Two dead, 22 injured in Toronto shooting

[Bluebulldog]

Brihard,

You're right. I also work within the Justice system, albeit from the court side.

The intent of the YCJA, is and was good. By and large it does what it is supposed to. In areas like Danzig however it stands for You Cant Jail Anyone. People older than 18 exploit the YCJA to their benefit by using kids 12-17 to do much of their "dirty work". Perhaps scrapping it was a bit offside, but overhauling it where escalating offences carry greater penalites, with the proviso in the legislation to carry forward a record of a habitual offender past the age of 18, would be nice ( I know.....in an ideal world).

For a kid to be sent to a secure facility where you were, I would hate to think of the circumstances that eventually led them there.

I find your opening statement interesting.

This fails to take into account the fact that the majority of youth crime is merely testosterone poisoning, and that they literally grow out of it as they get older.

There is a growing upswing in the number of females between the ages of 11-17 committing not only property crime, but violent crime as well. I see them at our courthouse every week. Most of the kids who come here ( mostly white, suburban types) are acutely aware that if they stand in front of the Judge and appear even a little repentant, the judge will have little choice but to give them community service hours, and probation. They then come to work for me working those hours off. There is no deterrent. I can genuinely say that 2 in 5 gets clued in. The others are usually so enamoured of the thug life, that the recitivism rate is pretty high, and we typically see them back over the course of their adolescence.

So scrapped? No, it actually does what it's intended most of the time. Overhauled? Absolutely....it has no teeth currently.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Well, that didn't take long to get dragged out again ....

Politicians in Ontario are urging the federal government to take action in the wake of a shooting at an east-end Toronto street party that left two dead and 23 others wounded.

Ontario Attorney General John Gerretsen told CBC’s Power & Politics that the recent shooting in Scarborough demonstrates the need for a ban on handguns.

"The first thing we have to do is we have to ban handguns in Canada," Gerretsen said Wednesday, noting that the Ontario government has previously lobbied Ottawa on this point.

A forthcoming meeting involving provincial cabinet ministers and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford will address “what more we can do,” said Gerretsen ....

CBC.ca, 18 Jul 12

 

[vonGarvin]

I've had enough.  The problems that are the cause of the recent shooting aren't handguns: they are simply the tools of the trade.  They are inanimate objects, and I'm willing to stake my life that those handguns used weren't properly registered, nor did the owners have the legal right to carry them to the BBQ. 

These people are idiots.  They think that because laws were broken, WE NEED MORE LAWS!  No, our society has enough laws.  Our social network and structure and level of permissiveness and more all contribute to a mindset where thugs will think nothing of bringing weapons to a neighbourhood barbeque.

Society is broken, and it starts at the family unit.  But it doesn't end there.

 

[Jarnhamar]

I'd like to see these guys running around with machete's instead of handguns.

 

[PuckChaser]

John Gerretsen is my MPP. Time to write a letter!

 

[vonGarvin]

Maybe if they made it illegal to have handguns at barbeques...




:sarcasm:

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Outlaw and ban BBQ's.

They're clearly the underlying problem.

No BBQ's, no shootings at BBQ's.

Welcome to Bantario.

 

[PMedMoe]

I'd like to see these guys running around with machete's instead of handguns.

Really?  Teen attacked with machete

 

[dogger1936]

I fell under the old YCJA way back when. The system gave me a second chance to smarten up; and my parents the chance to ensure I did. Needless to say their idea of justice was much more stringent than the governments stance!

Freebies like the young offenders act work for youth with normal law abiding families.....I don't see it working in this area.

 

 

[Jarnhamar]

Really?  Teen attacked with machete

0 bystanders injured.
I wonder if Mr Gajan Ponniah is back on the street.

 

[mariomike]

Scarborough Mirror
19 July, 2012

SCARBOROUGH SHOOTING: Residents remember ‘chaos’ in area

Melissa Warren-Paul walked by the block party at her Danzig Street townhouse complex five minutes before the shooting.

“Everyone was having a good time,” she said. “There was a barbecue, music. It was packed.”

Minutes after she stepped into her home, Warren-Paul heard at least 15 shots. At first she thought they were fireworks.

“Everyone was just screaming and running,” Warren-Paul said. “I saw three girls coming towards me terrified. I waved them in the house.”

