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Someone got shot across the street from my house last night...

post #1 of 65
3/27/09 at 8:15pm
Thread Starter 
For those who don't know Vancouver is in the midst of a huge gang war right now. There have been 39 shootings since January and 18 people dead, looking at the newspaper headlines most mornings and seeing more gunshot wounds and deaths has been extremely scary.

Then close to 3 AM my roommate and I heard a whole bunch of shots fired in a row, very consistently and rapidly, I didn't even know a gun could hold that much. Seconds later we heard a woman screaming and then car tires screeching away. I was in a state of total panic for about 5 minutes from the shock of it, my heart was beating really really fast. Then we were debating whether we should call 911 or hope someone else would do it when the cops and a couple ambulances showed up.

Scary shit, I was kind of hoping it was nothing but then I found a news story about it, some guy got shot in the arm.

I have a feeling I'm going to be sleeping over at my boyfriends house in Kits a lot more after this....
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post #2 of 65
3/27/09 at 8:18pm
I didn't know Vancouver was having a gang war. Who are the gangs?
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post #3 of 65
3/27/09 at 8:19pm
Calling 911 isn't something you debate. You just fucking do it.
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post #4 of 65
3/27/09 at 8:20pm
Vancouver is just like Compton
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post #5 of 65
3/27/09 at 8:27pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russ Fischer View Post
Calling 911 isn't something you debate. You just fucking do it.
I know it is, but I guess I went into scared bunny mode. By the time my brain turned back on (which was around 5 minutes later) the cops had arrived.
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post #6 of 65
3/27/09 at 8:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russ Fischer View Post
Calling 911 isn't something you debate. You just fucking do it.
Some people freeze during a crisis. Sad but true.
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post #7 of 65
3/27/09 at 8:48pm
Thread Starter 
Honestly, my first reaction was to turn off all the lights and dive under the bed. At least I didn't go that far.
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post #8 of 65
3/27/09 at 8:49pm
The Vancouver gangs are mainly the UN and Hell's Angels I think, the gun crime is getting out of hand, for most of this year, there's been at least 1 shooting every couple of days.

Mostly they have been confined to the burbs, coquitlam and the like but now it's getting closer to the city. The police can do nothing about it (except shoot the wrong people).

I live near main street / little mountain and I've had no problems - as far as i can tell it's gangs killing gangs. I used to live in Moss-Side, Manchester so gun-crime is not new to me. Call the cops, stay inside - or move to Kitsilano.
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post #9 of 65
3/27/09 at 8:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Werewolf Girl View Post
Honestly, my first reaction was to turn off all the lights and dive under the bed. At least I didn't go that far.
Well, hitting the floor at the sound of gunshots IS a good idea. Just remember to grab your phone.
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post #10 of 65
3/27/09 at 8:52pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mr_adam View Post
The Vancouver gangs are mainly the UN and Hell's Angels I think, the gun crime is getting out of hand, for most of this year, there's been at least 1 shooting every couple of days.

Mostly they have been confined to the burbs, coquitlam and the like but now it's getting closer to the city. The police can do nothing about it (except shoot the wrong people).

