A wave of gang violence is tarnishing the international reputation of Vancouver as it prepares to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, the city's mayor said Friday.
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson spoke as police announced the arrests of two alleged gang leaders. Robertson's comments represent the first time the city's mayor has acknowledged how the surge of violence has affected the city's image.
"Vancouver has never been known for this, so in terms of our international reputation it is a problem, and we need to bear down and deal with it," Robertson told a news conference.
Vancouver residents woke up Friday morning to news of yet another shooting overnight _ this time a drive-by at a drug house. Nobody was killed.
Earlier this week, five people were hospitalized after street gunfights and three more shootings occurred overnight Wednesday. There have been 29 shootings in the metro Vancouver region since late January, 12 of them deadly.
"Some are gang-related, some are not and some we may never know," Vancouver police Const. Lindsey Houghton said.
Five other gang arrests were announced by police Monday.
Police also said a 32-year-old man found shot to death this week was the victim of a gang-style shooting.
"As police, we've always been told by media experts to never say or admit that there is a gang war," Vancouver police chief Jim Chu said Friday. "Well, let's get serious. There is a gang war and it's brutal."
Chu said two gangs are killing each other for profit and territory.
The violence has spread far beyond the city's notoriously squalid and poverty-stricken notorious Downtown Eastside where drugs and prostitution are rampant.
With Vancouver preparing for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Canadian Minister of Public Safety Peter Van Loan has dubbed the city the gang capital of Canada.
But Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the increasing violence should not worry people planning to attend the games. Officials say a total of 15,000 police officers, private security and military personnel will be providing security for the games.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Supt. Pat Fogarty has said a Mexican crackdown on drug cartels has led to increased violence in as gangs in Vancouver are fighting over a decrease in smuggled shipments of illegal drugs.
The government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon has mobilized 45,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police to try to curb cartel activity.