Moments later, Warren-Paul noticed that one of the girls was bleeding from a gunshot wound.

Warren-Paul called 911 and wrapped the girl’s wounded arm with a pillowcase.

“As soon as she realized she was shot, she collapsed,” Warren-Paul said. “We tried to keep her calm. She was panicking.”

Warren-Paul then went outside to look for her 13-year-old son Tahir while her husband and 11-year-old daughter Rabia tended to the injured 15-year-old girl.

“I was holding her arm,” Rabia said. “I told her that help was on the way. She started saying, ‘It hurts.’”

Rabia said the injured teen was going in and out of consciousness.

“I was very scared, but I didn’t want to panic because then she might get more scared,” Rabia said. “It was hard to stay calm.”

Warren-Paul returned home after she ran into a woman who said that she saw Tahir and that he was OK.

She said it took paramedics 30 to 40 minutes to get to her home.

“It was like a war zone. There was blood everywhere,” Warren-Paul said of the shooting scene. “Now I know how people in Syria feel when their cities get bombed.”

Tahir later called home, and Warren-Paul picked him up from a nearby house.

Warren-Paul, a 10-year resident of the complex, said her son hid behind a car when the gunfire erupted. “He saw a guy beside him with a gunshot wound to his leg.”

Warren-Paul said she’s worried about how the neighbourhood children are going to deal with the shooting.

“I didn’t sleep that night,” she noted. “I’m scared of what’s going to happen next. There are so many victims, and a lot of angry people. Everyone is asking for a transfer out of here.”

Warren-Paul said the scariest part of the night was “looking for my son and looking at victims to make sure they weren’t him.”

***

Cheryl, who didn’t want her last name published, said she was getting ready for bed when she heard the gunshots.

She looked out her window and saw a teen girl who was running collapse on her front yard.

Cheryl ran outside and asked the teen if she had been shot.

“She said, ‘I don’t know, but my stomach hurts.’ So I picked her up and dragged her into my house,” Cheryl said. “She collapsed on my floor, and I noticed there were about five gunshot wounds.”

Cheryl said she called 911 but was put on hold for 20 minutes.

“I was applying pressure on her wounds with towels and clothes and kept telling her help was on the way even though I hadn’t talked to anyone from 911 yet,” Cheryl said. “She was saying, ‘It hurts, it hurts, it hurts. Where’s the ambulance?’”

After Cheryl got off the phone with emergency services, she saw a friend outside and told him to get a police officer.

“My friend said the officer told him to get a car and take her to the hospital,” Cheryl said. “It was total chaos. It was like a scene out of a cop movie.”

Cheryl then called the teen’s mother.

“I said, ‘I have your daughter inside my house. She’s been shot five times, but she’s OK. Help is on the way, and I’ll let you know more information when I get it,’” Cheryl said. “Her mom asked where she was. She had no idea. I told her I was on Danzig. She said she’s not supposed to be there.”

Cheryl said the teen was trying to fall asleep but she didn’t let her.

She said paramedics arrived 50 minutes after she called 911.

“When the paramedics took the girl, I lost my composure and broke down. I was crying a lot that night,” Cheryl said. “We went to my in-laws for the night. I came back in the morning to clean up. There was blood in my living room.”

Cheryl said the experience was overwhelming.

“It was surreal,” she said Wednesday. “I’m still in zombie mode. I’m not sleeping, I’m not eating. It’s too much for anybody to deal with.”

****

Phil Farquharson said he was standing outside his Danzig Street townhouse with his kids when he heard the shots.

“Then teenagers were running, screaming, crying,” he said. “People were screaming that people have been shot.”

Moments later, Farquharson saw a teen girl on the ground with her mom and another woman trying to revive her.

“The mother was freaking out, saying, ‘Help me. Call 911,’” Farquharson said. “While they were pumping her stomach, the mother said, ‘Hold on. Don’t give up.’”

Farquharson said the women were performing CPR for 20 minutes before paramedics arrived.

The girl, 14-year-old Shyanne Charles, was later pronounced dead at the scene.

Farquharson noted local residents are frustrated with the state of their townhouse complex.

