Eaton Centre Shooting

[Peepers]

Every prominent city official and officer who stood in front of a camera last night had, or read from, a prepared statement while Ford blathered on. Surely other officers and Blair have children no? Plus Ford didn't arrive until 9:30pm, 3 hours after the incident.

Ford embarrassed himself with his appearance. It was obvious that he didn't give any thought beforehand about what he was going to say, instead he just "winged it" with inane statements like "I'm here to support our police".

You would think that with a full-time PR person that Ford would have had prepared comments. For example, Ford was remiss in not acknowledging the bravery of the EMS and Fire personnel who raced to the aid of the injured even though a gunman was still on the loose. These first-responders don't have guns or bullet proof vests to protect them. They were the true hero's yesterday but they received no mention from the Mayor who was there to "support the Police".

 

[CanadianNational]

Ford, as usual, was not the acme of eloquence. However he did the right thing - he showed up quickly and spoke to all the people of the city via the media.
Maybe because he seemed to have genuine sympathy, this is one of the rare times when I've seen him speak that I felt he was genuine, himself. It would be good to see more of that from him.

The shooting is appalling, horrible. However, these things do happen every few years. For a city our size, we're still doing remarkably well on crime. There were gunshots near Allan Gardens (near where I live) a few years back, yet I don't feel unsafe walking around. More safe these days, in fact, than previously. When something like this happens, it's good for the city to mourn, care for itself, to examine itself, and to re-assess how it's doing.

I feel horrible for the families of those killed and injured. I also feel badly for how many people and kids were terrorized by this awful event. Hopefully the capture and sentencing of the perpetrator will send a clear message that will deter it from happening again.

 

[Palma]

. It was rather embarrassing and painful to listen to him

But is this the first thats so

 

[taal]

The difference is, 90% of the time, shootings / murders don't effect uninvolved parties. The sad truth is generally people write these off and essentially completely ignore there existence.

This is why while the murder rates in many US cities are magnitudes time higher, the majority of are also by far and large "targeted", and I use that word loosely. So someone may not consider "crime" worse in US cities then Canadian ones based on this. Of course other crimes, namely robberies, are a different issue.

Its the random events, or the ones that effect random people, that stick in people's minds.

 

[SP!RE]

So someone may not consider "crime" worse in US cities then Canadian ones based on this.

Crime of most types is higher in American cities as far as I understand.

The USA has more crime problems because it has a lot more guns, but even moreso, because it has high rates of poverty and an astounding problem with inequality. The war on drugs complicates this even further.

 

[MetroMan]

... and just now a guy got stabbed outside my door (Trinity Bellwoods Park area) by a bunch of gang bangers. What's going on??

 

[taal]

... and just now a guy got stabbed outside my door (Trinity Bellwoods Park area) by a bunch of gang bangers. What's going on??

Stabbings take place quite frequently, generally every weekend if not more often ....... while most in Toronto do get reported in major papers (not on the front covers) they generally only last for a day or two.

Check out the crime stats on Toronto web site.

But again, the majority of these are gang related, and the parties know each other. There's no stopping this sort of activity in the short term.

 

[nfitz]

Luka Magnotta is big world news but the story broke a week ago. This shooting happened yesterday.

I never saw that story hit the front page of either CNN or BBC like this one did. Perhaps I missed it ... but it didn't seem to play as widely.

 

[taal]

I never saw that story hit the front page of either CNN or BBC like this one did. Perhaps I missed it ... but it didn't seem to play as widely.

Yes clearly you missed it ....

It was all over the BBC yesterday and today.

 

[nfitz]

http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/article/1202006--toronto-shootings-up-in-2012-but-deaths-are-down

Now that is odd ... it's hard to look at just 2 years of data thought. It would be interesting to see the 20 year trends.

 

[jcphoenix]

I guess maybe it's not as uncommon as I think, but we're at least far better than the States for gun violence.

 

[taal]

Now that is odd ... it's hard to look at just 2 years of data thought. It would be interesting to see the 20 year trends.

You can online, they're down by far and large over the last 10 year or so, 20 years I'm not so sure, that's quite a while.

Crime in the US has been on the downward trend as well throughout the country.

 

[nfitz]

It was all over the BBC yesterday and today.

On the front page? Not there now. Not there yesterday when I looked. Maybe just odd timing when I look. I suppose Google News would give an indication of how many foreign articles there were for each story, if I could figure out how to run the search engine properly.

 

[gabe]

I never saw that story hit the front page of either CNN or BBC like this one did. Perhaps I missed it ... but it didn't seem to play as widely.

i will say the Luka Magnotta story was a little over shadowed by other stories of cannibalism this week. The naked face eating maniac in Miami, and the guy in Maryland who killed his roommate and then ate his brain and heart.

 

[taal]

On the front page? Not there now. Not there yesterday when I looked. Maybe just odd timing when I look. I suppose Google News would give an indication of how many foreign articles there were for each story, if I could figure out how to run the search engine properly.

It was all over the news today ... but that shouldn't be much of a surprise considering he's suspected in being in France now.

But I think a shooting that effects bystanders in a major mall in any of the largest North American cities would make headlines. As much as we like to think violence is rampant in American cities, most of it takes place in run down areas (just like in Toronto).