gang or no gang

The shooting of a 20 year old U-Vic psych student on saturday was being lamented by family and friends as a mistake,as the boy was popular and had no gang connections or drug history.That turned out to be less than accurate as it turns out he intended to join the police force and was very proud of his intentions.The police are fond of referring to themselves as the baddest gang in the country and never tire of saying so.This is the second young person with such plans to express those sentiments in the wrong company at the wrong time.It would seem that some of these kids like to try out their chops on ner do wells and timing can make this fatal.In another story,police went to a 9-11 call that had been disconnected and entered a closed back yard only to be confronted by a very protective pitt bull mix.They did the cop thing and now the dogs owners want to know why their dog is riddled full of holes.Had no choice was the pat answer from attending police who evidently had no concept of the word knock.There was several options other than entering the closed back yard gate but that seemed to get lost in the heat of the day.Finally,a poll done by 24hrs daily paper showed that people,when asked on the phone,expressed their approval of the establishment of housing for recovering addicts in their neighborhoods.The poll was done in response to the quashing of just such a facility in the town of Richmond last week.Proponents of other facilities said that it was easy for people to agree when nothing was on the line but that their experience was that the NIMBY effect took over when a facility was on the line.It was refreshing to see a positive poll result for drug treatment in the midst of the most negative period in the city's recent drug history.By the way,the dog story wasn't the same one featured in Scott's piece on a similar incident.