“We need a good playground for the kids,” he said. “Our playground is too small and is in bad shape. It’s not being maintained.”
http://www.zuza.com/news-story/1307379-scarborough-shooting-residents-remember-chaos-in-area/

The highlighted times are not official, of course. It's not uncommon for response times to seem longer than they actually are.

The Star reported, "About an hour after the shooting, ambulances and police cars were still streaming to the area."

"Many residents complained they were left on their own to treat the wounded, not knowing if the shooters were still around, while paramedics sat in their ambulances parked on the street for up to 30 minutes.":
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2012/07/18/20002341.html

The paramedics would not be allowed to enter a scene where shots had been fired until directed to do so by TPS.

Tactical paramedics were also on scene.

Whatever the actual "patient contact" times were, I know they had to respond paramedics from Durham and York regions to the scene for back-up.

 

[ModlrMike]

Well, that didn't take long to get dragged out again ....CBC.ca, 18 Jul 12

Not a single legally owned hand gun was used in any of the recent events. I'm sure banning them will have the desired effect.  :facepalm:

 

[R031button]

Charges Laid in Toronto street-party Shooting

Toronto police say a 19-year-old man has been charged in connection with the shooting at an east-end street party that left two people dead and 23 others wounded.

Police sent out a news release on Thursday evening advising that 19-year-old Nahom Tsegazab of Toronto had been charged with reckless discharge of a firearm.

The investigation into the shooting continues.

The shooting occurred just after 10:40 p.m. on Monday, in the midst of an outdoor street party on Danzig Street that police say was attended by at least 100 people.

A 14-year-old Toronto teenager and a 23-year-old man from Ajax, Ont., died in the shooting.

Four people have been shot dead on Toronto streets since the start of the week, including the two victims in the Danzig Street shooting.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/07/19/toronto-street-party-shooting-man-charged.html


Good, he's 19 and can stand trial as an adult.

 

[a_majoor]

A blogger points out a potential solution (which is not very touchy/feely, nor will it provide a sense of moral superiority or smugness to anyone who actually were to implement this). OTOH, it would actually work:

http://canadiancincinnatus.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/07/the-danzig-street-shootout-in-toronto-and-its-root-cause.html

The Danzig Street shootout in Toronto and its root cause

Details about the shooting in East Scarborough on Monday evening that left 2 people dead and 25 wounded trickled in bit by bit. On my Tuesday commute, I heard the radio reports. The first thing I thought was, Monday night? Who throws a party Monday night? The second thing was, 25 people injured, including one who was trampled. So this party must have been huge: at least a couple of hundred people, maybe more. I concluded that in these two facts – that the party was on Monday night, and that it was huge – lies the root cause of the problem.

Later, my hunch was confirmed by the Toronto Star:

“The block party - or "blocko," as many referred to it - is an annual event organized by the community…. This year, the party featured Caribbean barbecue, jerk chicken, DJs and, according to partygoers, the promise of free Hennessey cognac, which drew people from as far away as London.”

Free Hennessey… on a Monday night? … OK.

So who attends a Monday night street party? The answer: on average, people who don’t work, that’s who. Adults who work for a living don’t usually have the time to organize or attend parties on a weeknight. They hold their parties on Friday or Saturday night, by which time they are too tired from the week’s toil for foolishness. Yes, yes, I know that one of the people murdered was a university graduate holding a job. But I said, “on average.” And for the record, even though I grew up in the middle class neighbourhood of Guildwood just south of Danzig St, I have never heard the term “blocko” until today.

My suspicion - that most of the partygoers were unemployed - was confirmed when I read the National Post’s account, which pointed out some details that the Toronto Star gingerly tippy-toed around:

“In Scarborough Tuesday, as in Toronto generally, one got the sense of two distinct solitudes: stretches of suburbia here with ample backyards, verdant ravines and streets lined with mature trees, cheek by jowl with pockets like the Danzig townhouses, where there are a lot of young men on a Tuesday morning hanging around. Each of the social housing pockets has its own gang controlling crime, and keeps out people from other social housing units.

‘This is D Block,’ said Neka MacKenzie, 23, who said she has saved up money working at Pearson airport and will study hospitality at Seneca College in September (she is trying to get out of the neighbourhood). ‘If you are from another area, you are not welcome.’”

“’We are just here canvassing the neighbourhood,’ Const. Steele told Ms. Crook. ‘Is this your home?’

