And despite losing a key ally in their peace effort, is there anything that they could have done to prevent this tragedy? Noralez says that there is no telling when and where every gang related murder could or will possibly occur.
Dominique Noralez, Chairperson, LIU
"Reformation Jo is life long work. We are all interconnected, that Haulover creek that separates us, is a geographic feature, and you cannot tell people that they don't deserve a life of safety and peace of mind and recreation and opportunities simply because of where they grow up and who they are related to."
"Mr Dawson and out sergeants are leading the on the ground work and making sure that we remain in contact with the community because you don't want people to feel like "Oh, you only come around when you know something is going to pop off" or you want information, or whatever it is. You want people to know that we are really there and we really care about their well being and we are here to support as much as we can. That is our job at LIU and one that we take very seriously and one we have ensured that my staff has the tools to operate and all the resources they need to do their jobs right."
"No one could have predicted this and I think if we could have predicted every murder we would do our best to stop it. This and every murder that has happened over the past 20-30 years particularly related to gun violence is a logical end to social exclusion. This is what happens when people are not given a chance to thrive and obviously there is some personal responsibility on the individuals as well. But we need to do a better job at making sure our prevention doesn't happen when someone is already embroiled in life like this. Prevention has to happen when people are growing when they want to feel like they have something to live for for tomorrow when they want, you just have to… When you ask a question like that, Jo it makes us feel like there is a blame to be cast, and no one wants this stuff to happen, nobody wants this stuff to happen, but when it does we are reminded of why the work we do is important and why it must not be looked at as coddling criminals which is a term I hear quite often which infuriates me because poverty is violent and poverty either leads to one or two places and so we have to be able to continue to do the work to prevent everything like this from happening."
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