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DEADLY CONSEQUENCES OF INVOLVEMENT IN GANGS BROUGHT OUT GRAPHICALLY |
By INDIRA PRAHST, Instructor of Race and Ethnic Relations, Department of Sociology, Langara College, Vancouver
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Last Sunday a rally for public safety to stop the violence and to remember Chris Mohan, 22, of Surrey and Ed Schellenberg, 55, of Abbotsford was held at Bear Creek Park in Surrey, with well over 150 people in attendance.
Both were innocent victims in the high profile gang-related shooting in Surrey on October 19 where four other men - who police say led criminal lifestyles: brothers Corey Jason Michael Lal, 21, and Michael Justin Lal, and Edward (Eddie) Sousakhone Narong, 22, and Ryan Bartolomeo, 19, - were killed.
The goal of the rally was to send a public message about gang violence compromising public safety. Several dignitaries, activists and Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts spoke out on a united front. Chris Mohan's mother Eileen proposed the creation of a gang website, "complete with mugshots and identification of suspected gangsters," and pointed out to the public that she was living right next door to gangsters. At the rally, Eileen, Schellenberg's brother-in-law Steve Brown, others and myself lobbied for the successful passing of Bill C2 through the Senate of Canada as well as a Metro Police Force.
Eileen told me that since her son's death she is "like a living dead." Ed Schellenberg's wife Lois also attended the rally. When I spoke with her, she said with eyes filled with tears that her kids did not come because they are still so devastated by the death of their father. Words cannot describe the colossal damage caused by the death of innocent family members on their lives.
'MY SON DIED POOR'
A turning point at the rally occurred when Ricardo Francis Scarpino's mother, Diane Mond came forward and expressed her condolences to the families. Mond lost her son Ricardo three weeks ago when he was shot in an "alleged" gang-related shooting along with another passenger in the car outside the Gotham Steakhouse at Seymour and Dunsmuir in downtown Vancouver. After the event I spoke privately with Mond and asked her for her thoughts on losing her son, who in this case was known to be involved in gang-related activities. It was especially relevant because Mond heard Eileen address the audience at the rally: "You have no right to shed a tear because you have driven your child to that lifestyle. You have no right to say your son was killed by a gangster, because he was a gangster." On that note, Mond replied: "I am so angry at all the things happening, all this violence, domestic violence, the whole package."
When I asked her about whether she felt responsible for her son's involvement in crime, she said: "I don't feel responsible as a mother for his kind of activity. He was 37 years old."
She then reflected on his childhood and said: "I always felt I had good communication with my kids and I spent time with the kids. I feel bad but I don't know what we did, but I believe a traumatic experience in my son's life played a role. When he was 16, my sister's son was hit and killed by a drunk driver and Scarpino witnessed this. As a baby and up to being a teenager he was a perfect child. But after he left home and the trauma, something clicked in his brain."
I asked her whether she knew about her son's gang related activities to which she replied: "The saddest part is I did not realize how deep he was involved, and I am still having a hard time. Now there is a reality of the whole picture. Until he died no one really knew. My reality was that I was sitting at a funeral with his chosen ones on my immediate right and his family on the far left."
The issue of safety came up in our conversation when she said: "For me, I shudder to think we were being watched when I drove with my son or what could have happened."
These thoughts clearly illustrate how you are risking your own family's safety when you are involved in criminal activities, you just never know.
I asked Mond for words of advice for youth and she said: "I will do anything I can in a safe manner to keep youth out of gangs and there is no getting out. The only way out is a body bag."
She added: "I was so angry at my son of 37 years who lived on the edge and died poor. All these kids that think they will be rich. Where is the money? My son died poor."
Indeed, this comment shattered a few of the myths of gang life, about being wealthy and dying young.
GRABBING YOUTHS' ATTENTION
Educating youth about the glorified representations of gang life was addressed by MLA Mike Farnsworth at the rally and also by Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu, Vancouver Police Detective Constable Doug Spencer and Detective Constable Adam Dhaliwal at the Langara College forum held last week. While there are different methods one can employ to convey the message, it seems according to much student feedback over the last three years on Spencer and Dhaliwal's anti-gang presentation, that past gang members are the key messengers that can make a difference. However, they are difficult to access because most gang members are still at risk, want to forget their past or are dead.
For this reason, the short clip from an upcoming documentary, "A Warriors Religion," that was shown at the Langara College forum which included an interview with former gangster Bal Buttar really hit home to people of all age cohort groups.
Spencer, who has been involved in over 1000 gang investigations, commented on the video clip and said to me that Buttar opened up quite a bit and the fact that Mani Amar, a young writer and director of the documentary, was a South Asian, might have helped: "This is what grabs kids and makes them listen, it is not funny stuff, and they would be all over these words because it is a kid talking about his feelings. The blood for blood stuff, means more to Buttar because he seemed to want to keep a kid from this , he may look at Mani as a younger brother, like his brother Kelly who was killed."
Amar did tell me that he spoke to Buttar about the break-up with his fiancé and Buttar would give him advice. I asked Amar whether his profile as a young and South Asian male made a difference in how he was able to communicate with Buttar and he replied: "I don't know. May be it was how I spoke to him. Cops may speak to him showing they are tough. Reporters interview him for a story. I approached him wanting to know him as a person, asking what was your childhood like, do you really love your son and then I said, I want to know why so many young Indo-Canadians are getting involved in gangs. Because we would talk about our lives the relationship worked out and in an unintended and unwanted way, we built trust."
In the context of steering youth away from gangs, Amar said: "Bal at one point enlightened me. He said 'if you take blood, that blood gets taken from you.' He could have said karma. Even the way he said it shows he lived a violent life; it shows a moment of clarity that it was the only way he could say it."
According to Amar, it is a great tool to educate the public about the truth behind gangs because it is from the horses mouth. … I asked Bal straight up why a lot of youth choose this path and you are breathing proof that this path is not good. "
NATALIE CLANCY'S OUTSTANDING WORK
That was the poignant message that also came out in award winning journalist CBC TV and radio host and producer Natalie Clancy's footage from "Getting Away with Murder."
Clancy is known for her excellent work in producing documentaries on several topics, including a database special on gang murders. When Clancy interviewed gangster Paul Atwal, several people in the audience found the footage when Atwal looked right into the camera for a few seconds, warning people to stay out of gangs to be extremely powerful and convincing.
Clancy's incisive analysis about parents when she said, "I think the denial and ignorance is as deadly as the weapon," captivated many. These words functioned as a leitmotiv for Amar's visual climax in his clip shown afterward, when the words ignorance and denial were spray-painted onto a wall with a sledgehammer with the word TRUTH appearing on the tip and breaking down the wall.
"It is this truth that is going to break down the wall of ignorance and denial," said Amar.
In closing, this means, opening your eyes, responding to the red flags, to do otherwise, is to be an accessory to your child, or family member's criminal activity. Family members, like youth have choices as well, to take the path of denial or acceptance and action.
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