I live near main street / little mountain and I've had no problems - as far as i can tell it's gangs killing gangs. I used to live in Moss-Side, Manchester so gun-crime is not new to me. Call the cops, stay inside - or move to Kitsilano.
I've been staying at my boyfriends place there a whole lot anyway, now it's probably going to be most of the time. I'm going to be moving eventually but my lease doesn't expire until August.
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post #11 of 65
3/27/09 at 9:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hanzo Steel View Post
I didn't know Vancouver was having a gang war. Who are the gangs?
Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica production teams. Nothing to do anymore and they get into trouble!
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post #12 of 65
3/27/09 at 9:21pm
Biathalon should be interesting at next year's Olympics.
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post #13 of 65
3/27/09 at 9:22pm
There's no solution to this. People think that legalising drugs might help but i doubt it would help - potentially a good idea but it won't curb the crime. Gun control wouldn't help (I'm not a gun-nut, i just know that it doesn't stop weapons from getting into the wrong hands - see UK for details). Once this kind of rot starts it's virtually impossible to reverse ("they got guns, we need guns") unless one gang emerges as the strongest and that won't happen without a shit load more killings. Shame really, it's another stain on what is the best city in the world.
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post #14 of 65
3/27/09 at 9:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russ Fischer View Post
Calling 911 isn't something you debate. You just fucking do it.
This the truth. I had a similar thing happen when back home visiting my parents. Down the street (on a bridge kids hang out on) some guys from some other neighborhood drove by and gunned down some other guys who were hanging out. No real motive other than 'random'. They chased down the kids (17 to 20) and shot them from behind killing five. It woke me up from a boring Monday night football game. I was not happy that I was the only house with lights on (and this was half block away and around the corner). I did get out of the living room and delayed calling 911 by a few minutes. It upsets me that when I heard cars pulling away (I could not see the scene of the crime since the bridge is around the corner and houses are in the way) my first thought was on getting out of firing range (as if they were really going to open fire on a random house). Always call 911 as quick as possible. It could save lives.
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post #15 of 65
3/27/09 at 9:56pm
When I was a sophomore in college someone got murdered right outside of my apartment on the basketball courts. Twice. It was a common place for drugs to be sold so every other week there'd be someone beaten pretty badly, but once someone got shot in the face and the other time someone was stabbed like fifty times. I was in my apartment on both occasions.

I used to be terrified because there were some nights I didn't get home from work until 4AM, so I'd have to hope nobody was about to get murdered while trying to time my arrival.

ETA: The basketball courts were directly outside my apartment, too. I could spit on them from my window.
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post #16 of 65
3/27/09 at 10:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Werewolf Girl View Post
For those who don't know Vancouver is in the midst of a huge gang war right now. There have been 39 shootings since January and 18 people dead, looking at the newspaper headlines most mornings and seeing more gunshot wounds and deaths has been extremely scary.
170+ murders in Puerto Rico since the 1st of january. Not shootings, mind you, but murders.

Puerto Rico is 100 miles across and 35 miles north to south. I'd say we have three murders a night here, and five to seven every weekend.
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post #17 of 65
3/27/09 at 11:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Troy n View Post
.................damn...............
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post #18 of 65
3/27/09 at 11:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Troy n View Post
.................damn...............
807 homicides in 2008, with an 11% increase from 2007. Around 27 to 34 of those were domestic violence cases, with 11 of the overall homicides being in my hometown and 177 being in the capital. We also had 273 suicides last year.

In other news, Puerto Rico was voted "Happiest Place on Earth" in 2006. We had 739 homicides and 285 suicides that year.

Come visit us!!!
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post #19 of 65
3/28/09 at 12:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BTSMGL View Post
807 homicides in 2008, with an 11% increase from 2007. Around 27 to 34 of those were domestic violence cases, with 11 of the overall homicides being in my hometown and 177 being in the capital. We also had 273 suicides last year.

In other news, Puerto Rico was voted "Happiest Place on Earth" in 2006. We had 739 homicides and 285 suicides that year.

Come visit us!!!
Seeing those commercials prominently during the World Baseball Classic puts this in a whole new light.
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post #20 of 65
3/28/09 at 1:14am
Where abouts do you live in Van, WG?
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post #21 of 65
3/28/09 at 3:31am
I guess Winnipeg's rep has been tarnished. But this isn't stopping me from wanting to move to Vancouver (or T.O.?) in the future...major North American cities like this have been fucked for some time. But I must disagree with mr adam - if people were buying their drugs on store shelves and treatment for the hard shite was more readily available, well, once any personal grievances have been cleared up between the gangs in gunfire, well, I am not sure what market they would be fighting over. Naturally, there are other causes in the mix, like poverty, but decriminalization would be a major step...the problem is, well, then what will the destitute do to make ends meet? Canada seems to be turning into a less egalitarian country, I think, than I remember it was in the last decade and change...but I could be wrong, that viewpoint sullied by my age at the time...
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post #22 of 65
3/28/09 at 6:04am
I read these numbers and I really can't understand why they happen. In 2008 we had 308 homicides and attempted homicides in the whole country. Why such a discrepancy? It's not like we're some Utopian happy society. Is the situation over there really that much worse that would provoke such huge crime rates?
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post #23 of 65
3/28/09 at 7:06am
If I was you, I'd take some comfort in the idea that it wasn't just a random crime or robbery or something. And it was a hotel, so hopefully the thugs were just passing through your neighborhood.
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post #24 of 65
3/28/09 at 9:35am
Makes you wonder if the gangs are trying to corner the market prior to the Olympics. I imagine there is big money to be made with all those out of towners coming to visit.
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post #25 of 65
3/28/09 at 10:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Werewolf Girl View Post
I'm going to be moving eventually but my lease doesn't expire until August.
If there ever was a reason to break your lease, this would be it.
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post #26 of 65
3/28/09 at 10:09am
Is a shooting in a major city really that shocking? If my rent was cheap enough, I wouldn't move if someone got shot next door. Hell, your rent might get cheaper.
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post #27 of 65
3/28/09 at 10:25am
Normally, I'd say "What's the big deal?"