‘I don’t own it,’ she replied. ‘It’s Metro housing,’ a term from the mid-1980s for this public housing. ‘But I live here. Now I want to move.’

Around her, men and women sat in faded plastic chairs drinking white rum mixed with Oasis fruit and vegetable juice from plastic cups, smoking marijuana and tobacco, and talking about the events of Monday night.”

Sitting around on Tuesday morning drinking rum, smoking drugs and ruminating about life? in a public housing project; with a gang problem. Looks like I was right: working people, they ain’t.

There is an old saying that isn’t very popular these days because of its religious connotations but which is nevertheless true: ‘idle hands are the devils plaything’. In that saying lies the solution to this problem. While the police should go after gangs, as Mayor Ford suggested, it is foolish to think that this, by itself, will solve the problem. Once you get the perps, others will take their place (though they might be a little more circumspect if the police reaction is sufficiently harsh). Metro Council’s left-wing will no doubt agitate for a handgun ban, which is even more pointless, as legally owned guns and their owners do not attend ‘blockos’.

The real solution is that society should stop tolerating idleness among adults. This means society should expect every able-bodied adult to work. Can’t find a job? The government will give you workfare: picking up litter, cleaning graffiti or planting trees in Northern Ontario. If you are hanging around on the street in the middle of the weekday, you had better be able to prove that you have a means of support or you will be busted for vagrancy. We should stop handing out welfare, except to the physically disabled. Do all that and shootings like this will simply go away, as will the gangs behind them.(Interpolation by me: no the gangs won't go away, but they will be smaller and have less influence).

What about the fact that, as the Star reported, “the victims range in age from infancy to mid-20s.” Weren’t a lot of them too young to work? True. But where were their parents? Or more specifically, where were their fathers?

It is a curious fact that when people don’t work, and should theoretically have more time for their children, they tend to spend less time raising their kids than people with jobs. This is largely because when mothers are on welfare, they don’t expect their men to be breadwinners. They don’t need a husband because they have got Dalton McGuinty (Premier Dad). As a result, their men don’t work, or stick around to discipline the children. As a result, the kids end up at Monday night block parties where free cognac is served.

Another relevant detail from the Post that was omitted by the Star:

One man, who said he has 12 children, flashed a smile that showed teeth capped in gold diamonds, before taking a call from his mother in Jamaica on his smart phone.

Hmm... I wonder how much time he dedicates to his kids?

 

[Retired AF Guy]

I think Canadian Cincinnatus has a better solution to the problem then this guy has:

Some speculative truth about Canada’s new gun crime

James Sheptycki

The Globe and Mail

Published Friday, Jul. 20 2012, 2:00 AM EDT

Last updated Thursday, Jul. 19 2012, 6:06 PM EDT

After incidents involving gun crime, such as this week’s violence in Toronto, I often get asked to speculate about the problem. What are the shooters thinking when they open fire in a crowded shopping mall or at a neighbourhood barbecue? Why do they do it?

I usually respond by pointing out that this problem of pistolized criminality is relatively new to Canada, then ask for the funding and access to do proper research. Pistolization takes hold when cultural meanings are favourable to it, and we need to do more to understand the problem if we’re to develop successful policy responses.

There are some serious questions here, though, and I would like to suggest some speculative answers.

One thing is glaringly obvious about gun crime: It is nearly always perpetrated by men. This invites thoughts about the problem’s social-psychological dimensions.

We live in a culture that is saturated by visions of hyper-masculinity. Images of the heavily armed man pervade our entertainment media, and one constant is that the man with the biggest gun wins in the end. Even when guns are not the focus, our popular culture’s films, books and music project a hyper-aggressive form of masculinity.

Mass news and entertainment media have profound consequences for gender-role socialization. The gun appears as proof of masculine identity. It is seen as a way to obtain empowerment, a key to status, wealth and women. Guns are understood to confer power and respect.

The cultural background to an event like this week’s barbecue shooting in Toronto is one where the imagery of the gun has been superimposed onto the socialization processes that define masculinity.

This has implications at the psychological level. The gun is an obvious phallic image. Its display in criminal subculture is not merely an act of power; it is an expression of manly rage and bravado in the context of feelings of psychological impotence toward a world experienced as hostile.

