Surrey NDP MLAs demand more action on rise in gun violence

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      The rise of gun violence in Surrey has some of the city’s MLAs  asking  B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Morris what his call to action is.

      Monday afternoon marked the 31st shooting in Surrey so far in 2016—the third incident in three days—which was addressed to Morris during question period at the B.C. legislative assembly on Tuesday (April 5).

      Late Monday evening, Surrey RCMP was called to the city’s 32nd shooting of the year.

      Sue Hammell, NDP MLA for Surrey-Green Timbers, asked the minister during question period how many more shootings have to happen before he "gets serious about stopping this out-of-control violence”.

      Morris responded by saying his government isn’t satisfied with the regularity of offenses and that the RCMP and other police agencies in B.C. have "been focused on eliminating or reducing crime-related incidents".

      “We have surveillance teams that follow these individuals around day and night,” he said. “If they look over one shoulder, they're going to see a police officer, if they look over the other shoulder they're going to see one of their adversaries.”

      Morris added “state-of-the-art” surveillance techniques are being used to try and track those involved in gang activity.

      “We've been liaising and we've been meeting with experts from across North America involved in gang activity and [discussing] all the different techniques they use internationally to try and quell these disturbances,” he said. Morris added there are hundreds of police officers working on reducing gang-related events.

      Hammell responded by saying her constituents are scared, worried, and that they want answers and action to take place.

      “What is he going to do to put a stop to the out-of-control violence on the streets of Surrey?” she asked.

      Morris said highly trained police teams throughout the Lower Mainland and the province have “checked thousands of individuals involved in these crimes”, arrested hundreds, and laid criminal charges against these individuals.

      “They've seized hundreds of weapons, they've seized hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he said. “They've seized just recently $4.5 million worth of drugs involved, in addition to the drugs that they've seized throughout the past year.”

      Morris added his government will also be working with families in Surrey to put an end to violence, but didn't say what, exactly, they would be doing. 

      “We won’t rest until we put these individuals behind bars,” he said.

      Bruce Ralston, NDP MLA for Surrey-Whalley, raised concerns that, despite gun violence being addressed in Surrey, the problem is getting worse, not better.

      “What specific steps is he [Morris] going to take to stop the violence, because the steps taken so far aren't working,” he said.

      Morris repeated that Surrey RCMP is checking thousands of people and making charges against them.

      “They're going to continue to do that until these shootings are diminished,” he said.

      Morris said he would be meeting with Surrey mayor Linda Hepner and the RCMP to discuss what other strategies they can employ to end violence in the city.

       Follow Jocelyn Aspa on Twitter @jocelynaspa

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