Multiple Victims of Shooting in Scarborough

[Admiral Beez]

Scarborough isn’t even a city anymore so why even bother saying it? By continuously saying Scarborough in every news article you are painting a huge swath of the city as somehow having involvement in a horrible incident in one small portion of the city.

True enough. My parents live at the end of Pine Ridge Dr. near Kingston Rd and St. Clair and their corner of Scarborough is very nice.

 

[klb86]

If these comments from Twitter (compiled by a Reddit user) are any indication, this is going to get worse. http://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/wokxt/breaking_news_11_people_shot_at_house/c5f61do

Wow....I'm sure the cops are monitoring twitter very closely.

 

[Roy G Biv]

It's not an 'appealing' conversation, but a real event that happened in our city that needs to be discussed, and not a TV show?

Said TV show is an in-depth documentation of all aspects relating to this event. There is nothing original or novel about this event, from the police response to witnesses refusing to talk to anyone. The Wire was written by a police/crime reporter based on his career in American urban centres.

 

[MisterF]

Yes, I think most if not all Torontonians pride ourselves on how safe it is here, where we can walk around town and not fear being mugged or assaulted at gun point. Unfortunately, I fear we are a couple of shooting incidents away (for example in the Yonge-Eglington area or North York etc) from officially becoming a "major US city".

Not even close actually. Chicago, for example, has a murder rate that's 10 times ours, Philly is even worse. Even New York, which is now probably the safest big city in the US, has a much higher murder rate. But we shouldn't just compare ourselves to the US obviously - their cities have the highest murder rates in the industrialized world. Every city in western Canada has a higher murder rate than us. The murder rates in London, Berlin, Madrid, and Melbourne are about the same as in Toronto.

That said, the shootings do seem to be more brazen and public this year. Maybe they want to be just as badass as the bangers in the States. This just goes to show we can't be complacent and we have to keep fighting the root causes of crime and gang violence.

Globe and Mail: 'Toronto's the safest city,' Mayor says after shootings kill 2, injure 21

Not sure if it was politic of the Mayor to slag off Detroit in promoting Toronto's safety record following a heinous shooting. And are we really the "safest city in North America." I would certainly believe we are one of the safer large cities, but the safest? I wonder if we are even the safest in the GTA. For example, Mississauga? Markham?

And I also wonder about the police chief's comment about this being "worst incident of gun violence in my memory, anywhere in North America." Two people killed and that's the worst he's heard of in 35 years in the force?

As much as I hate to defend Rob Ford, it seems obvious that he meant cities that aren't suburbs.

Blair's comments were obviously wrong. There have been way worse incidents than this. Just today some guy in Alabama shot 17 people in a bar.

 

[Urban Shocker]

When have our police not heavily promoted the perception that there's a massive, out-of-control crime wave at times such as this?

 

[James]

Just another quick thought: At what point in the organizer's mind did throwing a block party on a Monday night with free Hennessy sound like a good idea?

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Rob Ford talks a tough line in a statement released this afternoon (http://torontoist.com/2012/07/duly-quoted-rob-ford-6/) which just makes me crazy angry. Isn't he the one who rode into town to "stop the gravy train", find nothing and then move on to cut community projects, libraries, increase user fees including in at-risk/lower income neighbourhoods etc. even when there's a budget surplus of hundreds of millions of dollars? Wasn't he the solo vote of "NO" to decline funds from the Feds. for a gang prevention project? .

Does anyone out there in Ford Nation wish to comment on how this duffus is continuing to destroy this city and the lives within it?

 

[TheKingEast]

Love the media using "Scarborough" every chance they get, this happens anywhere else in the city it would have been referred to as the intersection, but of course when it happens here its the entire borough....love the media in this city.

And our citizens gobble it up.

 

[Max Sterling]

Rob Ford talks a tough line in a statement released this afternoon (http://torontoist.com/2012/07/duly-quoted-rob-ford-6/) which just makes me crazy angry. Isn't he the one who rode into town to "stop the gravy train" then go on to cut community projects, libraries, increase user fees even in at risk neighbourhoods etc. even when there's a budget surplus of hundreds of millions of dollars? Wasn't he the solo vote of "NO" to decline funds from the Feds. for a gang prevention project? (http://torontoist.com/2012/07/duly-quoted-rob-ford-6/).

Does anyone out there in Ford Nation wish to comment on how this duffus is continuing to destroy this city and the lives within it?

