Teens see graphic truth on gangs

Published 10:40 pm Thursday, February 7, 2008

VANCOUVER, B.C. — In a city where gangs have been linked to a tide of fatal shootings, it’s one thing to tell children that a thug’s lifestyle is a bad idea.

But Vancouver police are doing more than just lecturing.

For some time now, youth-squad officers have been including crime-scene photos of the bullet-battered, bloodied corpses of young gangsters in a multimedia presentation called “The Truth About Gangs.”

One image shows the 21-year-old victim of a 2000 shooting lying on the pavement near his yellow Lotus Esprit sports car, streaks of blood running down his face after he was ambushed while going out to buy cigarettes.

A young man slain outside a rave party in March 2000 sits in his car, his head tilted back as though sleeping and his chest spotted with bloody red puckers.

Gang leader Bindy Johal, shot in 1998 on the dance floor of the Palladium Nightclub, is seen naked except for a towel and lying on a morgue table — his face shriveled in death. Tubes running out of his nose reflect the failed effort to save his life.

“None of them are pretty,” said Doug Spencer, a youth-squad detective who helped develop the presentation. He presents it with police officers Elvis Bellia and Adam Dhaliwal.

“We’ve had some teachers say to us, ‘That’s kind of rough and graphic.’ Our response is we don’t want to sugarcoat it to the kids,’ ” Spencer said.

“What they’re getting told (by gang recruiters) is a pack of lies. ‘You’re going to be famous. You’re going to get rich. You’re going to drive this nice Escalade. Fly through the lineups at the nightclubs.’ They get told the good, glamorous stuff. They don’t get told that somebody is going to try to shoot you in the back of your head to get what you have, and will do it at a moment’s notice.”

The presentation includes relevant TV news footage. But the most haunting images would never make any mainstream news broadcast because they show the damage that bullets do to human bodies.

A Vancouver School Board spokeswoman said school principals decide whether to allow the program after consulting parents. A disclaimer before the program warns of “graphic material,” and suggests that it is included because “this is what (police) see on the streets.”

Spencer said he did not contact the families of the dead before using the images. “Originally, I talked to our freedom-of-information guy, and he said, ‘You know what? They’re your pictures.’”

The youngest audiences — fifth-grade pupils — “get a real toned-down version,” Spencer said.

British Columbia Attorney General Wally Oppal is a fan of the program. Some of his regular speeches to schools about crime and justice have coincided with screenings of the youth-squad project.

“I am totally in favor of it,” he said. “Sometimes when you’re talking about these things, the words have an antiseptic tone to them. (Words) will not have the same effect as the graphic photos.”

Harjinder Sandhu, vice principal of Walter Moberly Elementary, heard about the show and organized a screening for parents in early 2007. It went well enough to prompt a follow-up screening in the fall for about 80 seventh-grade pupils, accompanied by their parents.

No specific gang problem prompted the show, which was, instead, held as a preventive measure, Sandhu said.

Asked about the effect on schoolchildren, she said: “Time will only tell because they just got the message.