Abbotsford Police Department has dedicated a wide array of resources to the ongoing Townline Hill conflict, which it says has been a top public safety priority since 2014. The department says Chief Bob Rich’s letter is an “earnest attempt to change the direction of the conflict and the lives of those involved.” Rich says in the letter that two gangs are fighting over who gets to sell illegal drugs in the city and so far five people, including an 18-year-old, have been murdered.
ABBOTSFORD – Abbotsford’s police chief has sent a letter in Punjabi and English asking for help from the parents of young men whom officers believe are involved in a violent ongoing gang conflict that has already led to the deaths of a number of young Indo-Canadian men, including an innocent elderly Chinese man.
The Abbotsford Police Department says it has dedicated a wide array of resources to the Townline Hill conflict, which it says has been a top public safety priority since 2014, reported Canadian Press.
The department says Chief Bob Rich’s letter is an “earnest attempt to change the direction of the conflict and the lives of those involved.”
Rich says in the letter that two gangs are fighting over who gets to sell illegal drugs in the city and so far five people, including an 18-year-old, have been murdered.
He tells parents their son’s life is in “critical danger,” and if their child stays involved in gangs he is at serious risk of being killed and his actions are causing other people’s deaths.
“Your son’s life is in critical danger,” Rich wrote.”If he stays involved in gangs, he is at serious risk of being killed.”
Rich says he is sorry that parents are in this situation and police are not blaming them, but want to talk to them about what they can do about it.
Roughly 18 letters will be hand delivered by police officers to parents whose sons are part of the Townline Hill conflict, police said.
“Our objective is threefold,” said Const. Ian MacDonald.
“One is to give fair warning to the people that are still involved in this that bad things can happen. One is to extend an olive branch to say that we realize many of the young men and their families might be involved in a predicament, and we want to help them with that. Most importantly, we want to see change.”
MacDonald says the Townline Hill feud started in 2014 as a small-time beef between two groups of teens and men in their early 20s, reported CBC News.
Since then, it has evolved into a war over drug turf.
Police connect five deaths to the ongoing feud, including the killing of 74-year-old grandfather Ping Shun Ao, who was an innocent victim hit by a stray bullet.
Will the letter warning work?
Abbotsford police have reached out to the families of gangsters in the past with varying degrees of success.
“People might be envisioning a group of people that are uncaring or maybe anti-police, but those aren’t the people we have been dealing with,” MacDonald said.
“Some of those parents have either changed their residence for the entire family to other parts of Canada or have removed their sons physically from the Lower Mainland in order to safeguard them and prevent further violence.”
MacDonald says other families have been less cooperative.
