JasonParis
Moderator
No easy fix for what ails Toronto
Toronto Star
January 23, 2008
Royson James
TTC crime is up 24 per cent over 2006, with physical injury from assaults, guns pointed at operators and other attacks plunging drivers into post-traumatic stress disorder.
Two innocent bystanders are shot and killed within a week, caught in the crossfire of reckless men settling scores with brazen gun battles on busy streets.
Jail guards walk off the job, tired of poisonous and racist hate mail they say has been coming from fellow guards for almost three years.
A task force report chronicling sexual assaults, deadly weapons and a culture of silence that threatens the safety of public school kids is delivered – in four volumes.
So what do we tell the relatives when they call, concerned, worried that Toronto's gone to the dogs?
Increasingly, we add to their angst because the view from home, in the eye of the violence, is as fear-inducing as the view abroad.
Talk radio hosts were asking people last week if they are afraid to walk downtown, now that a father of two had been shot outside a fruit market as he stacked oranges on a display stand.
The mayor reported that shopkeepers had a message for Torontonians: "Come down and shop – it's safe." And everyone knows such a message is never needed unless something is wrong.
Of course it's safe, as safe as any of the formerly safe cities now challenged by street violence and gang warfare; so safe that world-leading citizens and social urbanists like Richard Florida can choose to live here; so safe, crime rates are dropping.
But, of course, that is such little comfort. When reality doesn't match our perception, perception becomes the reality.
So, no matter that statistics say Scarborough is safer than other communities in Toronto; we still think of it as crime-infested Scarberia.
Stoked by the anguish of the recent victims, if not their own sense of vulnerability, citizens are frustrated, weary, angry and feeling besieged.
Even the police are showing the strain. Furious at the lack of witnesses (there were about 100 people in the area) willing to tell police what they saw on Gerrard St. E. last Thursday, when 47-year-old Hou Chang Mao was shot during a suppertime street fight that had nothing to do with him, Insp. Peter Yuen said Monday: "Look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself: `Am I going to allow this to continue?' Please come forward."
If that wasn't enough to spur action, the heartbreaking words of Mao's children must have been, as they told reporters of their long wait for their dad to come home for dinner last Thursday.
"He never came home. I was waiting for so long."
We are quick to blame our children when they succumb to the "No snitching" culture. We're tough on residents in the housing complexes who don't turn in drug dealers and gang bangers.
Now? Who do we call out – when TTC passengers and drivers are attacked with impunity; when a hard-working father is gunned down and people callously or fearfully turn away as if it is none of their business.
Ban handguns, the mayor says. And that makes sense in our city. But common sense also says illegal guns will still end up in the hands of criminals and gang enforcers.
It'll take more than that. We must engage our kids in schools. We must grow healthy home and societal environments, even as myopic citizens fail to see their preventive value. And each of us must resolve to expose the violence we see.
There are no easy fixes. Everything and everyone is the solution.
Royson James usually appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Email: rjames@thestar.ca
Toronto Star
January 23, 2008
Royson James
TTC crime is up 24 per cent over 2006, with physical injury from assaults, guns pointed at operators and other attacks plunging drivers into post-traumatic stress disorder.
Two innocent bystanders are shot and killed within a week, caught in the crossfire of reckless men settling scores with brazen gun battles on busy streets.
Jail guards walk off the job, tired of poisonous and racist hate mail they say has been coming from fellow guards for almost three years.
A task force report chronicling sexual assaults, deadly weapons and a culture of silence that threatens the safety of public school kids is delivered – in four volumes.
So what do we tell the relatives when they call, concerned, worried that Toronto's gone to the dogs?
Increasingly, we add to their angst because the view from home, in the eye of the violence, is as fear-inducing as the view abroad.
Talk radio hosts were asking people last week if they are afraid to walk downtown, now that a father of two had been shot outside a fruit market as he stacked oranges on a display stand.
The mayor reported that shopkeepers had a message for Torontonians: "Come down and shop – it's safe." And everyone knows such a message is never needed unless something is wrong.
Of course it's safe, as safe as any of the formerly safe cities now challenged by street violence and gang warfare; so safe that world-leading citizens and social urbanists like Richard Florida can choose to live here; so safe, crime rates are dropping.
But, of course, that is such little comfort. When reality doesn't match our perception, perception becomes the reality.
So, no matter that statistics say Scarborough is safer than other communities in Toronto; we still think of it as crime-infested Scarberia.
Stoked by the anguish of the recent victims, if not their own sense of vulnerability, citizens are frustrated, weary, angry and feeling besieged.
Even the police are showing the strain. Furious at the lack of witnesses (there were about 100 people in the area) willing to tell police what they saw on Gerrard St. E. last Thursday, when 47-year-old Hou Chang Mao was shot during a suppertime street fight that had nothing to do with him, Insp. Peter Yuen said Monday: "Look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself: `Am I going to allow this to continue?' Please come forward."
If that wasn't enough to spur action, the heartbreaking words of Mao's children must have been, as they told reporters of their long wait for their dad to come home for dinner last Thursday.
"He never came home. I was waiting for so long."
We are quick to blame our children when they succumb to the "No snitching" culture. We're tough on residents in the housing complexes who don't turn in drug dealers and gang bangers.
Now? Who do we call out – when TTC passengers and drivers are attacked with impunity; when a hard-working father is gunned down and people callously or fearfully turn away as if it is none of their business.
Ban handguns, the mayor says. And that makes sense in our city. But common sense also says illegal guns will still end up in the hands of criminals and gang enforcers.
It'll take more than that. We must engage our kids in schools. We must grow healthy home and societal environments, even as myopic citizens fail to see their preventive value. And each of us must resolve to expose the violence we see.
There are no easy fixes. Everything and everyone is the solution.
Royson James usually appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Email: rjames@thestar.ca
