What is the least that you could say about a Gang member? How many adjectives are the bare minimum when applying this characterization? Well, if you don't know, wouldn't you at least like the Police to?The phrase Known to Police has officially entered the public consciousness as a Gang-related term. It is found in nearly every article that has dealt with Gangs specifically. Wherever one term is used, it seems, the other is soon to follow. To cite a specific instance, I use an article from the Metro newspaper, February 12th edition:
While police have not made any connection between this shooting and any other homicides or gang activity, they say [the murdered man] was known to police.
What does it mean to be Known to Police; and why not a gang-exclusive usage? Well, to be blunt with you, my readers, I don't think it is supposed to be taken literally. It is true that our beloved law enforcement agency of the lower mainland knows many of the individuals who perpetrate these heinous crimes; however, the Police also know those who are the victims of such criminal activities, and it is not because they went to their Bar Mitzvah.
Both parties are known to Police because they are criminals, violators of the law in equal right and respect (thought both traits are conspicuously lacking). Returning to the article to which I referred earlier, I find that though a man was murdered (no doubt by a Gang's bullets) he was by no means innocent. Years earlier, the reporter writes, this individual was KTP for carrying handguns, and tens of thousands of dollars in cash. He was also evidenced as being party to a road rage incident which saw him and several of his acquaintances violently attack an unarmed driver. Citing from another article (this one from 24 Hours, February 18th edition) I find another instance of this linguistic association:
Both parties are known to Police because they are criminals, violators of the law in equal right and respect (thought both traits are conspicuously lacking). Returning to the article to which I referred earlier, I find that though a man was murdered (no doubt by a Gang's bullets) he was by no means innocent. Years earlier, the reporter writes, this individual was KTP for carrying handguns, and tens of thousands of dollars in cash. He was also evidenced as being party to a road rage incident which saw him and several of his acquaintances violently attack an unarmed driver. Citing from another article (this one from 24 Hours, February 18th edition) I find another instance of this linguistic association:
[John Doe] was known to police and the shooting is believed to be a targeted hit.... However...a resident of the Downtown Eastside who says he saw the shooting, stated that he knew the man as a drug dealer.
There is a peculiar link that we might feel inclined to draw when examining articles with such content in them. It would seem that a Gang member is someone who acts as a neighborhood vigilante of sorts. He goes from place to place and assassinates those people who only work to harm our people and our home. Drug dealers, thieves, car-smashing, driver-beating hooligans, they're no use to society, right? Why not get rid of them? And so on.... Continuing with this line of logic, we might even feel inclined to praise the Gangs for "cleaning up the streets." We might even see them as doing us a great service. Be careful, my friends, and think about this before it goes too far. This hooligan is not helping you but helping himself. If he is "cleaning up the streets" he does so only to make way for more of his kind.
Though we tell ourselves that actions speak louder than words do not let the capricious Gang member steal your allegiance even for a second. We cannot allow ourselves to believe that such an individual is doing good, or even working towards a worthy goal. Death is not the principle on which we have founded our judicial system, and it is certainly not the one which drives the hearts and minds of our society. Murder will absolutely not be tolerated, and that is what it means to be Known to Police. You are not a martyr for whose death the hooligan will be lionized; neither are you a bounty hunter among men. You are a criminal, and Vancouver is watching.
Though we tell ourselves that actions speak louder than words do not let the capricious Gang member steal your allegiance even for a second. We cannot allow ourselves to believe that such an individual is doing good, or even working towards a worthy goal. Death is not the principle on which we have founded our judicial system, and it is certainly not the one which drives the hearts and minds of our society. Murder will absolutely not be tolerated, and that is what it means to be Known to Police. You are not a martyr for whose death the hooligan will be lionized; neither are you a bounty hunter among men. You are a criminal, and Vancouver is watching.
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