Waiting to see who’ll fill the void left behind by Bacon Brothers / Red Scorpions and Dhak-Duhre groups
 
STORY-1
 
Detective / Constable Doug Spencer Photo by Indira Prahst
 
BY RATTAN MALL
 
Sunday’s star is Monday’s scar
Out of date before you’re even seen
 
SO run the lyrics of an old Black Sabbath number.
And they so aptly describe what gang expert Detective / Constable Doug Spencer points out about the fleeting nature of gangs today.
 
Police forces in the Lower Mainland are waiting to see which gang or gangs fill the void left behind by the Bacon Brothers / Red Scorpions group and the Dhak-Duhre group and what alliances emerge.
 
But whoever takes over probably won’t last very long either!
Spencer told Asian Journal this week that groups in the past would usually last six to eight years. He said: “Now they’re so violent and so willing to take risks and not work things out with other groups, they just go and shoot them. It seems that their time at the top is shortened.”
 
He added: “It’s even shorter now because you’ve got so many other groups that are trying to take their drug line. The transition’s usually pretty quick; by the time you become the new group, within a couple of years, you’re gone.
 
Spencer spent 31 years with the Vancouver Police Department, working in the Gang Crime Unit and the Youth Squad, before he joined Transit Police where he monitors and identifies at-risk and gang-involved youth.
 
Spencer mocked the present-day groups: “I call them Facebook gangsters.” He noted how they pose with guns and display their tattoos on Facebook.
 
He added: “How stupid can you be? You’re advertising to the police, showing the police what you’re doing, not to mention your enemies. It’s ridiculous! You don’t see the gangs in Mexico advertising on Facebook, right?”
 
EXPECT VIOLENCE!
 
SPENCER told me that it’s really hard to say what alignments among gangs might take place, but with the Red Scorpions and the Dhak-Duhre groups out of the picture now, “there will be guys moving in and trying to take over what they’ve lost.”
 
He added: “So that can cause violence in itself, because you’ll have one group fight another group for control of whatever area you’re talking about.”
 
He pointed out: “The Bacon Brothers / Red Scorpions controlled the SkyTrain Surrey drug area [King George – Surrey Central – Gateway]. But when they all went to jail, the Dhak-Duhre group kind of moved in and took over that. And now they’re gone, so whoever’s ready to step up to the plate, it’s there for the picking. You’ve got that huge population of drug addicts in and around the train, so there’s nothing that’s come to light as of yet, but it will happen. You just know it’s going to happen.”
 
He added: “It comes in cycles. There will be a new group that will come up and kind of take over things. Slowly they’ll die or go to jail and then another group will come in and take over – it`s just a vicious cycle; the cycle just doesn’t go away.”
 
For example, there was Bindy Johal and his crew who engaged in all sorts of criminal activities until they were killed or landed up in jail and so on. And then new groups emerged.
 
When I asked Spencer if we will just have to wait and see the next set of killings before we know what’s happening, he replied, “Well, that’s about it.”
 
He noted that it is very hard to prevent these guys from getting involved in the drug trade, because it’s a pretty lucrative business.
 
Spencer added: “The way you are going to make it disappear is to get rid of all the drug addicts – get people off drugs and then there is no market for it. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
 
NEW ALLIANCES RISKIER
 
WHEN Jonathan Bacon of the Red Scorpions was shot dead in August 2011 in Kelowna he was with his associates Larry Amero of the Hells Angels and James Riach of the Independent Soldiers. Although they were all from distinct criminal groups, they had recently formed a criminal alliance commonly called “The Wolfpack.”
 
Usually the bigger groups such as Hells Angels and Big Circle Boys operate quietly.
Smaller groups move into little pocket areas like the Commercial SkyTrain area or the Main Street area in Vancouver – whoever wants to take over that particular area, it`s there for the picking.
 
But apparently the Hells Angels were feeling the heat from the Dhak-Duhre group and so they made alliances with the two other groups to make themselves stronger.
 
But Spencer pointed out: “The problem is that when they get these new alliances they bring over all their old enemies. So they think they are making themselves safer when actually they are making themselves more at risk.”
And they learned that the hard way in Kelowna.