Amanda Carrasco

I just read an article about a forum last night held in Port Moody with residents of the city squaring off against local police and city counsel regarding gang violence (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/port-moody-residents-press-panel-for-an-end-to-gang-to-violence/article4537820/).  The residents have it all wrong. They are looking for the government to solve these issues by putting criminals in jail and they are upset that this has not happened as quickly as they think it should. Instead of looking inside the doors of city hall, the residents (all of us) need to look inside their own homes. There are things we all can do to stop this and we need to work together.

We need to know our neighbours. We need to be aware of what is happening in our communities and build relationships again with those around us. We need to know where our children are and engage them in activities that will prevent them from being groomed by drug dealers and gangs. We need to support agencies that are trying to help people battling with drug addictions.

Don’t be naive, the police will put criminals in jail in due time, so stop blaming police and politicians for not doing their job, when we aren’t doing ours.