Article Response

Le Devoir newspaper
Réal Ménard, Deputy of Hochelaga and spokesman on justice for the Bloc Quebecois
http://www.ledevoir.com/2008/01/03/170481.html


The main purpose of this article is how Montreal fight street gangs and if it is effective or not and the opinion of Mr. Ménard on street gangs. First of all, he argues that street gangs in Montreal are more violence than ever. Crime in general has decreased but they are more violent. Today, they have closer links with the adult organized crime and they have a more prolific use of firearms.

"Les causes de leurs affrontements se sont déplacées: à l'origine axé sur l'antagonisme ou la vengeance, le mobile des gestes violents est aujourd'hui la rentabilité dans le cadre du contrôle de marchés criminels."

According to Mr. Ménard, street gangs were using antagonism or revenge as an argument to fight. Now, it is base on how much money they are going to make in criminal markets.

Also, he describes how we fight street gangs through justice. He clearly disagrees with how the Police Service of the City of Montreal handles the situation with their conservative way of fighting it and finds it inefficient. He argues that millions of dollars could be use in another way to fight street gangs.

I agree with Mr. Ménard on how street gangs are processing these days. They are more violent and they just mainly want money. They were once attacking each other due to their differences and because someone killed one of their gang member but we have see some normal persons being killed for the only reason of money. Also, the way the police deal with the situation is a problem right now. I agree with him that their method is inefficient and the problem is far of being solved. The city needs more money to deal with street gangs like he states because the police needs more resources but what Mr. Ménard didn't say is that money is starting to be a problem in Quebec's society with the increasing cost of health care. However, he is right and I'm sure there is still some money left in the city budget.