Re: “I want to see it stopped. I’ve had enough of this,” The Leader, April 15.
The statement made by Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner regarding the recent gun violence in Surrey is laughable.
I don’t mean that gun violence is a joke, but rather, the mayor’s comments are. For whatever reason she had, telling the public that the investigation into the recent shooting in our city is top priority is a good message, but it is nothing more than sensationalism.
Let’s face it, I’m sure the RCMP take shootings as seriously as any other major crime. I’m sure they know what consequences result in gun violence, and I’m also sure they don’t need to be told by a politician how to deal with the situation.
If I was the chief of the Surrey RCMP detachment my comment to her would be this: “We will investigate this as a top priority but it would be helpful if we had more officers to allocate to the task at hand.”
Where are the additional officers the mayor had promised when she was elected? She’s had time to raise taxes to pay for these officers, so where are they?
I don’t expect to see all 100 officers right away, but have any more been hired? Four months into her mayoral duties and not a peep about more officers being hired. Why?
Oh wait, I know why, because she just spent $200,000 of taxpayers’ money on promoting a “yes” vote for the upcoming transit plebiscite – money that could have been spent hiring at least two more RCMP officers.
Mayor Hepner, if you’ve “had enough of this,” then perhaps you should stop talking about it and start doing something about it.
Gard Penny, Surrey
