Gangland shootings: How bad is it where you are?

Two dead and six injured last night in Vancouver.

http://communities.canada.com/nationalpost/blogs/posted/archive/2007/08/09/shooting-reported-at-vancouver-restaurant.aspx

Although police aren't releasing much information at this early stage of the investigation, Constable Chow said it had the hallmarks of a planned hit.

"Early indications are that it's likely a targeted hit," he said. "When we see this type of shooting, investigators tell us it's likely a targeted hit.

 

I just moved to DC and was awakened to its violent side a couple of weeks ago, when there were 11 shootings in the span of three hours, mostly in Southeast but one incident in Northeast.

 

This is a peaceful part of America. There is crime occasionally i.e. random shooting, even randomer stabbing, but there's a reason people move here and stay here to raise families.

 

About a month ago, we had four people stabbed -- one fatally -- in what police called an 'initiation-style' spree.

We had six homicides last week, two presumed to be gang-style. Of course, then there was the kid pushed in front of the C-Train over a dimebag.

I long for small-town Nova Scotia sometimes.

 

There were 17 identifiable gangs in my high school, and that was 12-15 years ago. Here in MiniMetropolis, there may be two. A shooting a month is about the average for them, but about five a month for RedNeck Meth-Heads.

 

Now, in Roswell ...

If you walked out of Alsups and looked at bangers in the wrong way, they'd chase you in their car and shoot you in the neck. Based on that, I wrote lyrics to what would be a great song if I can find someone to put music to them.

Roswell's a great place for a young reporter who loves to write about gang crime. One of my best series of stories was on a gang-relaliation murder, from going to the scene minutes after I'd heard about it on the scanner, to follow-up interviews over the next few days, which were trippy as hell.

 

where?

 

this part of northern new england.

 

Gang violence and gangland shootings are two different things.

The targeted hit story that Flash linked seems more like Chinese mafia than street gangs that the rest of you are talking about.

 

I love this city and I moved here before the really big boom of the last three years. I'll probably never leave.

Just wondering if others who moved to be at a major metro think it's worth the cons of big-city life.

 

There's been such a bizarre proliferation of gang culture up here in the last few years. It's enough to make one's head spin ...

 

Of all the cons of living in a large city, I'd put this kind of crime way at the bottom? I live in a large city with a gang problem, but the reality is it's not nearly as prevelant in day-to-day life as people make it out to be. The vast majority of murders - especially gang murders - aren't random. It's not like some sports journalist with no gang ties lives some dangerous life just by living in an LA, New York, Philly or whatever.