Hope in Shadows

Two conflicting news reports about East Van in the news today. One was a step forward, the other was a step backward. Hope in Shadows represents a step forward. It’s a project where residents of the downtown east side participate in a competition to photograph glimpses of life in the community that are put on a calendar. Pivot legal is handing out free disposable cameras for local residents to participate.

It gives the residents something positive to do, it is a great fund raising tool and it helps raise awareness about the DTES. The other story was about yet another protest against a condo development in the DTES in a rat invested building which has been vacant for two decades.

I realize everyone wants more social housing. Maintaining the rat infested slum lord exploitation is not the answer. East Vancouver is a toilet that needs to change. It is what everyone knows to be the poorest neighborhood in the country. Along with that poverty is an outrageous amount of exploitation and abuse. Two things need to change.

People who are struggling to over come addictions need to get out of the East End. They need affordable housing somewhere else. If a building has been vacant for two decades and someone wants to develop it, feel free. The Woodwards building is a great example of a private and subsidized housing partnership.

Yes we need more social housing. We also need more development in the East End to help raise that community out of the gutter. Enabling that addiction and abuse for so long is wrong. People need Homes not Drugs.

4 million hits and still climbing

This blog, which has been up and running for three years, just broke 4 million hits. It took two years to break a million. Now it breaks a million hits in less than six months. I was surprised to hear at the Chris Mohan Memorial forum that Kim Bolan’s blog gets over 200,000 hits a month. My blog gets that. I thought Kim’s blog got way more traffic than mine did.

By far the majority of the traffic on this blog is from Canada. Over 13 to 1 which is unusual for the Internet since there is a larger number of people online in the States. Yet is understandable given the fact this blog covers Canadian gangs and crime.

Everyone talks about how we need a web site that identifies known gang members. Indeed we do. We do have to balance that with privacy rights and slander. A Kwantlin professor asked the panel at the Chris Mohan forum about ways to help discourage youth from glorifying gangs. She said she teaches a class on the subject and one of the books assigned had the opposite effect. It was written with the intent of discouraging gang involvement but in reality the youth started glorifying the gangs after reading it.

Kim Bolan shared some of her concerns and observations. Some people criticize her of glorifying the gangs yet she points out that she always reports on the dark side of the gangs. This person was shot. This person was betrayed. She shared a story about how she wrote about Bal Buttar after he was shot and became a paraplegic. She understandably thought that would discourage kids from getting involved. Then she found out how one kid posted the picture of Bal in his locker and said, he killed Bindy and lived, wow. That is about as absurd as you can get. Kids will be kids but clearly anyone with a brain can see through the gang violence and see a sad world of greed and betrayal.

That is my emphasis. The Hells Angels are the biggest players on our field right now. They are driven by greed and betrayal. People need to understand that so they don’t get involved unknowingly. There will always be aspiring traitors like Biff Hamel who will exploit every murder to climb the ladder and get their moment of fame. Yet the older ones can see through that insanity. The older ones are the ones that know what old school means. They are the ones that know what integrity means. You can't find that in a pill or buy it in a bottle. With proper education the older ones will step back and let the police deal with the younger ones to finally rid ourselves of this insane violence tied to the drug trade.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has contributed to this blog and web site by sending in tips and pictures. This blog is a group effort. It is a community response. It’s not a one man show. Freddy contributes by posting links and sharing insights. We live in the great Canadian mosaic. We all have different perspectives.

Many people contribute to the blog and ask to be anonymous for understandable reasons. We thank them and we applaud them. People ask me where I got that photo of the guys in prison at Stony Mountain and I can honestly say I don’t know. Someone sent it to me. That is how I protect my source.

We all have different opinions about different issues. No two people agree on every issue. Yet most us us agree the drug related violence that is plaguing our communities is getting out of hand and needs to be dealt with. This is our united stand against that violence.