so... what's the big deal? People shoot people. Gun control laws are ineffective, and do absolutely nothing but keep decent citizens from the means to defend themselves.

Embrace the suck.
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post #28 of 65
3/28/09 at 1:20pm
Back when I lived in Boston a guy got stabbed literally at the front door of our apartment. Bloodstain was there for a long, long while. Stabbing is almost a lot worse because without the noise nobody gives a fuck. Nobody even called the cops until about eight hours after the event.

Right now I'm in LA. Two days ago a guy across the street got shot. The interesting thing about it was that somebody was apparently reading up on their gangster history and chose to do it the St. Valentine's Day Massacre style. Two young guys masquerading as police officers (not sure if they just had the badges and said they were plainclothes, or actually had full uniforms) forced their way into the guy's apartment, probably saying they had a warrant or some shit, and then after robbing him they executed him and ran off. Now that really fucks with you, if you can't even trust that the cops are cops.
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post #29 of 65
3/28/09 at 1:44pm
Actual conversation I had a week ago...

Me: "So, tell me, what's up, what's new?"

Friend: "Well, y'know, trying to keep it together, trying to keep moving on."

Me: "Well, why, did something happened?"

Friend: "My boyfriend was killed a few days ago."

Me: "...wow, really?"

Friend: "Yeah, you know that massacre with the three bodies stuffed in the car? He was one of them."

Me: "...uhhh, damn, wow..."

Friend: "Yeah, they even tortured him, cut off his fingers and cut him all over his body before they shot him and his friends."

Me: "..."

Friend: "Yeah, but I mean, I didn't even know he was into the whole gang thing until a week before it happened, so, like, don't think I like guys like that!"

Me: "I... see..."

They were only together for two months, but still, holy shit.
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post #30 of 65
3/28/09 at 2:21pm

....just saying
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post #31 of 65
3/28/09 at 2:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lima Oscar Lima View Post
Normally, I'd say "What's the big deal?"

so... what's the big deal? People shoot people. Gun control laws are ineffective, and do absolutely nothing but keep decent citizens from the means to defend themselves.

Embrace the suck.
Philly 1, Lima Oscar Lima 0
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post #32 of 65
3/28/09 at 2:54pm
Is this some newfangled method of trauma therapy? Trying to dwarf the horrible thing that happened to a person with stories of even more horrible things?
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post #33 of 65
3/28/09 at 3:05pm
I'm beginning to think that BTSMGL saw this story and thought it was a contest.

I seriously doubt that the fact that there are worse places to live makes WG feel any safer.
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post #34 of 65
3/28/09 at 3:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg David View Post
I'm beginning to think that BTSMGL saw this story and thought it was a contest.

I seriously doubt that the fact that there are worse places to live makes WG feel any safer.
Party pooper! And here I was about to mention the news about a 21-year-old they found tortured and strangled with a belt in the bathroom of a local tourist nightclub last night.
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post #35 of 65
3/28/09 at 3:55pm
Dude, why are you still living there? Move to Sarajevo so you can get some sleep.

Edit:
Sarajevo probably isn't as fucked as it used to be. So my apologies to anyone still living there. All twelve of you.
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post #36 of 65
3/28/09 at 3:59pm
Not a shooting, and probably not gang related but this happened across the street from my building this week. Me and a friend got to listen to the RCMP bomb squad doing controlled demolitions on stuff they were pulling out of this place til almost midnight on Thursday. Got yelled at by a cop for being out on my deck while the festivities were in full swing.

