Sadly, the problems that led to this incident and the recent slew of gun homicides aren't new in Toronto. The criminal lifestyle involving mainly Jamaican males was brewing in the Jane-Finch area of northwest Toronto back in the early 1970's when I joined the Militia. My first section commander was a PC with the Metropolitan Toronto Police, stationed in the division that covered the Jane-Finch area. He told me that even in those days, they did not respond to a call in that area with anything less than two cars. I heard later that the North York Fire Dept would not dismount from their trucks in that area without the police being there first. I though at thev time that these were bizarre things that only happened in big bad US cities.
Accusations of racism from the Jamaican community against the Toronto Police are not new either: the police killing of Albert Johnston, a mentally disturbed black man wielding a knife, provoked an outburst that included a march on the local police station by the black community: that event happened in the 1970s. My section commander was himself eventually charged in connection with another police shooting of a black male, also surrounded with controversy. And the unusually high levels of criminality and violence have been noted in that area for decades (and in the last few years in the Scarborough area of eastern Toronto). I don't know if anybody, on any side, really did much to fix things. Like many social problems, I think it was left to the police to respond to and sort out.
So, I have to be a bit skeptical about this "loss of innocence" comment: in Toronto's case it is years too late IMHO. I also have no patience with the politicians who are blaming this on the availability of guns in Toronto: if that were the sole cause then I suggest that all criminal elements in Toronto would be slaughtering each other in the streets. This is not happening: the huge majority of the firearms homicides in Toronto this year (if not all of them...) have been in the black Caribbean community. Following the recent outrageous shooting that took place at a funeral of yet another young black man shot by others, Caribbean black community leaders spoke out. Surprisingly, but positively, they admitted that their community was responsible for most of these gun killings. Even more surprisingly, amongst many other changes and reforms, they called for the collection of race-based crime statistics by Toronto police in order to get a better grip on the full scope of the problem facing their community. Considering how much grief that idea caused Julian Fantino, the previous Chief of the Toronto Police, it was amazing to read about this particular demand. Around the same time, I also caught a Toronto radio show that is directed at the Carribean community. The host, while agreeing that he and his people faced issues of racism from "the powers that be" in Toronto, also told his listeners that it was high time the community admitted that they had too many young men with no respect for themselves, respect for women, or for any kind of authority. He identified the need to raise these young men in a better way, with better self respect. Interestingly, he stated that he would not take the normal phone-in responses right away: he felt that the subject would make too many community members too angry. In other words, he knew he had touched a sore nerve. He was reminding his community that is false to just blame everything on "racism", as much as that can be a part of the problem. Perhaps it is natural, and certainly more comforting, to think that your problems are not of your own making and that fixing them is somebody else's job.
Is there racism in the TPS? Yes, some-it is inevitable in a police force that large. A recent highly pubicized incident in which a police officer pulled over a carful of young blacks reinforced this impression: when asked for his badge number he replied " my badge is 666". Unfortunately this stupid response was recorded by one of the passengers with a cellphone. Is this constable in a minority? Almost certainly. As well, not to defend racists, but when police are constantly arresting the same people in the same communities, know of the existence of much more crime than they can apprehend, and can sense the attitude of the neighbourhood towards them when nobody comes forward to speak about what everybody saw, it is inevitable that some police will put the problem down to race, instead of to culture which IMHO is where it belongs.
When I say culture as opposed to race, I mean that these killings do not appear to involve all blacks, nor are they because the perpetrators or victims are black: people who have immigrated from Africa (for example) seem to be conspicuously absent from these incidents. My experience with Somalis and Ethiopians in Winnipeg through the ESL program where I volunteered downtown was that they are mostly like all other immigrants to Canada, they want to work hard and get on with life. Most do. Instead, the swamp that breeds these gangsta idiots in Toronto is a sub-culture that is marked by father absent homes, low education levels, poor or nonexistent job skills, a glorification of "guns, cars, drugs, clothes, bling and ho's", homage to the powerful violent male as a leader figure, and a rejection of much of what normal productive people in civil society aspire to. And, as far as I can tell, this particular problem has been centred in Toronto's Jamaican community for a long time. Is it all Jamaicans, or even a majority? I'm not sure, but I doubt it very much. But it is certainly enough of a percentage to cause their own community leaders to be finally galvanized into public action, whatever they may have attempted to do internally over the years. While other immigrant communities in Canada have "done their time" and graduated up to suburban houses in Markham, Mississauga and Oakville, and successfully entered business, government and education, IMHO this community has found itself largely left behind and living in less than desireable areas: no doubt this has contributed to the outlook of the young criminals who see gang membership and the use of terror as the only means to achieve status and respect.
IMHO these killings and this sick gang culture will only end when the young men in this community don't have any more desire to indulge. As long as the gangsta culture is glorified, the police are depicted as the enemy, all of a community's failings are reflexively blamed on outsiders, and trying to get ahead through decent hard work is viewed as a fool's game, then the ranks of these gangs will be full, and the killings will continue. The police by themselves, or stricter sentences by themselves, will only deal with symptoms, and even then probably only after the fact. They are even less effective against anti-social young men who do not fear arrest or jail, and who may be actually be looking for a showdown with the police. The police cannot abandon the streets, but I don't think they can win them back on their own either. The solution must come from within.
Cheers