Ottawa wins appeal to block RCMP union

I’m not a big fan of unions but I am a big fan of democracy. There are good and bad unions just like there are good and bad employers and politicians. Although a good politician is harder to find.

The RCMP is not unionized but most city police forces are. To me it’s not a big deal. If the employees want to form a union fine. If they don’t, so be it. Saying they are not allowed to form a union if they so choose is wrong. It is a violation of democracy and the freedom of association.

In the case of the RCMP a union might make it harder to fire bad cops. One could argue that point either way. However, one thing a union does do is help protect it’s members from sexual harassment in the workplace which is such a huge ongoing concern within RCMP management.

Carlo Verna and the Kelowna Hells Angels

Update: Two bodies found in Kelowna - one is of Marcello Verna.

Speaking of the Kelowna Summer Jam and how the Hells Angels like to betray their own for the almighty dollar, let’s take a look at Carlo Verna. Carlo is a member of the Kelowna Hells Angels. Or at least he was. People are starting to talk and since other Hells Angels are publically making fun of him and he seldom wears colours in public, people are starting to wonder if they’re going to pull a Mike Robatzek and kick him out now that they have sucked him dry.

Carlo became a full patch member of the East End Hells Angels along with Richard Goldammer, Hans Kurth, and Joseph Bruce Skreptak in 2005. Robert Thomas was at that time a prospect. This had police thinking they were planning on starting a Kelowna chapter. Carlo owned property in Kelowna along with various other East End members.

Carlo was also recorded on wire tap in David Giles’ trial with Revell and Remple who were convicted of cocaine trafficking. In the decision it states Carlo came by Giles' house and advised Giles that Revell’s car lot and gym had been searched by the police.

Carlo used to own Pier Marine pub and Splashes Night club in Kelowna. Now that things aren’t going too well for him financially it looks like the club is ready to cast him aside like an old shoe. The Kelowna Marine Pub burned down October 2007. Arson is suspected.

We’ve heard a lot of stories about people with money getting fast tracked into the Hells Angels. Now we are starting to hear a lot of stories of people with money who were fast tracked into the club getting tossed aside when their money runs out. Buyer Beware.

The Filthy Few Fellowship

We've talked about the Hells Angels Filthy Few patch before but I think it's time to revisit the issue. Originally the patch had the Nazi lightning bolts on it from their Nazi associations. Mom Boucher and Salvatore Cazzetta had a Nazi club before joining the Hells Angels called the SS. Later the Nazi lightning bolts were taken off and replaced with the number 666. We all know 81 means Hells Angels. H is the 8th letter in the alphabet and A is the fist. 81 then means HA which stands for Hells Angels.

Likewise, F is the 6th letter in the alphabet. 666 would represent FFF for Filthy Few Fellowship or Filthy Few Forever. Of course 666 isn't just a number, it has other meanings too. Just ask Vincent Price and Iron Maiden. When the London Hells Angels say support your local 666 they are referring to the Hells Angels not just members of the Filthy Few Fellowship.

They took the Filthy Few reference off Sony Barger's low budget West Vegas web site but they still have Otis the Missing Link Garret honoured in their Big House Crew list. Otis Garret was convicted of running a prostitution ring in San Francisco called the Love Nest for the Hells Angels. After he was convicted the woman who testified against him as well as her twin seven year old daughters were murdered. Years later Otis was convicted of hiring the hit. I'm not going to pretend to know what someone has to do to qualify for the Filthy Few Fellowship but killing babies is nothing to brag about.

The Wind Demonz MC

Looks like the Darksiders have a new finger puppet club in Bridgewater called the Wind Demonz. All these puppet clubs of puppet clubs. It's one big Ponzim scheme. You kiss our ass and they'll kiss your ass and someone else will kiss their ass. That way everybody gets their ass kissed. It's all a bunch of ass kissers. Don't any of these clowns have any self respect? I mean look at the Darksiders logo. That is ridiculous. Bacchus may well be the patron saints of homosexuality but those clowns are clearly the head puppet club. They're the ones with the dirty knees. Their logo has permanently assumed the position of the head puppet. It sucks to be you.

It's like their obsession with support shirts. It reminds me of a little kids saying worship me. Kinda like Loki in the Avengers. Stop. I am a god. Then Hulk throws him around like a rag doll kicking the crap out of him, tosses him aside and mockingly states, puny god. These guys have real self image issues when they need finger puppets and supporters to worship them.

So Kevin Nodding from Nodding Marine Bridgewater is the president of the Wind Demonz finger puppets in Bridgewater. Mark Smith, Bens Bakery, Ron Richards and Byron Conrad are members of the darksider's puppet club in Bridgewater. Clowns who want to live off the avails. Idiots. I don't know what the circle is supposed to be highlighting on the Wind Demonz logo. It sure looks like they're doing the Pee Wee Herman.

Gang shooting in Port Moody

Meanwhile back at the gang war, Hells Angels rivals in Vancouver are still getting executed left, right and centre. Gurbinder Singh Toor, a 35-year-old gangster connected to the embattled Duhre/Dhak crime group was fatally shot outside a busy Port Moody recreation centre 9:30 Wednesday night.

The Duhre/Dhak Pack are connected to the UN. They buy their drugs from the UN not the Hells Angels. That is why they are getting wiped off the face of the earth. Even Kim Bolan agrees that in this recent “gang war” the Dhak-Duhre gang has suffered the most violence. Now she's even composed a list of nine members of the Dhure / Dhak Pak that have been shot in less than a year with zero casulties on the "other" side. The violence is very one sided. I had eight in my list May 5th but that was before Wednesdays shooting.

The Duhre/Dhak Pack was not responsible for the Kelowna shooting that killed Jonathon Bacon and wounded Larry Amero. They might have been in Kelowna and told someone what they saw. They might have told someone that Larry Amero and Jonathon Bacon finally came out of the closet and were publically bragging about their association but they didn’t do the hit.

No this new gang war is simply Eric Sandberg’s prediction coming true. He told agent 22 that “they” were ready to wipe out all the competition in Surrey. That is what this recent violence is all about. The Hells Angels violent control of the local drug trade.

Paul Boyd’s tragic death

This is another sad story. In more ways than one. Everyone is talking about this new video released a tourist took of the VPD shooting a suspect named Paul Boyd. I watched the raw footage a few times and just couldn't see anything. The enhanced footage is clear. The suspect was on his hands a knees crawling towards the police as they shot him several times, once fatally in the head.

Tragedy doesn’t begin to describe the heart wrenching sorrow this video has uncovered. Paul's sister was quoted in the Vancouver Sun as saying: “All everyone has heard is that the police responded to a call of a man swinging a bike chain, this is TOTALLY untrue. That is not what they were initially responding to.”

Then it finally dawned on me. This is the case everyone is talking about? This is the bike chain shooting? Even if that story was true I personally found it bizarre. A guy went into the street swinging a bike chain and the police shot him dead. That was not the use of reasonable force. What’s worse is that story is not true. He was on his hands a knees crawling towards the police.

Two inherit tragedies surface. First, he should not have been killed. Second. The police lied. We’ve talked about in the initial scenario why can’t the police shoot a suspect in the leg? Why do they always have to put one in their chest? That’s the way they are trained. Well maybe it’s time to change the training. Shooting an unarmed suspect in the head or chest is not acceptable. As many have suggested it is murder.

The lying to cover it up is also a huge concern. It’s happened before. The Vancouver Province ran an editorial about the problematic nature of police lying. It is reminiscent of the lie that the British police told when they shot a suspect dead in London which triggered riots. The police claimed the suspect was armed and fired at the police. They even went so far as to claim the suspect hit one of the officers in the chest. They claimed the bullet hit the officer’s police radio which saved his life. That’s when they shot the suspect dead.