I know Ford isn't popular and all, but does anyone seriously think pouring more money into various programs to try and change thugs like these will EVER work?

Real, meaningful, long term change has to come from black parents and the black community and not from the city. No matter how much resources and money you use, there's going to be a certain amount of young men that will NEVER change until the black community changes them.

 

[TheKingEast]

Rob Ford talks a tough line in a statement released this afternoon (http://torontoist.com/2012/07/duly-quoted-rob-ford-6/) which just makes me crazy angry. Isn't he the one who rode into town to "stop the gravy train", find nothing and then move on to cut community projects, libraries, increase user fees including in at-risk/lower income neighbourhoods etc. even when there's a budget surplus of hundreds of millions of dollars? Wasn't he the solo vote of "NO" to decline funds from the Feds. for a gang prevention project? .

Does anyone out there in Ford Nation wish to comment on how this duffus is continuing to destroy this city and the lives within it?

I agree. He makes me sick.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Max:

What does "work" mean though - while there should be reasonable expectations that these programs can prevent some from falling through the cracks, there is no guarantee that gang and gun crime will cease as a result. Besides, there is a huge long lead-time to some of these interventions. To expect immediate, dramatic results is unrealistic. And if you think parents and community are enough to change things - I will put forth the case in presence of Chinese triads in a culture that "prides" itself in families and upbringing.

AoD

 

[TheKingEast]

I know Ford isn't popular and all, but does anyone seriously think pouring more money into various programs to try and change thugs like these will EVER work?

Real, meaningful, long term change has to come from black parents and the black community and not from the city. No matter how much resources and money you use, there's going to be a certain amount of young men that will NEVER change until the black community changes them.

Completely ridiculous.

 

[Max Sterling]

Max:

What does "work" mean though - while there should be reasonable expectations that these programs can prevent some from falling through the cracks, there is no guarantee that gang and gun crime will cease as a result. To expect so is unrealistic. And if you think parents and community are enough to change things - I will put forth the case in presence of Chinese triads in a culture that "prides" itself in families and upbringing.

AoD

And how many Chinese triad gangs are there in Toronto that have murdered people on the streets the way black gangs have over the years? How about LITTLE TO NONE? So if there's a choice between triads and black gangs, I'll GLADLY take the triads.

Also where have you seen young asian men joining triads and committing crime around Toronto? I sure as heck haven't. The fact is is if you want to point fingers at various gangs being a problem in the city, then show me the proof in government statistics or news reports of crimes they've committed. I'm not saying they're not a problem if they exist, just that whatever they're doing doesn't involve shootings and murdering on the streets of Toronto.

Lastly, I never said crime would completely disappear no matter what you do, but its pretty obvious that if your parents don't raise you right and you hang out with the wrong people, there's a good chance that you're going to grow up a criminal. I mean look at the neighborhood where this shooting occurred, aren't there many non-black families living in and around that area? How come their kids don't grow up to be thugs like black kids do and you're telling me it has NOTHING to do with parenting and who you associate with??

Completely ridiculous.

What exactly are you referring to that's 'ridiculous'?

 

[Roots_Energize]

There's lots of peaceful familys in those areas , the question is how do the peacefull families or community members influence or help the dysfunctional families? People talk like why dont these people just fix the problem, well its not that easy or community activist would have solved the problem long time ago. One of the kids that got shot was actually an active member of his community in Oshawa, working with troubled youth, he was a good guy that got killed which makes it very sad. Its a constant battle, and every once in a while a person trying to help gets killed.

So what are you doing for the world......? besides being an online critic...

I do think the entire world needs to step up to end violence , which is carried out by both rich and poor people. Rich people = high tec gangs like - the Pentagon/ nationl/ and corperate militaries/ corrupt police foreces ect. Poor = low tech street gangs

 

[adma]

Scarborough isn’t even a city anymore so why even bother saying it? By continuously saying Scarborough in every news article you are painting a huge swath of the city as somehow having involvement in a horrible incident in one small portion of the city. If this happened anywhere else in Toronto the media would never have referred to it as North York or East York and never ever Downtown Toronto….when was the last time a shooting in Jane-Finch was referred to as North York?!

Hasn't there been a past banned poster who similarly advocated banishing the name "Scarborough" on account of its no longer being a municipality? (That fact that said poster was banned should tell you something.)