I am not suggesting that the desire to own a gun is simply a form of penis anxiety. However, in a society where some men experience status anxiety because of social exclusion – perhaps due to racism or lack of economic opportunity – and where the culture has been significantly shaped by pistolization, then the gun becomes a vehicle for acting out.

The problem is still more complex than this explanation suggests. Another inescapable factor is North America’s illicit drug economy. Drugs have become a principal economic resource for people without legitimate economic opportunity.

One important feature of the illicit economy is that the law of contract does not apply. If something goes wrong in a drug deal, if somebody steals your merchandise or poaches your customers, there is no formal legal recourse. You cannot call the cops. You cannot take somebody to court.

So in order to participate in the illicit drug economy, the capacity to use violence is very important. Violence enforces market share. It ensures that informal contracts are honoured.

For decades in Canada, when the availability of firearms was low, violence associated with the illicit drug economy was relatively muted. Now, for reasons we do not fully understand, firearms are becoming increasingly available. Drug economy violence has been ratcheted up.

So we have a poisonous mixture: A pistolized culture of masculinity. A socio-economic structure of exclusion. An illicit opportunity structure in the market for illegal drugs. And rising levels of gun availability on the streets.

There is probably even more to it than that, since society’s reactions are often one-sided. Some people advocate cracking down on the drug economy. Some advocate drug decriminalization. Some say banning guns or bullets will work, or that we need stiffer penalties. Others want better social programs.

These policy struggles, playing out in the context of fiscal crisis, are most often discussed in hyper-masculine terms. Looking for the cheapest bang for the buck, we end up “combatting gangs” or “fighting crime” while going to “war on drugs.”

These amount to attempts at repression. But repression does not solve problems; it displaces them. This suggests that the solutions become part of the problem.

This issue is extremely complex, but these speculations are the start of a plausible explanation to what has been taking place in Canada for some time. But they are only a start.

There is a demand for quick and easy solutions, and the solutions had better be cost-effective and inexpensive. There is impatience when the response from academic criminologists is for further research.

But in the face of such complexity, and to test our understanding, Canadians need to demand evidence-based policymaking. Rationality and reason are required, as well as political will. Gut instinct is no good.

Look around the world and you will see the results of reacting with gut instinct instead of taking time for level-headed research and calm reflection. Despite, or perhaps because of, the current mood of crisis, it is time to step back and coolly assess the situation.

Rigorous independent academic research is required. That would provide a strong foundation for evidence-based policy. Let’s hope.

James Sheptycki is a professor of criminology at York University.

Article Link

Re-produced under the Fair Dealings Section of the Copyright Act.

 

[dogger1936]

Why must the media try to spin this as a masculinity issue. This is a Black community problem.

I think MLK would be horribly disappointed.

 

[Journeyman]

Rigorous independent academic research is required. That would provide a strong foundation for evidence-based policy.

To produce diametrically-opposed conclusions, based on the researchers' predilections? We haven't seen that since......oh, since the Khadr thread earlier today. If only the 'social sciences' were.....you know, sciences.

Images of the heavily armed man pervade our entertainment media, and one constant is that the man with the biggest gun wins in the end.

But we're trying to level the playing field; currently men want to see a movie about a teddy bear, while women are clamouring to see a stripper movie. 

 

[Jarnhamar]

while women are clamouring to see a stripper movie. 

So do we put the 'caution wet floor' signs outside the magic mike theaters or in the book isle with 50 shades of grey.

 

[Retired AF Guy]

Images of the heavily armed man pervade our entertainment media, and one constant is that the man with the biggest gun wins in the end.

Actually, in most movies/TV shows the drug-dealing bad guys usually end up with there butts getting blown-off by the good guys! So following Mr. Sheptycki's logic (that violent media influences street violence) we should see less violence because the bad guys watching the movies would realize that drug dealing is not a smart career choice and they should find a safer lifestyle.

 

[Journeyman]

Yes, Retired AF Guy, not only should they realize this, but they should come to that conclusion much faster than they are!

I say that based on Professor Sheptycki's statement that the "gun is an obvious phallic image," coupled with the assertion by dogger1936 that this "is a Black community problem." I mean, in all the stereotypes......you know, they should therefore be thinking bigger thoughts, right? Am I right?


Damn, they should be paying me for my social sciences contribution here.  :nod: