Ignoring the reality of gangs....
Karen Gordon
_________________
The brutal truth -
Violent gangs instil fear in once-staid Ottawa
When police entered the apartment, the air was still heavy with the smell
of burned flesh. On the floor lay the body of 17-year-old Sylvain Leduc,
dead of asphyxiation after being tortured and beaten for 3 1/2 hours.
Beside him lay another teenage boy and two of his female cousins, still
alive but also badly beaten - and one of the girls had been sexually as-
saulted with a hot curling iron. Those heinous crimes occurred in the
early morning hours of Oct 26, in a highrise apartment in the Ottawa suburb
of Nepean. And they have left many residents of the nation's capital won-
dering how safe their normally staid and quiet city really is.
"Sadistic torture and murder - here?" asked Maureen C. who lives with her
husband and baby daughter down the street from the highrise where Leduc
died. "It's supposed to happen only in other places."
Ottawans have long liked to think that real danger lurks in places like
Toronto and Montreal. But there have been 18 murders in the capital this
year, compared with 7 for all of 1994.
The killing of Leduc and the brutality of the crimes have stirred fear
and swirling rumors, even as police have urged people not to panic. And
as 2 suspects remained at large last week - and a members of the gang to
which they belong taunted Leduc's family, witnesses and police - Ottawans'
fears seemed very real indeed.
[....]
Police said that they have received little cooperation from the suspects
already in custody - who likely fear the same kind of attack. But all of
them have been linked to the 'Ace Crew', a black street gang involved in
prostitution and in Ottawa's burgeoning crack-cocaine trade.
Before the Leduc murder, police had never heard of the Ace Crew - but they
have since learned of its street-level drug dealing, some of it occuring
just minutes from Parliament Hill.
Police say that they believe John Richardson (24) and Keith Edwards (25)
are the gang's leaders. In fact, Richardson, who was released from prison
in September after serving 2/3s of a prostitution-related sentence, had
been under a court order to stay away from one of the accused. And at
week's end, police were checking with anti-gang squads in Montreal and
Toronto, seeking links to the Ace Crew, as well as possible connections
to American gangs.
Rae (police supt.) says he suspects that the same group is responsible for
an attack on Oct 24 - the day before the abductions - in which a teenager
was taken to the same apartment, shot in the head and left for dead. Not
seriously hurt, he escaped after his attackers left, and contacted police.
The fact that the suspects are still at large, are black, and the victims
are white, has introduced a racial element to the case. In court on Oct
27, a male relative of Leduc's extended his forefinger and thumb like a
gun, pointed it at one of those charged and uttered a racial slur before
muttering "You're dead".
And on Oct 29, several young black men taunted mourners outside the
funeral home where Leduc's body was lying, drawing the chalk outline of a
body on the pavement and yelling, "One down and three to go!"
Last week, the victim of the sexual assault, who cannot be identified, was
moved to a more secure part of a local hospital after police spotted two
young men lurking near her room.
Although police concede that youth crime is on the rise - due largely to
increased use of crack cocaine - they insist that the city is still safe
from gangs.
And law-enforcement authorities have so far rejected calls for the formation
of a special anti-gang squad.
But the assurances have not comforted Leduc's parents. Asked his distraught
mother, Carole M.: "How can you be in the wrong place at the wrong time when
you are in your own home?"
Leduc's stepfather, Claude B., had a more visceral reaction to the crimes:
"You've got to be an animal," he declared, "to do something like that."
(Macleans - Luke Fisher, Ottawa)
______________________
--
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Rosco
And tell us again, Karen, how C-68 and its harassment of responsible
firearms owners, is going to prevent or reduce such violent acts...
- --
SysOp, CUE Here BBS (403) 465-7715
roger_...@cuehere.bohica.net
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