSN news. Turns out there's a new book about insider trading in US Politics called Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer.

This past Sunday night, Steve Croft of “60 Minutes” exposed how U.S. Congressional critters cheat, lie and benefit from insider trading on defense contracts. He cornered former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi with her investments gained from her inside knowledge of multi-billion dollar contracts.

Pelosi boasts multi-millionaire status along with over 200 other members of Congress. She responded that everything she had done as to investments was legal. In reality, she cheated before a law could be passed to stop the cheating.

Consequently, A long-ignored proposal to ban insider trading by members of Congress gained new traction this week following news stories that reinforced the public's low opinion of Congress.

Creating a direct conflict with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, fellow Democrat Sen. Debbie Stabenow has proposed legislation that would ban members of Congress from using privileged information obtained on Capitol Hill for insider trading on Wall Street.

It reminds me of that movie Distinguished Gentlemen with Eddy Murphy. I like the Duck Hunt scene. He plays a can man gone politician and admits that he did way more sh*t in office than he ever did on the street only the cons he pulled in office were legal. Somehow I think this applies to the Occupy Wall Street protest and continues to give that cause merit. Newt Gingrich reportedly received $1.8 million in consulting fees from Freddie Mac before it was bailed out by taxpayers.

David Johnston's Hunger strike for Occupy

Someone mentioned this guy at the open mike at the Vancouver Occupation and I was surprised I hadn't heard about the story. Seemingly one of the members of the Victoria Occupy has been arrested and has been on a three week hunger strike during his 60 day sentence. Prolific offenders don't even get that much jail time for property theft. He challenged the crown to get a judge to make a ruling on the right to sleep. God love him.

I have mixed feelings about camping in city parks. Homelessness is a genuine concern. Obviously the Occupy Wall Street is a political protest. Many argue that it's becoming a modern Woodstock yet I think the underlining message is important to heed. Corruption on Wall Street is serious. Hiding that with propaganda is self defeating. It raises our taxes and erodes our sovereignty. Pepper spraying protesters, clergy and seniors diminishes all of us. Dorli Rainey is 84 years old. Her photo is a “defining image” of the protest.

Surrey Municipal Election

Saturday is the municipal election and I still have to go through the election booklet to see who all is running. Although I did think Dianne Watts has done some good things for Surrey there have been numerous concerns brought to light after her bizarre and brazen endorsement of George Bush's endorsement of torture and Investment fraud on his recent visit.

Surrey mayoral candidate Ross Buchanan has raised a very valid concern about this new conflict of interest development corporation she created. "Very few people in Surrey are aware that in 2007, Dianne Watts and the Surrey First councillors created a wholly owned development corporation in which the city are the main shareholders," said Buchanan.

"Diane Watts, Coun. Linda Hepner and city manager Murray Dinwoodie sit on the board of directors. How can the mayor and council remain independent of influence when they are sitting on the board of their own development corporation whose goals are at odds with the livability of the entire region?"

Buchanan said the corporation is "riddled with a lack of transparency" and has not been accountable for its activities. "It is highly irregular that the financial statements for the corporation would be consolidated with the city's. It is a separate entity. Requests for detailed accounting are denied," he said. He said valuable city assets have been transferred to the corporation with little or no public consultation.

This is a huge concern. The real cost of Surrey’s $100-million new city hall and the huge budget expansion is another. As we have seen raising taxes is the only way to pay for pork barrel politics and that is what she's endorcing with the gas tax.

It appears that the lovely Laila is endorsing Ross Buchanan for good reason. I think I will too. Watts may well be a shoe in but she did lose my vote over that George Bush fiasco. The Christy Clark like endorsement was shocking. Yet not all the Surrey First candidates are shoe ins. I think my first step is to not vote Surrey First. That will reduce the pork barrel lack of acounatability the Surrey First political party are creating.

Bob Paulson next RCMP commissioner

According to CBC News, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has gone back to the ranks of the Mounties and has chosen Bob Paulson as the next commissioner of the RCMP. The official announcement is expected Wednesday. Three cheers. This was my second choice after Jim Chu. That's way better than appointing a lawyer for the Hells angels to the Supreme Court. What was the president of the Conservative party doing representing the Hells angels anyways?

Hey, Harper did something I agree with. Can you believe that? Miracles never cease. Now if he just arrested Brian Mulroney for the two million dollar settlement he defrauded the Canadian tax payers out of...

A civilian in charge of the RCMP is like having a civilian in charge of your military. It doesn't make sense. Promoting from within does. Bob Paulson isn't in Boy George's corrupt camp of pension fraud either. I am told he was involved with the gang task force in BC before things started to go wrong. I'm told he was competent and did a good job. Let's hope he gets the support he needs to inspect the troops and clean house so we can effectively start dealing with the OMGs in BC once again.

The Rock Machine Down Under

We've talked about this before but since there are so many new readers following the blog now perhaps I should reinforce the history of the club(s). This news article gives a fair analysis of the history of the Rock Machine and explains how the Rock Machine in Australia are fighting with another motorcycle club there called the Rebels.

This facebook page also has a good history of the Rock Machine. It claims that around 1982, Salvatore Cazzetta was a member of a white-supremacist motorcycle gang named the SS, who were based in Pointe-aux-Trembles, on the eastern tip of the Island of Montreal. A fellow member of the SS was Maurice Boucher, and the two became friends. As leaders of the gang, they became candidates to join the Hells Angels when that gang decided to expand its international operations into Canada.

