I once considered moving to Vancouver...according to this AP story, the scarcity of coke is turning Vancouver into the Murder Capital of North America.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — With its spectacular bay and stunning, snowcapped peaks, Vancouver easily ranks as one of the world’s most beautiful cities. But in recent months, the people of Canada’s Olympic city have been living in fear.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com
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Even as Vancouver prepares to host the 2010 Winter Games, its crime rate is going up. Since January alone, there have been 45 shootings in the region, 17 of them fatal. There were 58 murders last year in this region of 2.7 million people, up from 41 the year before, according to the regional Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.<o></o>
“It’s terrifying,” says Doris Luong, who lives near the scene of a double murder on March 10. “This used to be the best city in the world... I fear for my children.” At a nearby elementary school, students’ movements were immediately restricted as word of the killings spread.<o></o>
The root of the problem seems to be drugs, or rather a shortage of them.<o></o>
The Mexican cocaine supply line extends through the United States, especially Los Angeles, up to Vancouver, according to Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Pat Fogarty. But now the Mexican government of President Felipe Calderon has mobilized 45,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police to curb cartel activity. That has driven up the price of cocaine in Vancouver from $23,300 per kilogram to almost $39,000, Fogarty says, and gangs are killing each other.<o></o>
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — With its spectacular bay and stunning, snowcapped peaks, Vancouver easily ranks as one of the world’s most beautiful cities. But in recent months, the people of Canada’s Olympic city have been living in fear.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com
fficeffice" /><o></o>Even as Vancouver prepares to host the 2010 Winter Games, its crime rate is going up. Since January alone, there have been 45 shootings in the region, 17 of them fatal. There were 58 murders last year in this region of 2.7 million people, up from 41 the year before, according to the regional Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.<o
></o>“It’s terrifying,” says Doris Luong, who lives near the scene of a double murder on March 10. “This used to be the best city in the world... I fear for my children.” At a nearby elementary school, students’ movements were immediately restricted as word of the killings spread.<o
></o>The root of the problem seems to be drugs, or rather a shortage of them.<o
></o>The Mexican cocaine supply line extends through the United States, especially Los Angeles, up to Vancouver, according to Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Pat Fogarty. But now the Mexican government of President Felipe Calderon has mobilized 45,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police to curb cartel activity. That has driven up the price of cocaine in Vancouver from $23,300 per kilogram to almost $39,000, Fogarty says, and gangs are killing each other.<o
></o>