I've lived in greater Vancouver for 30-odd years and the temper of the city has definitely changed. You can say it's not so bad compared to other places in the world, but it's definitely a damn sight more dangerous than it used to be. I'm the last one in my family still on the mainland. Everyone else has moved over to the relative safety of Victoria.
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post #37 of 65
3/28/09 at 4:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg David View Post
I'm beginning to think that BTSMGL saw this story and thought it was a contest.

I seriously doubt that the fact that there are worse places to live makes WG feel any safer.
There are a lot worse place to live then Puerto Rico. I stop going to Rosalie Beach last year impart because you have to go through TJ to get there. Also the Cartel Wars had come to town. If I have to risk death like that for a good time I rather go to Brazil.
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post #38 of 65
3/28/09 at 4:37pm
I was in Vancouver late last year. We were having our wrap party in this venue, that was in a really bad part of downtown (though right across the street from the police station). First thing that happened was right before the party there was a hit and run outside (no one related to the party). Then I was told some guy was getting jumped by the three guys right down the street (again no one related to the party). It definitely seems to be becoming a very volatile town.
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post #39 of 65
3/28/09 at 5:00pm
Sorry to hear this, Werewolf Girl. Awful business.
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post #40 of 65
3/28/09 at 5:26pm
5 years ago I came home for lunch and found cops and yellow tape around the corner from my house.

Turns out a kid was waiting in his car to do a drive by on someone who lived in our neighborhood. That kid's gun went off and hit his passenger friend in the car. Both kids went to the hospital. Our neighbor friend was ok.

Rule #1. Never try a Drive-by in a parked car.
Rule #2. Try to shoot out the driver side window and NOT aim the gun INSIDE the car.
Rule #3. Guns are stupid.
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post #41 of 65
3/28/09 at 7:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg David View Post
Dude, why are you still living there? Move to Sarajevo so you can get some sleep.

Edit:
Sarajevo probably isn't as fucked as it used to be. So my apologies to anyone still living there. All twelve of you.
Because if 800 people are killed a year, 750 of those were people involved in gang wars or drug dealings. The other 45 are domestic violence cases, and five tragedies with people being shot and killed because of wrong-place/wrong-time.

A carjacking or mugging is the only thing that really worries me, and I keep away from the places where that might happen.
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post #42 of 65
3/29/09 at 12:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Troy n View Post
You were at the theater on Main street weren't you? Ahhhhh...Gastown, lived there for five years....don't ask why.
Indeed I was.
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post #43 of 65
3/29/09 at 1:19am
Kits is pretty much the place to be these days... Where are you Werwolf? I'm guessing a bit more East?
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post #44 of 65
3/29/09 at 2:13am
My lease ends in June. Pie in the sky dream is Yaletown or somewhere near Cambie or Grandville or something.


*fingers crossed*
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post #45 of 65
3/29/09 at 10:53am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XydbxeAcD0E
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post #46 of 65
3/29/09 at 11:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by eenin View Post
There are a lot worse place to live then Puerto Rico.
Come visit my neck of the woods, we'll have a party. It's pretty sad that my initlal reaction to the thread was god, you people live in some sort of heavenly utopia.
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post #47 of 65
3/29/09 at 3:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quarant View Post
Come visit my neck of the woods, we'll have a party. It's pretty sad that my initlal reaction to the thread was god, you people live in some sort of heavenly utopia.
It depends were do you live? If you live in a neighbor were staving guys run around with machetes and cannibalistic looks in the eyes I will past. Already been there, done that, in more then one country.
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post #48 of 65
3/29/09 at 3:38pm
I live in Johannesburg, South Africa.
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post #49 of 65
3/29/09 at 4:15pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeShaynePI View Post
Where abouts do you live in Van, WG?
On the southeast side, around the Collingwood area. I thought it was a quiet little Asian neighbourhood, but I guess not.
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post #50 of 65
3/29/09 at 4:54pm
Quiet? Little? Asian!?

Mmmmf!
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