In March 1985, a Lennoxville, Quebec chapter of the Hells suspected the Laval chapter of wasting drug profits by using too much of the product themselves. The Laval chapter was invited to a Lennoxville chapter party. When the five Laval members arrived, they were ambushed and murdered. Two months later, at the bottom of the St. Lawrence River, divers located the decomposing bodies of the victims wrapped in sleeping bags and tied to weightlifting plates.

OK let's pause there a moment. Salvatore Cazzetta, the founder of the Rock Machine was originally a member of a white supremacists motorcycle gang called the SS along with Mom Boucher. Both groups have a history of involvement with White Supremacy. Cazzetta kinda sounds Spanish but it's Italian.

Salvatore, like many others, was outraged with the betrayal in the Lennoxville massacre. Hells Angels killing their own just because. That's not what the MC movement is about. Mom Boucher and his other pal Biff Hammel didn't have a problem with it. In fact, they used it to their advantage to climb the ladder and get their patches. In fact Biff Hamel was a prospect of the Laval chapter and was present when they executed his sponsors and seized the opportunity for advancement. That's kind of a dirty politician not a loyal friend. Hells angel hitman Yves "Apache" Trudeau was also a member of that chapter but didn't show up for the execution. After they killed his brothers he became a police informant.

Not surprising, Biff Hammel and Maurice Boucher used a similar betrayal to take over the Death Riders by forming an allegiance with some aspiring members of that club who met with them right after their presidents funeral to become a Hells angels puppet club. The betrayal and murder of the Death Riders president helped the Hells angels take over the entire drug trade in Laval.

So get this, years later history repeated itself. The Rock Machine merged with the Bandidios and the Texas head office ordered a hit on the Toronto chapter and another aspiring leader was more than happy to seize the opportunity to murder his own brothers. Another white supremacist murdering his fellow members. Once again the Rock Machine were outraged and broke off on their own. Unfortunately, their ultimate purpose is the same as the Hells angels - to sell drugs. The turf war is a war over drug territory for drug profits.

After the Bandidio massacre, Salvatore Cazzetta went back with his friend Mom Boucher to join the Hells angels and became the president of the Montreal chapter. I kid you not. This would reinforce the rumour in the book The Angels claiming that Maurice "Mom" Boucher at one time paid his "rivals" in the Rock Machine to murder some of his own people who he saw as political threats to his leadership within the club. The author of the book claims to have received the information from an ex Rock Machine member.

Ya gotta wonder about it since Salvatore was his friend and rejoined him once all the political opposition was eliminated letting him become president of the Montreal chapter once and for all.

A Wake up Call

It appears that even my regular readers misunderstood the allegory in my last post. I have decided to continue with the blog and web site. I'm just getting a little bit burned out and need to cut back how much time I spend so I can balance it with some of the finer things in life. Like climbing mountains in winter with snowshoes or paddling up rivers to see the eagles feed off the spawning chum.

I was sincerely thinking of making my previous post my final post. For a while at least. Then as I got to thinking about it I looked up what the military bugle last post was historically all about. The Last Post isn't a final blog post, it is a historic tune on the trumpet played at remembrance day. One of it's purposes is to remember the fallen soldiers in war. Another purpose in the field of the Last Post was after a battle when it was played to gather the wounded so they could regroup.

On Remembrance day the Last Post is played and after a moment of silence is followed by the Rouse which is a wake up call so to speak. Very similar to the First Post which is a call to inspect the troops. On remembrance day we remember the dead and arouse our sense of duty by waking up to the cause.

In the Matrix, Morpheus offered Neo two choices. He could take the blue pill and when he woke up life would be back to normal. Everything would be as it was and he would have no knowledge of the Matrix or that anything else that was amiss. However, if he took the red pill that would waken him from a deep sleep so that he could see how deep the rabbit hole really goes.

When I look at the gang war as well as the political climate that is affiliated with it and enables it, I think we all can agree that the public needs a wake up call. Yet whether or not the public decides to waken from it's apathetic slumber, we all as individuals have to decide what we will do as individuals. Obviously we can't solve all the worlds problems. Yet we can chose to be informed. We can chose to look beyond the official version of things we are fed and make our own decision on the various issues at hand.

Most of us would agree that if we are going to address the gang war, reform the police, fix the judicial system, repair the prison system and confront the crooks on Wall street that embezzle pensions, we need to look to a political solution. I submit that the US Constitution is a marvelous political model to accomplish that task. Yet many misquote, misunderstand and manipulate the Constitution to promote their own welfare above that of others. The pledge of the preamble states:

"We the People, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution. I got a kick out of how Michael Moore pointed out it doesn't say the word Capitalism anywhere in the Constitution but it does say "We", "Union" and "general Welfare." He jokingly said that sounds more like the other ism. It's not but the point is promoting the general welfare striving to create a more perfect union is not a Communist plot to take over the free world. We've been had by the Kings and Queens of Wall Street.

Remember those old Schoolhouse Rock commercials about the Constitution? That was back when they had commercials for kids teaching them grammar. How about that old I'm just a bill song explaining how a bill becomes a law. There's one about the real Boston Tea party. The one Sara Palin missed about the ride of Paul Revere and one about the 19th Amendment.

There's a more modern rendition of the Bill of Rights which is similar to our Charter of Rights in Canada. There's an interesting founding fathers rap as well. I know Canada has a different history than the United States. Our forefathers were loyalists. Yet democracy, free speech, lawful assemble, these are unalienable rights to which we all aspire. So which will it be, the blue pill or the red pill?