Don’t put gangsters’ faces on wanted posters: Crime expert
Posted May 5, 2012 4:27 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEW1130) – A local author who writes about gang violence in the Indo-Canadian community fears putting gangsters’ faces on wanted posters will just turn them into celebrities.
This comes after longtime gangster Ranjit Cheema was shot dead in front his home in southeast Vancouver.
Liberal MLA and former West Vancouver Police Chief Kash Heed says the faces of gang members should be plastered all over the place, similar to what’s done with sex offenders.
But Ranj Dhaliwal says Heed’s plan isn’t going to work. He knew a lot of people involved in crime during the Bindy Johal era in the mid-90’s and writes books aimed at keeping kids away from that lifestyle.
“The guys that are wearing the patches on their backs, you’ve got the UN guys, they’ve got their rings,” he says. “Why do they wear this stuff if they want to hide that they’re gangsters? It’s not something that they want to hide.”
Dhaliwal adds in the days of Johal era of gang wars, a lot of kids looked up to him.
“He did interviews with the media and his face got put up everywhere, right when that happened all these youngsters started looking up to him and these youngster wanted their faces all over the media as well,” he laments.
Dhaliwal says the best way to fight gangs is to educate people.