Only after the ballistics report came in that was simply untrue. The suspects gun, if it really was his, hadn’t been fired and the police radio was hit by a police issued firearm. They lied. The suspect hadn’t fired upon them. They lied and manufactured a bizarre story which was proven to be untrue. None of those officers were ever charged with murder or for perjury and being an accessory to murder.

Here we have a similar situation where the police are caught lying. As the editorial points out, it’s not the first time. So yes, lying to cover up the use of deadly force is a serious issue. Yet the use of deadly force in the wrong instances is the primary concern. If they didn’t make that error in the first place, they wouldn’t have to lie to cover it up. Jim Chu has promised a swift response. Let’s hope. Let's also hope that the police training retrains the police to get over this bizarre ego of over reacting when a suspect doesn’t obey their command at the snap of their finger. This isn’t the army. Civilians are civilians. Police are paid by tax dollars to serve and protect them.

Two nutbars, both suspected murderers

These two cases have nothing to do with gangs but they do involve murder. Since everyone is talking about these two bizarre cases, I'll cite them both at once. On the east coast we have Luka Rocco Magnotta a wing nut from Montreal. This is the person accused of sending human body parts to the Tory Headquarters in Ottawa. At first I thought it was just a bizarre false flag stunt to help distract the public from the robocalls and all the other many scandals the Tories are currently entrenched in.

Seemingly there was a disturbing video of a guy murdering someone on the Internet. I haven't seen it and I'm not going to link to it. The point is, this whack job was identified from the video. He hasn't been arrested or charged he's just a suspect that the police are asking for the public's help in finding. If you know who this guy is, it might be worth while telling the police before anyone else ends up dead. Police have back tracked on Luc Wingnut’s possible connection to Karla Homolka.

The other case is the recent police shootout in Maple ridge where a murder suspect named Angus David Mitchell was shot dead. He has ties to a security firm in Victoria and was suspected of killing his landlord in Burnaby as well as a suspect in the recent Sushi restaurant double murder.



The guy was 5 foot 4 and 121 punds. He wasn't even big enough to be a jocky. Just goes to show you that any kid or nutbar can pull a trigger and commit murder. Committing murder doesn't make someone hard care. It makes them deranged.

Speaking of nutbars in Maple ridge, some whack job is on a cat killing spree there. 24 cats have been killed in the past year in one small area of Maple ridge. Dismembered cat parts are being displayed all over town. Most recently someone dropped off a cats severed head at an elementary school between recess and lunch. This is yet another example of what it means to be deranged.

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Luka Rocco Magnotta was arrested at an Internet cafe in Berlin Monday June 4th.

Joey Verma’s trial date finally set for June 25th

Joey Verma’s trial for the murder of Britney Irving is finally on the map. Britney’s mother is understandably upset there has been another delay but at least it’s finally on the map. Having nothing scheduled at all for so long was absurd.

The arrest was made on June 25 two years ago in Rutland. So his trial date is set for two years after his arrest. That is bizarre. I’m told that Joey was in court last week and ordered to get a lawyer for his Monday appearance. On Monday his lawyer said he needed time to prepare. Three weeks to do so is not unrealistic. It’s just astounding it’s taken this long to get to this point.

As soon as he was arrested he was in court for several months. Those proceedings continued until December 30 2011. The end result of that pre trial was to proceed on filed incitement. It’s hard to think he didn’t have a lawyer for all those appearances. The big delay was between December 30 2011 and May 28 2012. Regardless, it’s finally on the map and set for June 25th 2012.

My heart goes out to Britney’s mother. This is a horrible thing to experience. The loss of a child is unthinkable and the ongoing murder trial is cruel and grueling. There is no justice. Nothing will bring Britney back. Sentencing her murderer will only help the open wound close. Yet we have this consolation with us: life does not end at death and no lie can live forever. Britney is a wonderful person. No theif can rob that from her. Peace.