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OUR VIEW: Mayor’s shot at Surrey Mounties uncalled for

The person responsible for Saturday’s fatal shooting in Clayton is the person who pulled the trigger
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Scene of the fatal shooting in Clayton on Saturday. (Photo: Shane MacKichan)

Let’s get this straight – the person responsible for Saturday’s fatal shooting in Clayton is the person who pulled the trigger.

And that’s all.

Not his upbringing or the public education system he was presumably enrolled in – at least, for awhile anyway.

Not Hollywood, video games, existential angst, city hall, climate change, the provincial or federal government, or even the Devil himself. And certainly not the Surrey RCMP.

To suggest as much is an insult to everyone’s intelligence, not to mention an unjust slam on our local Mounties who work hard, with scant thanks, to solve these crimes.

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While Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum didn’t come right out and say as much, in his statement released in the wake of Saturday’s shooting, he says this latest “incident” emphasizes the need for Surrey to have its own police force.

It doesn’t require a brain surgeon to deduce that McCallum is not exactly casting the Surrey RCMP in a shining light here.

These people – we lose the term loosely – who shoot, injure and kill others entirely own the evil choices they make to pull the triggers they pull.

That said, it should also be noted that much of this gang violence is driven by paranoia and greed endemic to the illegal drug trade.

And so, residents who don’t like people shooting at other people in their neighbourhoods, where their children play, should think well upon the background conflict fueling these murders the next time they buy that little baggie of drugs to take the edge off during their backyard weekend barbecue parties.

That little bit of “recreation” comes at a ponderously heavy price.

Now-Leader



edit@surreynowleader.com

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