This article is part of a Global BC series focused on the B.C. gang conflict.
B.C. kids as young as 12, 13 and 14 are being actively targeted by organized criminals to join street-level gangs, experts say.
Two former high-profile gang members spoke to Global News regarding their experiences within the world of organized crime.
Stanley Price, a former member of the Redd Alert gang who sold firearms and illicit drugs in the Downtown Eastside for more than 15 years, is now a speaker with KidsPlay Foundation, a program in Vancouver that works to mitigate youth involvement in gangs.
According to experts, kids as young as 12 years old are being identified by gangs or subgroups to be recruited – they target kids that appear to be misfits, those with rough home lives, or cocky bravado youths.
Experts said it makes it easy to pull the child in with a little bit of charm and a dose of acceptance.
Price said of his time in the drug trade that as he got older, he noticed more and more young people becoming involved with organized crime — he said it was a key factor in his “retirement.”
“I didn’t agree with it. We were having a party … I look over and I saw some kids probably around the ages of 14, 15, 16 years old hanging out,” Price said. “That is how old my kids are.”
Sometime between 2016 and 2017, Price said he began to move away from organized crime. Something an associate said to him was an eye-opener.
“He looked at my boys and said, ‘That is our future,’” Price told Global News.
“What he meant was that they were going to take over for us, and that really resonated in my mind, like ‘Yeah, my children are my future.’ And I don’t ever want my children to make the mistakes I made and make the horrible choices I made.
“(Being a gang member) made me a person I never wanted to be but it was all I knew.”
Price said both the perceived acceptance kids feel from the older generation of gang members and ultimately the enticement of riches is what keeps the kids hooked.
“It’s the glorification of the money, kids want to make money. The fast cash is what hooks them in,” he said.
“They see these older guys making money, dressing nice, driving nice vehicles … gold chains, nice watches. When (they) glorify the life, that’s hook, line, and sinker right there.”
B.C.’s gang task force said it’s common to see young kids involved in street-level gangs, also known as subgroups.
Staff Sgt. Lindsay Houghton said the youngest child they’ve dealt with was a 10-year-old student selling cocaine at an elementary school.
“It was shocking, but I’m not surprised anymore,” Houghton told Global News.
“When someone asks (a child) to deliver a package for $50 and then asks to do it again tomorrow, … that is grooming-type behaviour. (Gang members) are looking for young people who are looking for fast, easy cash.”
Houghton said gang members understand that children won’t be sent to jail when they are caught, and, on the other hand, the kids feel like they’re invincible and don’t mind taking risks.
The bulk of street-level gang activity, mainly selling small amounts of illicit drugs, is done by young people between the ages of 16 and 22.
”The main thing is that kids can get their driving licence at 16,” Houghton said.
Shane Knox, a former United Nations gang member and drug runner in downtown Vancouver, who is also a speaker at KidsPlay, backs the notion that young people are easily manipulated and that money, power and acceptance can entice kids to join gangs.
He said he first became involved with street-level gangs when he was in Grade 6.
“I was a gang member when I was in Grade 6, 12 years old, my first gang. From there it was street-level gangs before I ended up hanging with the guys from the UN,” Knox said.
“Kids are being targeted from such a young age, but every person that joins a gang will have their own story, and their own reasons.”
“People want to feel empowered, sometimes people want to be part of a family, sometimes people are really bullied at school and want protection.”
Knox said gangs come into contact with kids through a third-party contact, maybe a friend or a family member, and get introduced at a hang-around or house parties.
“(A kid) could start out selling drugs, and the boss says, ‘You’re doing good, moving lots of product. … Why don’t you start hanging out with us?’ And then, bang, (they) are in a gang.”
Hilary Morden, a B.C. expert on gangs and former Simon Fraser University criminology instructor, said there are deep-rooted psychological effects at play in the recruitment and retention of young kids in gangs.
She interviewed more than 100 active gang members between 2017 and 2018 for her research.
Morden said kids who struggle in school, both socially and educationally, and who have rough home lives, are more susceptible to being enticed into joining gangs.
“(Kids) with a lack of social intelligence, an inability to interact socially with their peers — that’s where the acceptance comes in. When they do get into the game, they feel accepted and understood, sometimes for the first time in their lives,” Morden told Global News.
“If your family is no good and your school doesn’t pick up the slack, and no other adults are giving a crap about you –- being welcomed into a gang feels pretty damn good.”
That is why KidsPlay and other community programs, like the Abbotsford police’s Pathways program, are actively reaching out to kids in late elementary school.
KidsPlay is a non-profit organization that was created by Vancouver police officer Kal Dosanjh.
He is now a detective but previously was a beat patrol officer in the Downtown Eastside for 15 years.
“It was during my time on the streets as a patrol officer that I was noticing a steady stream of kids entering the open-air drug market, “ Dosanjh told Global BC.
“These kids were engaging from using to selling. These kids were coming from lower socio-economic backgrounds, subsidized housing and were never really offered the opportunity to engage in positive outlets or had any type of positive mentorship in their lives.”
Dosanjh said many of these kids ended up catching charges and spending time in youth detention centres before being “spewed back out onto the street to re-engage in a perpetual cycle of violence.”
That is when he decided to create KidsPlay, an organization that, at first, used sports to engage with youth and connect them with positive role models. The program has now grown to a large-scale operation spanning many B.C. municipalities.
To contact KidsPlay, call 778-320-6540 or email contact@kidsplayfoundation.com
This article is part of a new Global BC series focused on the B.C. gang conflict. More to come in a future story regarding KidsPlay, AbbyPD’s Pathways program and other community initiatives working to mitigate gang participation in a future story.
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