Locals create new game during covid

Post Reply New Topic

I think they call it “f**k you, you’re dead.” Something like that. 5 dead in the last couple weeks - probably more to come. Idiots.

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-new ... -shootings

I wonder how long this game is going to go on for? I’m guessing it ramps up as the weather gets nicer. I bet people’s drug use is up during covid so territories they’re killing over are probably more lucrative than ever.

Are you in the middle of that stuff?

Like actually involved in even at an arms length? Hell no, not at all! I haven’t even worked at a bar for years. It was (omg!) 15 years ago when I last worked at a biker bar. (Lots of ppl connected to that place have died in the gang wars since.)

Geographically? Yes. The nearest one to my place of this batch is a 10 minute or so drive away from me in the same city I live in.

Some of the shootings over the last couple years have been as close as a few blocks away - and this is not a terrible area by any stretch.. large police station nearby, houses are all over $1M. The one that was 10 mins away - houses their cost more, townhomes are over $1M there. These are not the children of disadvantaged poor folk shooting each other for survival money they’re scrambling to make in the drug trade. They’re spoiled f*****g brats that idolize the gangster life they see in rap music videos. Dead serious. Street level survival dealers in the roughest part of town may still have violet tendencies, but these losers are on a whole different level. They idolize the Scarface life and some end up paying theirs for it.

I meant geographically speaking about being in the middle. It sounds like you are describing a group of loose cannons. Do these guys seem to operate by even a remotely close playbook to what you would typically expect from an average hood gang? Or are they mostly seeming to shoot people just out of curiosity to see if it is really as much fun as what you see in the movies?

Playbook.

Pretty sure everyone in this round of the game was targeted - including the 14 year old that was shot and killed a couple weeks ago; likely by the gang he was working for as a runner. He must have crossed them.

Even the young teenaged ones are targeted. Rival gangs taking out each other’s low level dealers. Hell, some of these kids might not even realize fully that they’re dealing for a gang - as whoever recruits them may not even tell them. They Could just think their new dealer friend needs a runner or whatever and not be fully clued into the fact that they’re the bottom rung of an organized crime group. But in any event, they’re all playing with fire and some of them get burnt.

So far, in this round of the game, afaik Zero innocent victims or random bystanders have been shot. But it has happened in the past and likely will again.

If you google “Surrey 6,” you’ll find the massacre at the Balmoral Towers. 4 gangsters, one fireplace repair guy, and one innocent resident in the wrong place at the wrong time - his name was Chris Mohan and he was an honest to God Good young man. He was a cabinet maker who came to my bar on Wednesday nights for a $2 beer with his friends - not a bad bone in his body, always happy and smiling, a welcome group that was so polite they apologized to me for not being able to afford to tip me. I let them know that they were always welcome to brighten the place up & not to worry about $$, let those with deep pockets fill our tip jars.

So, yeah, so far all of these guys were players in the game.. but not everyone who catches a bullet deserves it. Another one was a stereo installer who was delivering a gangster’s truck after a stereo system upgrade - that one was sad, too.

Oh, ok. I think I am getting the picture a little better now, I am starting to think with the drug connections and goings by a playbook, they are just wanting more money than what their parents are giving them. I have seen that here where I am in the states where whatever mom and dad could give for allowance wasn't good enough, the kids always wanted more.

Maybe partially, but it’s straight up more about Power and feeling like they’re a successful “gangster,” than it is just about money for these kids.

Many of them live in multi-Million dollar homes and their families provide them with brand new cars worth tens of thousands or $100k plus. Not all of them - I’m sure many come from truly working class poor backgrounds as well. But it’s not like they get $10 pocket money from their parents and really want/need more money and go for the quick cash. Some, perhaps, but a bunch of these young adults are rolling around in $60,000.00+ cars paid for by their hard working parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles. Others yet come from crime families within their ethnic community and thus are simply in the family business.

But few are going to be from what someone would imagine a stereotypical ghetto neighbourhood in the USA would be like - being the product of generations of limited opportunities. That’s not the case here for most of these guys. They just think being a gangster is cool and makes them look like tough guys. It’s reeeeeeally pathetic.

In my younger years, I knew a few people that were fed with gold spoons and still chose to deal for extra funds and in some cases to also have a supply to use for themselves.

Yeah, a lot of this is simply for social status amongst their small circle of loser friends.

And of course, for money. Houses cost Millions of dollars and the drug trade can be lucrative.. so if the family businesses aren’t super successful, then maybe some of them are turning to crime to generate the funds needed to pay down their mortgages and buy rental properties etc. Lots of reasons I suppose.

I’d rather dig ditches with a goon spoon than get involved in that s**t and have a target on my back.

I don't blame you. Does there appear to be any certain types of clothes that you have to be aware of avoiding?

No.

Gang colours aren’t really a thing here at all besides Hell’s Angels wearing theirs.

Other than that, it’s just a “look,” that fits a profile. Most gang tattoos won’t be highly visible or anything. But if you see someone that just looks like a fkn gangster rolling in a vehicle that’s modified in certain ways (luxury cars with big flashy wheels and dark tinted windows - the kind of stuff in music videos and gangster movies, certain models of cars etc) and being driven in a fashion that just screams “Deeeeeeeealer,” then its best to not be beside them.

But not everyone is a heat score. They could look like me and wear basic clothes and drive a Toyota Corolla just to fly under the radar.

There aren’t really certain gang colours etc, but there are people I would describe as wearing “the uniform.” Certain styles of clothing, jewelry, accessories like styles of bags and sunglasses etc that just scream gangster drug dealer. If it walks like a duck..

Oh, ok, there are several dress code related things I can speak of having seen in the states. I even once encountered a guy who appeared to have a few loose screws because he had both tattoos and clothing to indicate that he was members of both teams in gang rivalries. He had both an LA and NY tattoo as far as the east coast and West coast rivalry then wore a red bandana on one wrist and blue bandana on the other for blood vs Crip rivalry.

I have seen several bars that post signs that say no club colors admitted.

One bar that I worked at with a no colours (and no steel toed boots) policy was actually owned by high level Hells Angels.

But it was a profit generating business, not a place for gangsters to hangout and draw police attention. They let their colour wearing members congregate elsewhere.

I am a bit surprised at the no steel toed boots policy. I once worked at a bar, and pretty much had to wear steel toed boots given some of the work I did there.

It was no gang colours, no steel toes, and no Dayton’s.

Gang colours are obvious - not a place for making your presence known.

Steel toes because they didn’t want blue collar guys having a few too many drinks and then getting into bar fights where steel toes could inflict serious damage. It wasn’t a super rowdy place and they wanted to keep it that way. Roofers and drywallers and iron workers etc could all still come for after work pints - just change out of your work boots and into almost anything else.

Dayton’s are a brand of locally made extremely high end motorcycle & work boots - Very Expensive at full price. Several hundred dollars. But certain models of their motorcycle boots became colloquially known as “s**t kickers,” because of what their wearers were known to do with them back in the 1990’s. So, they had a dress code that said no Dayton’s to avoid any loose cannon types either wanting to look aggressive or actually be violent.

I only have two types of footwear, I have combat boots and house slippers. I can't drink though for health reasons.