Toronto Gangs Recruiting Members Online
Posted November 19, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s a tool that can serve the highest of cultural and educational purposes, but the Internet can also be utilized to serve the needs of criminals from all walks of life. And police are warning parents that gang members have joined the high-tech era and are actively trying to recruit young members online.
“They’re putting up essentially a billboard on social networking sites where they’ll have pictures of guns, knives, some of their threatening messages and intimidating messages,” warns P.C. Scott Mills of Crime Stoppers. “They just want to put their message of fear out. That’s how they operate, right?
“They’re also going out on video sharing sites and putting their messages up there. The words of one mother echo in my ear. I don’t really want to say who she was … her son was murdered in this city and she said, “Scott, I told him not to go get involved with that stuff on the Internet.’ “
Mark Farrell knows all too well the temptations and dangers associated with the gang life.
“I made poor choices and decisions which later on led to me being shot three times in my back,” he said from a wheelchair.
He now serves as a youth mentor to warn others about the dangers of a criminal lifestyle.
“What I basically do is just try to use all the learning experience of my life that I’ve been through and show these kids some of the consequences.
“Think hard about what you’re getting into,” he pleads. “Look at me being in a wheelchair.”
