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OUR VIEW: Funding is great, but more needed to wrap up gun violence in Surrey, Delta

Premier Christy Clark was in Surrey on Tuesday (April 28) to presumably send the message that her provincial government is on the case concerning all the shootings we’ve been having since the beginning of March.

CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT THE ANNOUNCEMENT

Clark said there is but two outcomes for gangsters: “One is a jail cell. One is a grave.”

She’s wrong.

The third, which has become all too painfully obvious, is possessing the ability to speed around Surrey’s streets, shooting at your rival drug dealers, while politicians utter shallow yet catchy platitudes.

It’s like a song: “Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do? Grow old and rich waiting for them to come for you?”

Clark’s afternoon visit to Surrey, for those who are keeping track, was sandwiched between two more shootings, one at 3 a.m. Tuesday, the other at 10:30 p.m.

That makes for 25 shootings in Surrey and North Delta in eight weeks. One was fatal. That’s a little more than three shootings per week, and only one arrest to show for them all.

CLICK HERE TO SEE AN INTERACTIVE MAP AND TIMELINE OF THE SHOOTINGS

Whilst here, the premier announced her government will make a one-time contribution of $270,000 to Surrey’s Wraparound Program, or Wrap, set up to step in when students display signs of gangsterism.

All fine, but when you deal in billion-dollar budgets, and $270,000 represents maybe the price of one wall in a house in Metro Vancouver, it’s kind of like tossing a nickel at the bankrupt, no?

Meanwhile, Delta Police have set up a mobile tower-cam trailer at 80th Avenue and Scott Road. The 30-foot tower houses four high-resolution cameras and is intended to deter crime and assist police as they investigate these shootings.

Maybe they should call it the Alamo.

The Now